Rotted Out Rear Jeep Cherokee Flares Replaced With Jeep Pickup Rear Fender Flares

[ghcoe]

The pickup fenders have a bit more inward curve than the Cherokee in this location. There is also a big bulge here, so I cut where the yellow line is (there is a bend line there). I then hammered the lower portion flat using a flat surface.

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I thought I would have to recurve the upper portion some, but it seems that everything comes together with the relief cuts. I will weld this cut once I get everything mocked up and everything looks right.

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[ghcoe]

Once I did the relief cuts and got the metal hammered flat on the lower parts the fender jacked into place just fine. I matched up the weld lines on the top. There is supposed to be a bit of a brow like pictured along the top edge.

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A shot of the rear of the flare. The inside edge of the flare should be 1/2" from the inside edge of the quarter panel.

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The front of the flare should butt up against the inside flange and be even with the bottom of the rocker.

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[ghcoe]

Good matchup on the body lines where they should be.

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I use 1/4"x1" bolts to bolt the fender in at this time. I will be gluing the fenders in this spring and the bolts will act as clamps as the glue sets up. At that point I think I can just knock off the heads of the bolts and then do a undercoating.

[dodgerammit]

That looks incredible! Well done so far!

[ghcoe]

That looks incredible! Well done so far!

Thanks! I am pretty happy with the way it is going together so far myself. Just hope I don't find anything scarry when I do the other side.

[OldFarmTruck22]

Great work! Thanks for making a tutorial thread about this project. Many of us are up against the same situation.
Question: since you are having a real good experience with the spot weld kit, can you post where you got it and maybe a name and kit # ?
Thanks.
I'm sure I'll have more questions for you as I tackle my Cherokee too.
Thank you.

[ghcoe]

Great work! Thanks for making a tutorial thread about this project. Many of us are up against the same situation.
Question: since you are having a real good experience with the spot weld kit, can you post where you got it and maybe a name and kit # ?
Thanks.
I'm sure I'll have more questions for you as I tackle my Cherokee too.
Thank you.

Thanks, thought I would finally take out the guess work on this project. Always people hinting that it could be done, but never any solid information on how to do it that I could find.

I picked up the spot weld cutter on Amazon. There are a few different sellers, but they all seem to be the same. I just picked the most economical one at the time. This is the link to the one I purchased https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087FS9PR8?ps ... ct_details .

I found them to work the best moving in real slow till you get a good circular groove going. Then you can apply more pressure for a faster cut. Just be careful not to cut right through the other flange. I did have some issues on the spot welds where the metal had a slight concave curve to them. The cutter would catch on one side or the other and slip. I found if I drilled a small hole (about the same size as the alignment pin on the spot welder cutter) into the center of the spot weld it would hold a lot better.

One thing to note is that after messing with the wheel wells I don't think I would ever think of installing fiberglass flares. The wheel well and flairs just add too much body structure in this area. Fiberglass flairs would leave this area pretty weak.

[OldFarmTruck22]

Very good point on the fiberglass flares.
Thanks for all the good work.
Will you be posting more pictures as you finish them up?

[ghcoe]

Very good point on the fiberglass flares.
Thanks for all the good work.
Will you be posting more pictures as you finish them up?

Yes. I am working on the other side now. I have ran into a few issues. I had a rock come up and smack the front lower flare hard enough to push it back about 1/2". It probably would have been fine if the flare was not already compromised by rust. It did pull back the rocker panel end piece a bit and popped some of the spot welds on it. So, I have to straighten it out and weld part of it back in. The back side of the flare had some welding done at some point. Big globs of weld in there so it is slow going grinding it back down to the original flange. It was the worst side of the two, so I figured I would run into some issues. That is why I started on the other side.

I am planning to glue the pickup flairs in with Norton Structural Adhesive to the quarter panel. Not sure how I am going fill in the gaps in the wheel well yet. Might have to weld there.

[OldFarmTruck22]

Very good point on the fiberglass flares.
Thanks for all the good work.
Will you be posting more pictures as you finish them up?

Yes. I am working on the other side now. I have ran into a few issues. I had a rock come up and smack the front lower flare hard enough to push it back about 1/2". It probably would have been fine if the flare was not already compromised by rust. It did pull back the rocker panel end piece a bit and popped some of the spot welds on it. So, I have to straighten it out and weld part of it back in. The back side of the flare had some welding done at some point. Big globs of weld in there so it is slow going grinding it back down to the original flange. It was the worst side of the two, so I figured I would run into some issues. That is why I started on the other side.

I am planning to glue the pickup flairs in with Norton Structural Adhesive to the quarter panel. Not sure how I am going fill in the gaps in the wheel well yet. Might have to weld there.

A great seam sealer is a product called 'Sikoflex'. Clean the metal very well first according to directions. It's paintable too.