Ok, this will be somewhat of a write up on my flares.
It all started about a month or so ago. I got pulled over for the tires sticking out too far. I drove it this way for 2 years! I guess I just got pulled over on a bad day. He gave me 30 days to get them covered. I already have four rear tj flares I was going to put on it, but I thought I would try to build my own. If it didn't work out, I could always throw the tj flares on.
A couple things I wanted. First, I wanted them to be affordable. I didn't want to buy those qtr. panel guards and build off of them. Second, I wanted them to be able to be easily removeable, as in bolt on. And most of all, I wanted them to be strong.
So I borrowed a pipe bender from a friend, and went looking for tube. I ended up using 3/4 inch ID pipe from Lowes. I bought 2 ten foot long pieces and had them cut them down into five foot long pieces. The cost was right around 20 bucks.
Then I took them home and tried my hand at bending them. This was a lot of trial and error and lots of running back and forth to the jeep to hold them up to it.
I bought some flat steel to use to make tabs with. I cut the tubes to the lengths I wanted, then I made tabs and welded them to the ends of the tube, so I could bolt it to the jeep.
Once it was bolted to the jeep, I made a cardboard template for the sheet metal. I used 16 gauge, so it would be strong, and I wouldn't burn throught it too easily when I welded it. Then I welded the sheetmetal to the tube.
Once that was done, I made 3 tabs from flat steel and bent them at a 90. I welded these to the sheetmetal against the fender. The flare is held to the fender with 5 bolts.
I then made some reinforcments to the flare to make it strong. I used 1/8 inch thick flat steel and bent it however I need it to. I put one at the front tab, one at the rear tab and one at the middle tab on the front flares.
Front.
Middle.
Rear.
To be continued.