The rear install is more complicated than the front for a couple of reasons. The first is that in order to install the flares on a four door XJ the front portion of the rear flares need to be attached to the doors. The second problem is that cutting more than 2” out of the quarter panel you will separate the body seam that attaches the inner and outer fender. You can see this in the pics if you don’t understand.
Use caution when cutting on the driver’s side because there is a large wiring harness in the quarter panel that holds all the wires for the back of the jeep. I cut mine while doing the install and can say you don’t want it to happen. You need to remove the inside panels to get access for bolts so I would remove it before starting to keep an eye on things.
The install starts the same as the front. Tape up the area to be cut then hold up the flare and mark the line to be cut. I only traced the flare from the lower back to the edge where the door starts. This is because the front of the flare goes on the door. For the front of the quarter panel I cut so that I left about 1/2” between the door and the wheel well. Because I cut so high I then had to go back and make a cut to separate the inner panel from the outer panel I was removing.
The hard part is next, reattaching the inner and outer quarter panels. Because I separated the inner panel after cutting the outer panel I was left with the full inner panel that was only trimmed enough to separate the two panels. This allowed me plenty of material to bang up with a hammer. I then bent the edge of the inner panel up and tucked it behind the front to weld it to the outer panel. I had to split the inner fender in a few spots in order for it to be bent up. This left small triangular holes in the inner quarter panel. The two panels were then spot welded all along the length of the cut.
The next step was to cut the lip off the back of the flare for the portion that will be attached to the door. This is to make the flare sit flush on the door because you can’t really cut the door to match the flare (at least I didn’t want to!). I then used the same method to attach the flare as I did on the front. I drilled the top two holes and installed the bolts. I then made sure everything was lined up and with my utility knife cut the flare in half at the joint between the door and rear quarter panel. Make sure when you cut the flare that the cut angles toward the rear or else the door won’t open.
I drilled the rest of the wholes and bolted the flare up. You will need to remove the door panel to access the bolts. I had to make a couple new mounting holes in the flares in order to get them to bolt up and not interfere with the inside of the door.
To fill the holes in the inner panel I duct taped over the wheel well side and used the expanding foam from the inside. I sealed teh seams with caulk, then trimmed the foam and sprayed rubberized under coating over it.
The project took two full days but overall turned out great. It looks good (to me, and that’s what matters) and the side marker light on the TJ flares is pretty cool to have. MY original plan was to run 33” tires on 4.5” of lift but now I’m considering 35” tires.
Would I do it again? Sure, it would go quicker the second time around. I won’t be going around asking people to let me install the flares for them though. The clearance gains far outweigh any negative affects of this mod. The only negative I can think of is resale of the Jeep. I don’t foresee too many people looking for a jeep with cut fenders. This isn’t a problem for me because I don’t think I’ll ever sell it.
Cost of the project was ridiculously cheap. I got the TJ flares for $55 and that includes shipping. I then sold my stock flares for $40. That’s about $350 cheaper than Bushwhacker Cut Out flares. I don’t think all the other items I needed for the install cost more than $50 when totaled. Not a bad deal for all that clearance.
