The big green Heep

gomopar440

gomopar440

Livin' my life...one gas station at a time.
Well, since moving to MT I've found out that all vehicles here must not have the tires sticking out past the fenders or flares. The 97 Jeep Cherokee I have fails in that catagory miserably.
jeepfrontview.jpg


It took quite a bit of web searching to find a set of flares that would fit my already cut fenders. As far as I can tell, this is the only place that has anything that will work. So, back at the very beginning of January, I ordered a set of the "Go Bezerk" 4dr XJ flares from Iceland Offroad.
XJ20fender20flares.jpg

(Pic courtesy of Iceland Offroad)
http://icelandoffroad.com/CherokeeXJ/XJFenderFlares/tabid/1951/language/en-US/Default.aspx

The lead time was only supposed to be 30 days, but... Their fiberglass people that produced their parts went bankrupt shortly after I placed my order. They had to find a new company to make their FG parts and then get caught up with their backlog of orders. So after a LOOOONG wait, FedEx just dropped them off today (two months and a week after ordering them :doubt:).

At least they're finally here and I can get started installing them this weekend (weather permitting). I'll post pics of the install as I make some progress.

BTW: They have a torture test video on their website showing the flares getting run overby a Cherokee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ILmMzouxE&feature=email I thought it might have been a trick to it, but after seeing how beefy these flares are (almost 1/4" thick) I can understand how it withstood the abuse in the vid. I wouldn't want to test them up against a solid tree, but shopping carts won't stand a chance. [smilie=i:
 
Wish I could have beefed up my 93 ZJ. As big of a money pit as it was and how many times it left me stranded.... I kinda miss the damn thing!
 
i love the fact that here we can stick out 3-5 inches before the 5.0 starts giving ya shit about it...but ive seen SEVERAL renditions of those flairs localy and they look BADASS!!!!
 
The tires (35x12.5-15's) will still stick out about 1-2" past these flares once installed. That's still way better then the 5-6" they currently stick out on each side.
 
I don't see the fuzz givin ya too much crap about 1-2" but yeah I can see it with 5-6" :D
 
thrashingcows said:
Those look great. :2thumbs: Can't wait for the pics of them installed on your rig.
Click to expand...
Working on uploading the pics now.

I got all the holes drilled and have them temporarilly mounted up today. I still have to do the fitting of the edges to the fenders before I can paint them and bolt then on for good.

Pic of how much the tires stuck out from the fenders without the flares...
XJtireprotrusion.jpg


...and how much protrusion after the flares were on.
XJFlares-passrear2.jpg


The ends of the front bumper needed to be trimmed back to clear the flares before I could fit it up for drilling the fenders.
XJpasssidefrontbumpertrimmed.jpg

XJdriversidefrontbumpertrimmed.jpg


This is where I stopped at for today.
XJFlares-passfront.jpg

XJFlares-driverfront.jpg

XJpasssideflaresboltedon2.jpg

XJdriversideflaresboltedon.jpg


Before:
jeepfrontview.jpg


After:
XJflareson-frontview.jpg


I called it a day after I took the pics cause my back couldn't take any more. The cold (20*f) wasn't making it any easier either.
 
Once those are painted and installed it's going to look killer!! Are you going to paint the front bumper black as well?
 
thrashingcows said:
Once those are painted and installed it's going to look killer!! Are you going to paint the front bumper black as well?
Click to expand...

I'm planning to repaint the whole Jeep in a WWII flat OD Green this spring or summer. With stars and stencils to match of course. :) Until then, the fenders and front bumper will be painted black like the rear bumper and rocker guards.

The wheel well openings still need to be trimmed back in spots yet and I have two mounting bolts that are too short to reach the fender on the front driver side flare. They were purposely left short (by the mfg) to clear the washer bottle, but they ended up about 1/2" to 3/4" shorter than needed to bolt it up. I'll probably just weld a couple short 1/4"-20 bolts to the ends of those two bolts and be done with it.

BTW: Thanks for the awesome comment Dave! You have an awesome day! Are you thirsty by any chance? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXL-mp-Tbk4&feature=player_embedded
 
cutting the bolt in half and welding a section in the midle is alot easier to work with.."if" you cant get the proper length somewhere local
 
Won't be hard to find what I need. A couple 1" long (fully threaded) 1/4"-20 bolts should do the trick. I'll pick up a couple at the hardware store when I get out to town tomorrow. I don't want to shorten the ones that are there because I want to keep the welding heat as far away from the bolt adhesive as possible. It looks like they're attached with some kind of kitty hair or marine hull type patching resin. It feels pretty tough, but I don't want to chance weaking it with too much heat.
 
They're added on after the main body of the flares are completed actually. The guys at Iceland Offroad add the bolts to the flares after they get them back from the fg shop. I'll get a pic of them next time I take them off.
 
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