Cut the rear fenders apart

Fair enough, I'll just sit and wait for "I wish I'd listened to John D". Lol
I understand your concerns/limitations, until recently my build has always been centered around a functioning back seat for my three kids.

Are you planning on linking it when you go to 37's? I'm sure it's been pulled off before but I've personally never seen a tire on springs stuff that perfectly... I gave myself an extra inch or more in front and a few in the rear (I'm on 37s). Not sure how much I pushed it back, but I'm still not touching the tank.

I hear you on the family situation, I have 4 boys which necessitated creating a bench seat up front... I sure love loading up the whole family for an adventure though!

G2WANIT said:

Are you planning on linking it when you go to 37's? I'm sure it's been pulled off before but I've personally never seen a tire on springs stuff that perfectly... I gave myself an extra inch or more in front and a few in the rear (I'm on 37s). Not sure how much I pushed it back, but I'm still not touching the tank.

I hear you on the family situation, I have 4 boys which necessitated creating a bench seat up front... I sure love loading up the whole family for an adventure though!

Click to expand...

Got any pics of this bench seat?? That sounds interesting.

G2WANIT said:

Are you planning on linking it when you go to 37's? I'm sure it's been pulled off before but I've personally never seen a tire on springs stuff that perfectly... I gave myself an extra inch or more in front and a few in the rear (I'm on 37s). Not sure how much I pushed it back, but I'm still not touching the tank.

I hear you on the family situation, I have 4 boys which necessitated creating a bench seat up front... I sure love loading up the whole family for an adventure though!

Click to expand...

What axles? How far back did you stretch?

No plans for links. Sticking with leaf springs

Soooo, since you're 30 minutes up the road from me you're going to let me break those 37's in for you, right?

Or you could sell them to me at a fraction of the price. That'd be cool too.

Lowrange2 said:

Soooo, since you're 30 minutes up the road from me you're going to let me break those 37's in for you, right?

Or you could sell them to me at a fraction of the price. That'd be cool too.

Click to expand...

You might could get mine in a few months!!

kmanxj5050 said:

Got any pics of this bench seat?? That sounds interesting.

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It's in my build thread, starts on post #5 (#4 is where I relocate the E-Brake):
www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1093360

NCCherokee said:

What axles? How far back did you stretch?

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D44 front and 8.8 in the rear. I bought the Riddler diff covers because they seemed to be much lower profile compared to thick welded covers like RuffStuff. I'm stretched somewhere between 1.5-2".

I trimmed my fenders up almost exactly to the point you did, I'm running around 5.5" lift. You can grab a tape measure and see on your setup, but on mine I've found that even if my diff were to be in line with my gas tank, it would contact the bump-stop before the tank... (bumped based on travel limited by the fender height.) But then again, cutting the rear cross member out and pushing your tank back to the rear bumper isn't any harder than what you're currently doing! (IMO)

Anyway all I'm trying to say is that with the arc of travel your axle makes on springs, it can be tricky to get the opening so perfect. But hey, YMMV!

On my rig, at ride height I only measure about .5" clearance from the front of the fender, but compressed that opens to 1.5" or so, photographic examples:





Bad pictures, but you get the idea.

BTW, you're doing a MUCH cleaner job on the fenders than I did - keep it up!! :thumbup:

I actually like how you sloped it back like that. Can you measure the bottom of the quarter panel from the rear to you cut? That's the only point I can reference that would tell me how far you cut compared to me.

Are those Napier flares? I was trying to decide what to do for flares. I'm planning on JCR light boxes, I'll have to trim them, but not sure for flares. Maybe tube.

NCCherokee said:

I actually like how you sloped it back like that. Can you measure the bottom of the quarter panel from the rear to you cut? That's the only point I can reference that would tell me how far you cut compared to me.

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It measures about 10.25"

NCCherokee said:

Are those Napier flares? I was trying to decide what to do for flares. I'm planning on JCR light boxes, I'll have to trim them, but not sure for flares. Maybe tube.

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The flares are actually Bushwhackers. I kept the bottom pieces I cut off, I've been meaning to tie them back in and smooth the transition with some fiberglass filler and re-paint... but that's on the 'eventually' list. For now it passes inspection. And really, my dream set-up would be tube fenders - when I lean on a rock, even these flimsy Bushwhackers push my sheet metal in...

At the time I cut the sloped line because it seemed like it would be the easiest method. I'm not convinced that is the case anymore. I think cutting the strip out in the middle and moving them back like you have done (and RockMonkey did IIRC) is the way to go.

Mine measured 12.25" at that same spot. Getting all the paint cleaned up this weekend and will hopefully be able to weld up at least the pass side next weekend.

Some more cutting. Found that my old cut n fold mod to the lower rear quarters developed some rust. I never really sealed them up well back when I was first a newb (still a newb) and then through 4 years of med school and now 2.5 years of residency, never touched them again until now. So it's been about 7 years since that first cut.

I decided to cut out my cut n fold. I'm going to weld in some 16g sheet in its place.

I'm just about ready on both sides to start welding up. Still need to finish cleaning up some paint and undercoating, and bend up the 1/4" steel rod. After the wheel wells are welded back into place, I'll be able to start cutting sheet for the gaps and button her up. Will need to trim the interior panels obviously and do something with my rock lights that were mounted back there.

Enough words. Mo pictures.

Looks good so far. I will be following closely for I too will be needing to do this to my rig.

COjeeper said:

Looks good so far. I will be following closely for I too will be needing to do this to my rig.

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one thing I wish that I had done differently was to use the piece of the inner fender I cut out to mark my cut lines for the outer fender - this would make them match up nicer so that they would be easier to weld back together. Unfortunately I made my cuts before I decided to cut apart the inner fender, so I wasn't able to do that. As they are now, the cuts are very symmetrical, with the front half almost mirroring the back half, which looks good. It just means that making the filler piece match up to the inner wheel well tub will require some pie cuts or wedges of sheet welded in to fill the gaps.

Also, I maybe wouldn't have drilled out all the spot welds on the pinch seam on the bottom of the wheel well, and just cut it. On the drivers side I did this, and I think it will make it easier to mock up, but it will make it look a little funny with half a pinch seam in there. On the pass side I didn't cut off at that seam, so at least it will match the front of the wheel well.

The reason I cut it on the driver side is because I had some damage to that seam from too-tall ubolts that smashed it up, and I wasn't able to completely flatten it to separate it, so i just cut it.

NCCherokee said:

one thing I wish that I had done differently was to use the piece of the inner fender I cut out to mark my cut lines for the outer fender - this would make them match up nicer so that they would be easier to weld back together. Unfortunately I made my cuts before I decided to cut apart the inner fender, so I wasn't able to do that. As they are now, the cuts are very symmetrical, with the front half almost mirroring the back half, which looks good. It just means that making the filler piece match up to the inner wheel well tub will require some pie cuts or wedges of sheet welded in to fill the gaps.

Also, I maybe wouldn't have drilled out all the spot welds on the pinch seam on the bottom of the wheel well, and just cut it. On the drivers side I did this, and I think it will make it easier to mock up, but it will make it look a little funny with half a pinch seam in there. On the pass side I didn't cut off at that seam, so at least it will match the front of the wheel well.

The reason I cut it on the driver side is because I had some damage to that seam from too-tall ubolts that smashed it up, and I wasn't able to completely flatten it to separate it, so i just cut it.

Click to expand...

Good to know, thanks for the info.

Not really related, but I got some new LED backup lights to replace my old incandescent fog lights I was using. All I can say is WOW! Came from sidetracked offroad. Basically rigid flush mount knockoffs, but the ONLY other flush mount led pods I could find that would work on the real estate I had in the bumper. Had to cut out the existing holes for the housing, but it really cleans up the look.

These will be connected to my fitchbox, so they are on a switch but also come on with the reverse lights independently.


The pods, 6 3w Cree LEDs. Found them on pirate. Cost $180/pair. Also had 4 LED version, same size housing, for $150/pair


Old fog lights, very linear light pattern. Terrible for backup lights, almost unusable.


New led lights. Much wider throw. Only one light. Much brighter in person.


About to get these mounted. Just need to paint the exposed metal. Won't be functional until the fenders are done because that is where my fitchbox is mounted. Might rig them to the reverse lights in the meantime.

Got them temporarily hooked up to my reverse lamps.
mounted

no light

jeep in reverse


in this one you can kinda see the glare above the lights, six little circles - LEDs!

Spent about 5 hours today tacking some sheet metal. Took a while to get the welder dialed in.

This is the revision of my cut and fold that was starting to rust under the silicone caulk that I so wisely used to "seal" it.


My buddy welding up the pass side rear half of the wheel well. All the wiring tucked up as much as we could. My fitchbox sits in that cubby, hence the extra wiring


A 37 rolled under it. The axle isn't centered in the tire. It would be about an inch and a half higher just to account for the lift from the increase in tire diameter, which would lift the body that much...meaning there will be even more clearance than this picture shows.

Spent about two hours tonight welding in the wheel well patches. The are overlapped and welded inside and out

Looking pretty damn good. I might need to tackle this next winter break.

It's taking longer than I thought, but that's because I'm the limiting factor. I can't weld, so I have to drive to my buddy's across town. Also, I work a lot, like 6 days a week, sometimes 7, and my wife limits my jeep time!

We are getting ready to weld some rod to the outer sheet metal and use that to weld the patches from the inner panel to the outer skin