4x4tographer 2,711 Posted January 3 6 hours ago, theksmith said: you might also check out the instructions for the Nemesis flares for a JL. their instructions for the JK flares included exactly where to trim my factory front liners. i removed the rear liners completely and painted the OEM body metal all black inside there after filling in a few small holes. Thanks man! I checked the JL instructions they seem to have omitted that nicety. I'm not sure if it was just to encourage sales of their inners, or maybe because the JL high-line fender liners can't be salvaged. Guess I'll find out soon enough! I'm still scrounging around to find a JL-specific example of reusing the liners. Shockingly little information out there on it. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted January 4 Found a JL specific video for trimming and reusing the inner liners. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted January 6 (edited) Alright alright alright! Bit of a visual and clearance mod today. New fender flares! These are the polyurethane fender flares made by KBD Body Kits. They make a range of flares for a range of Jeeps, in addition to a bunch of Fast & The Furious racer-boi type stuff. Dead easy to install both front and rears. Probably about a 2 hour job. There isn't much holding the flares onto the JL to begin with - just a handful of "Christmas tree" body clips and some white plastic fender clips. All you need to take them off is a body panel pry-tool and some muscle to yank off the flare. The front requires the removal of one 8mm bolt and four 10mm bolts in addition to the body clips. It's a little amazing how much paint damage you find under some of these parts. I have several areas where bits and bobs on the Jeep have rubbed through the clear coat and paint, down to the primer. One of the selling points to me for this kit was that it requires ZERO drilling and ZERO nutserts. All you need to do is push in these plastic fittings into the factory body panel holes and use the supplied screws and washers for the install. One of the reasons I went with plastic/poly flares is for their durability, but also for their ability to flex if hit by something. The fender panels on the JL are aluminum and will get completely wrecked if hit by an object if you were using metal flares held on with nutserts and bolts. As an example of how flimsy the mounting surface is - I had to jam a piece of scrap lumber between the body panels to prevent the panel from bending as I pushed in the plastic screw fittings. Flare attached: Passenger side: Rears: In an attempt to try to save some money, I'm reusing the factory inner fender liners where I can. The rears were pretty easy to trim up and remount without any drama. There are 2 convenient "dog ears" on the top of the inners that you and press against the body - then using a grease marker you can draw a line along the body where to cut. Re-mounting it took 6 panel clips. It doesn't look terribly pretty in this photo. There are some gaps I'm not very happy with. One you put on the flares, it helps to conceal it, and I bet most people wouldn't notice the gaps - but I know they're there. Not too bad when you're standing and looking at them. The front inner panels are going to take some creative engineering and a heat gun to get trimmed and re-installed. I'm not entirely confident they're going to look aesthetically pleasing, but we'll see. I may end up picking up some aftermarket inners if I can't get it to work out. Stay tuned! This and many more projects coming up in the near future! Edited January 6 by 4x4tographer spelling 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,828 Posted January 6 the new flares look badass! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted January 8 From the 2023 ORP Holiday Party! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted January 14 (edited) New mini project completed: Granite-Series aluminum inner fender liners from Bestop. The overall install was very easy and would probably only take about 30-45 minutes if you've already gutted the wheel well. There are 3 brackets you install into existing body holes (no drilling at all). The inner fender comes with rivet nuts pre-installed. You just need a 10mm socket and a 4mm allen wrench. My install took a little bit longer (2 hours) as the rearward portion of the inner liner shares 2 common bolt holes with the KBD fender flares I installed last week. I had to remove the flares to remove 1 plastic screw liner plug and then drill a new hole in the KBD fenders near the bottom where the liners use a body hole. I then reinstalled the flares and inners using the inner fender fasteners at those two points and the flare fasteners to button it all up. I like the new inners, the vents look nice. I'm not a huge fan of the "B" logo, but pretty much every inner fender on the market has some stupid logo on it. I'm telling myself it matches my last name and the "Balrog" theme we're going with. The material is aluminum and weights about the same as the plastic factory liners i removed. Powdercoat is a nice quality, and the liners are pre-drilled/rivetnut'd for rock lights if I ever fancy going there. The inner is also trimmed to work with some of the common reservoir shocks that are out there. My only potential concern is clearance at full flex and steering at full lock. On level ground I have 3.5" of clearance at full lock. There is 5.5" with the wheel straight. I'll have to test it out on the trail. Even if it does clear my 35s, I seriously doubt I'd be able to run 37s without either increasing my lift height/bumps or going with different inners. EDIT: Worth noting that I have a little bit of unused up-travel left on the front axle - about 1-1.5" of travel left on the front shocks. Here's a photo with the wheel at full lock driver. More to come! Edited January 14 by 4x4tographer 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted January 15 NEXT PROJECT - about 90% complete. Working on replacing my GoRhino Rockline bumper with a new steel bumper from Next Venture Motorsports. Their Adventure series steel bumper comes as a 2 piece with a winch cradle and an outer bumper skin. Everything is made with 1/4" steel with 1" recovery tabs. As a bonus - this bumper is flat-towable (the GoRhino bumper can't handle flat towing). I'm also digging the sunken winch mount for a cleaner look up front. Test fitting everything before bolting up the winch cradle. Side profile with the bumper skin in place. I'll need to pick up some fog light adapters for my Rigid Industries SAE fogs. The bumper comes with provisions for you to use your factory fogs. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,828 Posted January 15 well aren't you a busy little beaver this week! new bumper looks way cleaner, IMO. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted February 6 Ok - a few weeks later, more progress! I'm now considering the front end 100% finished! Font bumper is buttoned up, fogs lights installed. Went with some round SAE drop-in replacements from Diode Dynamics. Installed a front skid plate from Rusty's Offroad which sits nice, high, and tight against the frame horns. The install required just a little grinding of the winch mount to get it to fit. Met up with @theksmith for a little flex test over by Lake Pleasant at "the flex spot" - a super secret proving grounds for suspension tests. One of my concerns was clearance with the front wheels at full flex and turned full lock. The juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust clear the back side of the new fender liners. So no worries there! However that'll be something that would need to change if I ever jump up a tire size. Beyond that, both the front and rear have 2-3" of clearance at full stuff. While I can adjust the rears for another inch of up-travel, the fronts will have to stay where they're at due to the clearance with the back side of the inner fender. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,711 Posted February 7 (edited) Wired up the amber backlighting for the Diode Dynamics fog lights tonight. Tapped in to the side marker wiring which is no longer in use on the front fenders. I also dialed in the vertical adjustments on the fogs and fussed around with the Rigid Industries white fogs that are installed on the bumper. The rigid definitely have a "fuzzier" light cutoff than the Diode Dynamics. The new fogs have SHARP cutoffs on the horizontal light plane on both the top and bottom. Edited February 7 by 4x4tographer I kan't spel 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
