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without the hardware are for those of you that have a 1997 to 2006 TJ that are looking
to swap out your fender flares for ones that are a factory style, however are going to
be wider than the factory to help cover a wider tire and a wheel with a little bit less
backspacing. These fender flares are going to install very
easily onto your Jeep because they are designed to pretty much be an OEM replacement, again
just being a little bit wider, so there's gonna be no drilling, no cutting, definitely
a one out of three wrench install. However, give yourself about two hours and
even more if your Jeep is rusty, and we'll talk a little bit more about the installation
in just a second. So a new set of fender flares is going to
do a couple things for your Jeep.
Let's start with the functionality. Again, these are gonna be wider than your
factory. These are gonna be a 7-inch flare, so when
you're running a wider tire on a wheel with less backspacing you're still going to get
full tire coverage. That's important because in some areas you
need it in order to be legal, and even if you don't, this is going to help keep the
tires from throwing junk up on the side of the Jeep which can just make it dirty, scratch
it, a variety of different reasons that you might not want that.
Now on top of the functionality of these being
a wider flare, they're just gonna be a brand-new flare. Even the newest TJ is going to be around 11
years old now and those factory flares can be very faded out, be more grey than they
are black, and that can definitely make your Jeep look its age. So by going back to something that is going
to be a nice dark black color like these ones are and something that's gonna hold up pretty
well over the years, your Jeep is going to be completely transformed and look completely
different. Now as far as a fender flare goes, these ones
fall right in the middle of the price range as a lot of the other ones do, so I think
this is gonna be a pretty good deal for the functionality and the look that you're going
to get.
These are going to be built very similarly
to those factory flares out of a thermoplastic material that have the same finish, again
designed to bolt directly in place of those factory flares. The only difference is really going to be
that these are gonna be wider. In fact, these will even accept your factory
turn signals, and because this is a six-piece kit, they're also going to include the mini
flares, so it is really all-inclusive. Now, this kit's also available with the hardware
if you choose to go that route.
Some of your factory hardware might not be
reusable, especially if your Jeep has a lot of rust on it. If that's the case, go with the version that
has hardware, it's gonna be about 15 more dollars. But if you already have hardware that's in
good working order, you can get this kit without it. So like I said before, definitely, an easy
one outta three wrench installation to get these bolted onto your Jeep, but do give yourself
around two hours or more depending on the rust situation because that can add some install
time.
Now the first step of this install is going
to be well before you actually get started, and that's going to be spraying all of your
hardware with a good penetrating oil, again especially if you have rust. Those factory fender flares are held onto
your Jeep using nutserts that can spin if the bolt freezes inside the nutsert due to
rust. So you want to try and eliminate that whenever
possible. Now most of those nutserts you can get to
the back side of, you can hold them with a set of vise-grips and you can eventually break
things loose, or at the very least you can cut them off, reinstall new nutserts, put
nut and bolt hardware in place, do whatever you need to do to get things attached.
But the best case scenario is that you spray
everything with penetrating oil and everything breaks loose as it should. So in getting these installed, the first step
is going to be removing the factory flares. You'll do that by first removing the turn
signal socket from the turn signal housing, unbolting the flare, you'll have to pull the
inner fender liner out of the way a little bit and then get it removed from the Jeep. You can swap the turn signal onto your new
fender flare and bolt that flare back up to the Jeep.
In the back, of course, you're not gonna have
the light, but the process is going to be very, very similar. Now if you do end up having some nutserts
spinning, again you can cut them off, reinstall new ones, you can use nut and bolt hardware
when you get to the back side of the fender. There are some areas where the nutsert, you
can not get to the back side of it, and if that spins you are gonna have to get a little
bit more creative with how you get these installed. In that case, a lot of the time you do have
to drill out the nutsert or at least grind the top off it and install a new one.
These flares are gonna come in at right around
$160, which I do think is gonna be pretty good deal. A lot of the other replacement fender flares,
whether they're a 7-inch flare or a factory style, factory size flare, gonna be right
in and around that price, so I do think this is gonna be a nice deal. Again, going to look very similar to the factory
flare just be a little bit wider, so if that's the look you're going for and the functionality
that you're after, this is gonna be a good buy. So if you wanna swap out those factory fender
flares on your TJ for a new looking set that's also a little bit wider to give you some better
tire coverage, I definitely recommend taking a look at this set from Omix-ADA, and you
can find it right here at extremeterrain.Com..
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