Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum banner

Trimmed my OEM flares. Mini Flares!

10K views 25 replies 17 participants last post by  Ccarr98 
#1 · (Edited)
I buddy of mine installed some Bushwhackers so I nabbed his takeoffs which were pretty brutally handled by the shop. Decided to try something.


Used tape to line my cut. I didnt think it would stay well so I had a gold Sharpie and just outlined my line in case it fell off. Tape actually never fell off so the sharpie was just pointless lol




Just used a Dremel with Plastic cutoff wheel.. Looks gnarly but as you know the melted plastic bits just chip off later. You can also see the stuff that liked to get stuck above the cutting wheel. Had to peel that off every now and then. The internal gussets are only really attached at the edges for maybe 1/2". I pretty much just tore them apart after I made the cut. You can go in and clean up the little tabs they leave pretty easily.





I just scraped the edges to 'deburr' and sanded them a little. I still havent really finish sanded with a block. I have a belt sander but it doesnt like to keep the belt centered well. Will tackle that soon. I may try some heat on my scrap flare pieces to see if I can melt the edges smoother. (EDIT: dont bother smoothing much. Just use door-edge guard to cover)

FYI the OEM rocker plastic holds a TON of debris. I bet you anything in ten years we are going to be seeing them rust out down low..



I am overall happy. I am going to fab up some mud flaps. Downside to this mod is it leaves the front of the rear bumper open to catch debris.



Front mudflap area.



some pics

Added 'door edge guard' and some generic mud flaps to finish it all off.










No more holding dirt and mud!





 
See less See more
11
#3 ·
I wondered if anyone had tried this before because it seems like a good compromise between removal and getting rid of the mud-catching properties they have. Good job!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: iwashmycar
#4 ·
Looks real good
 
  • Like
Reactions: iwashmycar
#7 ·
Jeep guys do this mod all the time. It turned out nice. Good job. I too worried about debris building up under all the dam plastic. I want to take it all off and bed line all the exposed areas.
Again, nice job, thanks for sharing.
 
#11 ·
Yeah on anything but a black truck you would see a LOT of body color.

I made a template that I can use for a mud flap to cover that body metal that makes it rather clean. I just have to find the right material.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FJ Cruiser Matt
#10 ·
I always wondered why someone didn't come up with a compromise between the full removal, which I think looks great. I was always concerned about the exposure it left not having any protection on the thin sheet metal as is. This is a good balance. Nice job. Time to look for cheap spares to test this with!
 
#14 · (Edited)
Looks great. I forgot to mention the rubber trim. Glad to see you found it. Looks LEGIT!!! Thanks for sharing and daring to be different.

From the above pics I dare say it looks like iwashmycar just washed his car. Dam(n) that thing is shiny!! Looks great.
 
#16 ·
Yeah I wasnt sure about it, but I saw a bunch of examples when the Tacoma guys trim their flares for 35s and it made sense.

I havent washed the thing in a week or two lol. Working from home has its perks. :lol:
 
  • Like
Reactions: ONIPATHFINDER
#22 ·
Thanks. It is a great way to use the cut OEM flares. I actually cut my pristine OEM ones at the front (as you would do for Whackers) anyway since I needed to separate them from my rockers after trimming the donor flares. I did not want to do a whole nother front set just to retain that connection point. The connection point would be pretty tiny there anyway so it isnt a biggie.

FYI - best way to make that cut it to take the flare and front rocker extension off as one piece and Dremel it at the corner FROM BEHIND... If you Dremel most all the way though you can actually just break the two apart cleanly.

Pic for reference:

 
#23 ·
Update. These things are awesome. I finally made it out to get them dirty yesterday and cleanup was effortless this morning. Way easy to spray the wells out. Also really still did the job of keeping most of the sides clean all day!

Was pretty wet out...was a good bit of mud elsewhere.

 
  • Like
Reactions: eab0162
#25 ·
Looks great, thanks for posting this. I may be doing this some day. It's funny, I was looking at my flairs the other day thinking they would look good trimmed like this and, what do you know, its been done and nicely documented!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top