TJ Flares

[Incommando]

I decided to install 4 rear TJ flares on my MJ to gain a little clearance and to cover the wheel well rust on the bed. It was very easy ( even though I screwed them up..see below). I like the look of the rear flares on the front as they do not have the holes for marker lights that the front TJ flares do and they fit the MJ lines well.

 

You will need to trim the inner lip of of the flares to get them to fit flush. This is pretty obvious when you look at the flare. I used tin snips for this. I also trimmed up the mounting surface to remove the excess material below the mounting holes on the flares to give myself the option of making the opening on the body as large as possible.

 

I covered all four wheel arches with blue masking tape to get a surface to mark on. I then made a template of the R and L flares and taped them to the location I wanted them after centering them, etc... I marked the mounting holes and drilled them out. I also traced the inner edge that I had just trimmed off per paragraph 1 as well.

 

Using a 4.5" angle grinder with a metal cutting disc I then trimmed each rear wheel well up to the line I just traced. My bed was very rusty and this was necessary to remove most of the rust. Before I started:

Flare mocked up and hung on protruding rust:

after initial trim using tin snips (not recommmended..I re-did it with the angle grinder :roll: ) :

 

On the front I just trimmed the part of the arch the extends out, leaving a flush cut on the fender. You could use any number of tools for the cutting (sawzall, jig saw, whatever...) but the angle grinder worked well and it is what I had laying around.

 

Rear:

 

I used large black zipties to mount the actual flares. This may give them a chance to get ripped off and survive should I rub a tree or something off road where I think bolting them on would be more likely to damage the flare and/or the body. You can get the zip ties to snug down very nicely.

 

To give you an idea on the clearance increase from this mod, those are 265/70/16's on stock KJ 16x7" 5.25" BS rims. The tires are roughly 31x10.5. The suspension is stock 4x2.

 

 

This is a simple mod. It took maybe 2 hours and that includes the flare trimming and template tracing. It is well worth it IMHO. With a little less backspacing (like 4") aftermarket rims or some spacers this should make fitting 31x10.5x15's on an unlifted 4x4 pretty easy. Someone with more skill and being more careful could make a real clean install of this.

[Incommando]

I re-did the rear flares. IMHO 4 rear TJ flares make good looking "aftermarket" flares when trimming an MJ. Did a quick "cut & fold" while I was at it.

 

 

[shawn]

that is an excellent mod and thank you for the write-up. looks like 31s on stock suspension would fit no-problem. i also don't really like the tj fronts with the light (although i thought i did for the longest time,lol). would like to see how you did the part where the body contour lines are.

[Incommando]

I don't have any pics of it but I tried to match the flare line by putting a factory flare against the TJ flare and cutting it. It left the gap from the body line too wide for my tastes. If I was to do it again I would just trim the flat mounting face of of the backside of the TJ flare and not touch the part the shows.

 

The MJ does not reside at my house. Next time I get to it I'll try to remember to take a pic or two of the seal against the body.

[Motion Offroad]

Getting them "just-right" is a major pain. The body lines are no where close to being the same and as Incommando stated if you don't trim the backside of the flare it will leave a large gap at the top. It can be done and made to look good, just expect it to take some time!

 

Here's TJ flares mounted on the rear of our wheeling MJ.