Extended Fender Flares

When I bought my CJ-5, there weren't many choices for aftermarket fender flares. However, there are currently a number of manufacturers making them; Bushwacker, Warn, Rock Crusher, Bestop, and Xenon to name a few. Of those, only a few are making extended flares and only one is making "cut out" flares. The same company also offers "Pocket" flares. "Cut out" flares actually allow you to enlarge the wheel opening in the Jeep body letting you run larger tires with less lift and "Pocket" flares give them a much more rugged appearance by not hiding the mounting hardware. I wanted extended, "pocket", "cut out" flares and that left me with a single choice of manufacturers, Bushwacker.

I did a little bit of research on them and found that while most vendors say the Bushwacker pocket flares will fit a CJ-5, Bushwacker does not actually recommend them. I believe that it has something to do with the rear fenders interfering with the side marker lights on the shorter CJ-5 versus a CJ-6, CJ-7, or CJ-8. Of course, I don't know if every CJ-5 owner will have rear side marker clearance problems with the oversized Bushwacker flares. Since I have a fiberglass body and had to position my own side markers, they may not exactly be in their stock location. Even so, I had a few different suppliers tell me I would experience the problem.

For me, this was not a problem since I had mounted the gas filler on the passenger side of the CJ-5 tub. I don't know why I originally did it that way ... perhaps just to be a little different. Unfortunately, I realized that I would have to move it to make room for the new, oversized flares. So, I didn't mind having to relocate the side markers since I was already in for the long haul with my misplaced gas filler opening.

I went ahead and purchased the Bushwacker cutout pocket flares and set them aside since I knew I would have to paint the Jeep after relocating the side markers and fuel filler. On top of that, I have been waiting on the paint until I could find a hardtop. Now that finally have a fiberglass ACME hardtop restored and painted, I could move on to the CJ-5 tub and do the necessary patchwork.

I really don't want to spend too much time describing how I relocated my fuel filler since you will unlikely have to do the same. Even so, it wasn't that difficult. I decided where the fenders would be mounted and temporarily attached them with a couple of screws allowing me to find a new home for the fuel filler. You can see in the photos how much the larger fenders were really going to overlap the filler in its existing position. In fact, I had to relocate my rear side markers as well.

After determining where the filler and side markers needed to be, I drew a black line showing where the filler hole needed to be and cut it out with a jig saw. I was then able to take the "L" shaped cutout, rotate it 180 degrees and use it to fill in the gap created by moving the filler up and to the left. I temporarily held it in place by gluing some popsicle sticks to the back side and clamping it in place until everything dried.

Once dry, I used some Evercoat fiberglass resin and woven cloth to permanently repair the filler and side marker holes. I cut the cloth into thin strips, soaked them in resin/hardener mix, and squeezed them into the tiny space between the Jeep body and "L" piece I previously glued in the opening. Once the gaps were filled, I used some wider pieces of resin soaked cloth and laid them over the repair area.

After everything had hardened, I was able to sand everything down and begin the finishing processes. I started by applying a liberal coat of Evercoat Everglass to the entire area. Everglass dries in 20 minutes and I was able to sand it all down smooth. I took a few other steps to prepare the area for final painting that I won't discuss here. If you are interested in the entire process, check out the Amber Fire Pearlcoat Paint page.

In fact, the new fenders are so oversized that I could actually mount them OVER the existing flares with absolutely no interference. I decided where they should go and used a Sharpie permanent ink marker to outline their shape on to the Jeep body. I wasn't worried about the ink since I would be completely repainting the entire Jeep in the near future.

The next step was to drill the mounting holes. The Bushwacker flares came with self-tapping screws with cheesy plastic caps. I didn't like the way they looked and determined to use something else. I chose the pocket flares because I liked the aggressive style. To help accentuate that, I decided to mount them using stainless steel 5/16" button head screws.

I also decided to install rivnuts where the screws would mount to the body. This is an unnecessary step; however, it will make frequent removal and installation very easy. Once the hole locations were determined I drilled them out to accept the rivnuts.

In case you're not familiar with rivnuts, they install just like pop rivets; however, their centers are threaded to accept screws. I included two different types in the picture to the bottom right. The rivnut pictured on top works just like a pop rivet; it compresses and pinches the front and back surfaces together. The bottom version is quite different; once tightened, the bottom portion breaks free and sucks up into the top portion putting all of the pressure on the inside walls of the hole. In this case, I decided to use the former version since I was dealing with a thinner body panel. However, when I installed rivnuts along the top of the tub to mount the soft top hardware, I used the latter version since there was a lot of fiberglass material to deal with.

I have a hand tool to install rivnuts up to 1/4"-20 in size; unfortunately, 5/16" is starting to get beefy. Larger tools are available but, they run from $80 and up so I had to come up with an alternative solution. I found the best method to install them was to use a grade 8 bolt and nut in combination with a piece of steel flat stock with a clearance hole drilled in it. I threaded the nut on to the bolt and fed the bolt through the flat stock. Then, I could screw the rivnut on to the exposed end of the bolt and slide the assembly into the hole in the Jeep body. By using a wrench on the bolt head to keep it in place and a ratcheting wrench on the nut, I could in essence draw the rivnut into the steel plate thereby compressing it to lock it into place. This method definitely isn't as fast as using the right tool; however, I got the whole process down to approximately 30 seconds once I got into the swing of things. NOTE: I wasn't worried about potential scratches to the Jeep body since I would be painting soon. If you're worried about scratching your paint, you made be able to back with steel plate with a piece of rubber trim or even some thick cardstock.

Once all of the rivnuts were done, I installed the fender flares for one last trimming. In some ways, I was limited to just how far I could trim back the fender opening. I could only trim the rear edge of the front fenders back to where it met in the inner fender well. I could only trim the front edge of the rear fenders up to where it met the inner Jeep tub. In addition, I suppose I really could have cut out the inner front fender wheels if I wanted to further expand the wheel openings. However, they help keep mud and road debris from entering the engine compartment and I didn't see it as worth the effort. The rear openings, on the other hand, couldn't be taken any further; there is no practical way to rework the Jeep tub and front seating.

You can really see from the pics at the right how much more protection these new flares provide. The difference is quite noticeable. The extended flares were the final project holding up paint and I was very glad to have it done. I prepped the entire Jeep and painted it Amber Fire Pearlcoat. Once everything had cured, I installed the rubber trim that was included with the fenders. I don't think that it serves any purpose other than help minimize body scratches. The final job looks quite nice and I would highly recommend it you are running WIDE tires. You will likely not have to move your gas tank filler like I did; however, you MAY have to adjust your rear side markers depending on their current location. Also, you don't have to use rivnuts at the screw mounting points. If you don't have to bother with those steps, you could easily install these in an afternoon or too.