Fitting 2500 front end parts:

[1bolt]

Chris I guess no one wants you to feel like the messenger is being aimed at

I've got the broken grill and it along with the tail lights leads me to believe that Alex parts is primarily exporting factory seconds, blems and pieces that fail quality assurance which might explain why the fenders were in various states of finish. I doubt even the Chinese accept this poor quality level in production vehicles.

Tail lights have area's that are hand touched up with epoxy where the plastic resin didn't penetrate the mold fully, the tail lights I got are not 100% identical. They look like two different suppliers they are close enough that you have to put them next to each other and really look to notice differences, one has clouded lenses. When I test fitted the tails I instantly broke the tab that slides into the lower anchor, super brittle didn't even take effort so be careful.

The header has some awful fiberlgass work. I think any future orders should take the old saying you get what you pay for to heart. I am almost scared to order a set of the composite headlights

 

[Muad'Dib]

Dang all this makes me wonder if i should even try to get the 2500 fenders to work. My plan was take it all into a body shop and have them do it so it would come out looking professional. I wonder if they would charge me more to try and make the 2500 fenders work, or to just cut up an OEM fender?

If i was to use OEM fenders, which ones would i go with? 97+ or the former? I thought it didnt matter, but after you said that the header panel mounts to the top just like the 97+ fenders, this made me think that i needed 97+ fenders.

Anyway .. it will still be awhile before i will have the money to do it. I would do it myself, but this is my only vehicle so having that much downtime to get everything right isnt an option.

 

[BonesBrosChris]

I'm in the same boat as you guys, I didn't high grade the stuff and keep all the good ones, in fact I kept almost all the beat to crap stuff because it didn't feel right to send it out. And for this exact reason I was really hesitant to do another order, but here we are again and the same stuff is being brought up again just like the first time. I went into it with the understanding that since the stuff just so cheap (price-wise) I figured the "quality" would be the same. And since they got us by the sack because they are on the other side of the world.... what can you do if we either get screwed or the stuff is all broken? I think the header panels are of lower quality than the first batch last year even, but some on this batch had weird little notches cut into them. And since they are shipped without boxes the extra heavy fiber-glass is the only thing that makes them show up in one piece, but 3 didn't make it and if they were thinner even less would have. The only thing crappy about the headlamps is (touch wood) the crap bulbs they come with, but nobody has put a 2500 together and done any long term "testing" to see if they fill with water, fog or yellow... so I don't know, it's just a risk. Your correct, you get what you pay for. I don't think Alex makes this stuff for production line vehicles.... I think they just make some aftermarket crash replacement stuff of low quality. I need to test fit the stuff and see for myself which I guess I could do on the MJ since its tore down in the garage but I feel it's going to be the same as zlusters in initial mock-up fit and finish..... meaning it going to need a ton of work to not look like sh!t.

I would use the pre 97 fenders as they have the correct upper squared off edge and because the fender is not cut off in front like the 97-01's.

 

[zluster]

Dang all this makes me wonder if i should even try to get the 2500 fenders to work. My plan was take it all into a body shop and have them do it so it would come out looking professional. I wonder if they would charge me more to try and make the 2500 fenders work, or to just cut up an OEM fender?

If i was to use OEM fenders, which ones would i go with? 97+ or the former? I thought it didnt matter, but after you said that the header panel mounts to the top just like the 97+ fenders, this made me think that i needed 97+ fenders.

Anyway .. it will still be awhile before i will have the money to do it. I would do it myself, but this is my only vehicle so having that much downtime to get everything right isnt an option.

the header panel bolts differently on the 97+ fenders, but its not like its a deal breaker, I'm going to take a small piece of strap give it two little bends, drill one hole, and then spot weld it onto the US 96 fender. Problem solved.

The main difference between using the US fenders and the alex fenders is that when the job is done one will look like a quality fit product(because its OEM) and the other will look like a ghetto repair special.

I've used a lot of aftermarket parts(ie that is, cheap crap parts). And I don't think any of them were this bad. This is more like a facsimile of a Jeep fender.

Now the other parts I got the first time we ordered were quite a bit better, the headlights, flares, header panel etc, all felt every good, the only exception to that was the rough cut bulb sockets on the tail light housings.

Anyways, now that we took the plunge, got the fenders, and were the Guinea pig, no one has to deal with the expense and hassle of these things. We can make templates off the junk ones we have here and get a quality fit OEM 2500 made.

Like I said, generally I'm pretty lax about these things, heck a running joke about me on a bunch of forums is how many colors my cars are, but even I am looking at these fenders going "I can't deal with this. These are just too poorly made."


I'll try to get pics tonight to show what I am talking about.

 

[Muad'Dib]

Ok, so it sounds like either older style or newer style (97+) fenders can be used because either way, they are going to have to be modified? (cut to accept the new headlights, and possibly welded tabs for mounting purposes). The big reason why i ask is because my jeep is a 90, and i want to make sure i have the right fenders before i take my shit into the body shop.

Another thing not many people have thought about is (from looking at your pics too there zluster) there is no hole for the radio antenna. At least my passenger 2500 fender doesnt have it.

Everyones thoughts are along the same line as mine. They dont make these parts for OEM replacement. There is no way this kind of quality is acceptable. Hell i bet alexparts is only around because of us chumps in the US who want 2500 parts !!! Makes me want to almost null this project and just stay with my current front end, or possibly a 97+.

I also wonder about the headlamps. I wonder if they will fade like the tail lights? Who knows. The even bigger problem is that if they are installed on a DD and have a problem. what then? Drive without one headlight until you can get a replacement 6 months later

 

[zluster]

Ok, so it sounds like either older style or newer style (97+) fenders can be used because either way, they are going to have to be modified? (cut to accept the new headlights, and possibly welded tabs for moutning purposes). The big reason why i ask is because my jeep is a 90, and i want to make sure i have the right fenders before i take my shit into the body shop.

Another thing not many people have thought about is (from looking at your pics too there zluster) there is no hole for the radio antenna. At least my passenger 2500 fender doesnt have it.

Everyones thoughts are along the same line as mine. They dont make these parts for OEM replacement. There is no way this kind of quality is acceptable. Hell i bet alexparts is only around because of us chumps in the US who want 2500 parts !!!

The 2500 doesn't have the antenna in the fender. if you were going to use the 2500 fender you could possibly plug the hole for the side marker with the antenna from a liberty or a TJ.

Your 90 fenders could be modified no problem. A real shop should competent people who can figure it out. Combined with a scanned paper template printed out you should be able to get them to do a quality job on fitting them.

 

[Muad'Dib]

The 2500 doesn't have the antenna in the fender. if you were going to use the 2500 fender you could possibly plug the hole for the side marker with the antenna from a liberty or a TJ.

Your 90 fenders could be modified no problem. A real shop should competent people who can figure it out. Combined with a scanned paper template printed out you should be able to get them to do a quality job on fitting them.

Or just bring them the 2500 fenders for their own comparison. That should work.

 

[BonesBrosChris]

Any body shop worth a crap would be able to cut and paste the headlamp opening. You could make the holes for the turn marker lamps and the flare holes on the bottom of the fender.... if you were going to run the 2500 flares and water proof.

Funny, I never noticed they lack radio antenna holes

 

[BonesBrosChris]

Everyones thoughts are along the same line as mine. They dont make these parts for OEM replacement. There is no way this kind of quality is acceptable. Hell i bet alexparts is only around because of us chumps in the US who want 2500 parts

I was just pointing it out for the next group down the road who might be interested in this stuff, just getting it on record Don't know who buys this stuff, until the first order I never heard or seen anyone with it in the states? I do know they seem to build a bunch of other stuff for different makes of vehicles... per the site. I did some research on them before the first order and there is just nothing out there good or bad about Alex Parts, but that was last year.
-Chris

 

[1bolt]

I would put money on it that Alex Parts is purely a brokerage, a reseller. They probably don't make a single thing, they source large lots of factory cast offs, seconds and blems, and they probably sell to every country that has XJ/2500 probably sell more to Korea or Taiwan than the USA.

 

[zluster]

I would put money on it that Alex Parts is purely a brokerage, a reseller. They probably don't make a single thing, they source large lots of factory cast offs, seconds and blems, and they probably sell to every country that has XJ/2500 probably sell more to Korea or Taiwan than the USA.

these parts are not factory cast offs. I can tell by looking at them and looking at the 2500 that the same machine that stamped the 2500 fenders is not the same machine that is stamping these.

the alex parts are knock offs of the OEM 2500 parts.

The only 2500 still being sold is being sold with the 5 slot grill, and has been, for about 2 years now.

 

[zluster]

this gap gets better, but its going to take a lot of work to sit flush.

But then look at a US OEM fender, you can see that its many times better quality in the stamping.

All sorts of rippled and nasty looking:

this is the upper header bolt that you want to duplicate:

Once again you want to make a 97+ upper mount for the 96 fender, and then you want the lower 96 mount.

Also, this is what your bent over support looks like after modifying it to clear the 2500 header.

 

[1bolt]

these parts are not factory cast offs. I can tell by looking at them and looking at the 2500 that the same machine that stamped the 2500 fenders is not the same machine that is stamping these.

the alex parts are knock offs of the OEM 2500 parts.

The only 2500 still being sold is being sold with the 5 slot grill, and has been, for about 2 years now.

Okay Chip Foose, they are seconds, blems and castoffs of knock offs. eace:

 

[BonesBrosChris]

Okay Chip Foose......

:shhh:

LOL

 

[BonesBrosChris]

Not to jack your thread Sam, here are the pics of the ones I tossed on last night.

Here are the 2500 fenders mounted to the truck. I had to re-shape the part up by the windscreen, and still have some more work to get it to look right. This fender had a pretty bad fold where the headlamp cutout is located.
Picture of 97+ fender that was on the truck.

Now with the 2500 fenders

So are they useable? Yes, but it's going to take some work. I'll put the header panel on this weekend to see how well it fit up. I didn't really want to use the clip on the truck, but if I rework the core area to fit the header..... there is no going back.

 

[BonesBrosChris]

Well after thinking about those 2500 fenders from Alex parts I came to the conclusion that they just won't fit and look "right". They just don't fit good enough to get good gaps. To get the door gap looking right it won't reach the header panel :dunno: ..... so I went to the wreckers and got 2 OE fenders and made some 2500 fenders.

Well now they fit right and have have the quality of the OE fenders.... because they are the OE fenders.

-Chris

 

[Muad'Dib]

you suck

 

[BonesBrosChris]

you suck

Ok.... why?
I just want it to look right..... well, as right as a 2500 clip is going to look on a MJ.

 

[Muad'Dib]

Ok.... why?
I just want it to look right..... well, as right as a 2500 clip is going to look on a MJ.

Because your doing it and im not

I really want to get mine on just dont have the time or money.

What are you doing to mount the header panel to your newly created fenders?

 

[BonesBrosChris]

Just going to replicate the front mount on the Alex Parts fenders. The 2500 header uses the same metal 'L' bracket that mounts the US header to the core support. There are bolt studs located on the upper front of the 2500 fenders that tie in the outer part of the header panel.... they were just removed from it because I was doing some cutting and grinding. I'm also going to remove, cut and weld the inner brace (visible in the front-on picture behind the opening) when I go and slip in the header panel.

The 2500 header panel lines are not as crisp as they should be either so the area above the headlamp is going to need some work to get it to flow into the fender lines.

-Chris