Wonder how hard it would be to make a set of flares out of metal? First let me say that they are not going to be put on a show vehicle, so they dont have to be perfect. I was thinking along the lines of the old jeep trucks with the step side beds. Cut out the shape, two cuts, bend into shape, weld the two cuts and a little grinding. Anyone ever do anything like that?
Metal fender flares
- Thread starter big_o_tom
- Start date
Gennybro
Active member
I had been thinking along the same lines as you,considering the price of flares. It would be something uniqe, and keep it in design with it's forefathers would be pretty cool., and have fun doing it. My line of thought dosent involve bending. What I was thinking was to cut flat panels of aluminum and make the shape of the old style wheel wells and weld them togeather,and modify as I go . Would line them with rubber of some kind,other wise it's gonna sound like a machine gun at times.
I think stainless steel would be much better to fab them out of ,but it's pricey.
josue estrada
New member
GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wish i could get me a hold of some of those
I just built a box to hold a coolant overflow tank out of a piece of siding metal, which I have a lot of it left, thats what give me the idea. I had a 66 jeep truck and the flares that it had are close to what I have in mind. I just cant spend $500 for a set of rubber bushwackers, although I like them!
Not hard, made plenty of them, all depends on your metal skills as to how nice they come out. when ever I've made them, I always try to ties them together, so the front usually gets a radiator hoop and the rear I will build an brace off the roll bars on the inside of the fender.
Gennybro
Active member
Yeah, and I wanted to know what you ment by the radiator hoop.
check out my build thread, the last couple pages will have the ones I built for my own jeep. unfortunately on my work PC photobucket is blocked so I can't post the others I've built that are saved in there.
http://www.jeepz.com/forum/jeep-builds/28362-johnnys-94-yj-one-big-poop.html
http://www.jeepz.com/forum/jeep-builds/28362-johnnys-94-yj-one-big-poop.html
Gennybro
Active member
Your ignorance is excused..
Read your question that I quoted.. you asked to see what was ment by radiator hoop, not a fender flare.
To further address the OP question, in my example I built the entire fender and not the flare, but what I posted is also a good example of what to do if you only build the flares. With a rigid metal flare on the front, if you should contact a tree or rock, the flare will crush the grille from a side impact, or will be pushed into the body tub from a front impact. In the rear an impact to a rigid flare would also tweek teh tub pretty bad. If your building the fender out of a material thinner (ie weaker) then the tub's construction, you more or less have wasted your time.
95XJCountry
New member
we have another unnamed 4x4 in the garage in which the body is cut to accomadate new homemade metal flares. hg steel and angle iron, a bunch of welding. it is not done but coming along very nice. and we have exactly the room we want. PLUS since starting we have accumulated quite the nice metal working shop with all equipment, tools, rollers, and benders we have purchased. oops. good luck and god speed. nothing like doing it yourself!
Gennybro
Active member
post some pics,lets see what ya got.
