LJ 70 fender flares - Worth switching back to OEM ? (1 Viewer)

[peakbagger]

I just posted my intro thread so now to questions. The new LJ is remarkably rust free but will not be unless I do some clean up. The fenders are drilled for factory fender flares and it looks like the rear flare mounts were used at one point. As delivered to me are some aftermarket screw on flares. They look okay but are just secured with a couple sheetmetal screws in the finder lip. No rust yet but if a salt truck gets within a mile I expect the flares may end up in ditch once the screw holes rot out. I will in the short term touch things up with POR but in my mind the preferred alternative is to go back to factory flares with factory mounts with some proper rust preventative work.

So my question is, is the right way to go? I don't plan to install larger tires. I see several foreign sources of claimed OEM Toyota Fender "extensions" with a wide a variety of prices.

 

[peakbagger]

I guess this is not a hot topic. I decided to swap back to the OEM flares. All the mounting hardware is still available offshore and the flares have multiple sources (and prices) for OEM. A lot less money than Unimog parts but still pricey as I expect they are regarded as crash parts.

 

[JuanJ]

Hello,

Fender flares are deemed as rust magnets by many, and therefore avoided like the plague.

OEM fender flares attach to mounts (in the body) using bolts. The mounts are riveted to the body, not screwed. If your mounts are riveted, then they are OEM.

You should go the OEM way, especially if you have the mounts.

It is good practice to remove them once or twice a year, clean them thoroughly, and spray some oil on the inside. Before putting them back, you can clean the fenders and check for rust.

Hope this helps.





Juan

 

[peakbagger]

Thanks for the confirmation. The body is alread drilled for the flares and the mounts are on order. I owned a GMC Syclone with flares and the rust spots that formed between the body and the flares was one of the reasons I elected to sell it after 4 years.

 

[jmylie]

While this is a bit late, could you not have switched out the screws with plastic automotive fasteners?

Some Corroseal in the holes and then plastic fasteners to hold the flares.

 

[peakbagger]

While this is a bit late, could you not have switched out the screws with plastic automotive fasteners?

Some Corroseal in the holes and then plastic fasteners to hold the flares.

Sorry for the confusion, I did not drill the body. When I took off the cheap flares the factory holes were already drilled. The cheap flares looked okay but they basically held the flare in place and drilled and many of the drill locations were right on the edge of body. They used zinc sheet metal screws and I can see bare metal in all the holes.

When the new hardware comes, I will take a good look at the factory coating and possibly blast it off and recoat it with POR and will probably add some paint on the body where its hidden by the new flares. I will also look at the hardware is attached to the body. My experience with my Syclone was the rust started by grit getting between the flare and the body and wearing a hole through the paint. I talked to several folks and they suggest running a bead of silicon between the flare and body when its installed so grit can not get in there to begin with. I dont see this as winter truck. The body would have to come off the frame and I would need to beef up the coating system as the original Toyota paint is pretty thin.

 

[peakbagger]

The adventure begins, after a few expensive shipping bills from UAE and Japan, I have a complete set of OEM fender extensions (AKA flares), rubber flaps to fit them , and bags of Toyota mounting hardware. The plan is remove interior trim in the rear to get at the other side of the OEM holes, prep the existing paint inside and out and then give both sides a coat of POR. I will probably give the Toyota brackets a light blast with some glass bead and then dip them in POR. Then rivet them on with the stainless rivets and then coat the rivets inside and out with more POR. I need to take a look if I can get at the inside of the front fender holes but hopefully will use the same approach out front. I will get stainless hardware for the screws that hold the flares top the brackets.

I am not planning to repaint the entire vehicle for now but will paint the fender lips where the flares will cover.

Given the amount of projects in the yard, its going to take awhile but nothing was going to happen until I had all the parts in hand.

 

[Honger]

Gonna need pics... would love to see a good write-up on installing OEM flares.

 

[peakbagger]

That is the plan. Of course this LJ had flares so all the holes are there.

 

[FJ73Texas]

@DamoPeru has a good write up for adding oem flares to a troopy. I think the flaps he got for the rear are the ones I need to work with my set up. He shared with me in excel file the parts listing for adding oem flares and flaps on both front and rear. Very helpful.

Warning: total price to do this is not for the faint of heart either, OEM flares, flaps and all the small bits and pieces. Personally I am just in search of the correct rear flaps.

Link to thread: OEM flares and mudflaps

 

[peakbagger]

So time to install some flares on the driver side. I am holding off on the passenger side for now but taking good notes. Prep work was to blast all the clips to get some rough texture and dip all the clips in POR. I then had to chase the threads of the clips with weld nuts after the POR set overnight. The contact areas were also coated with POR after light sanding inside and out. The pop rivets are stainless. I used stainless backing washers on the inside of the wheel well. The plan is that I am going to coat the clips and the rivets with POR inside and out now that they are installed. I have found with POR that if two coated surfaces are put together during a cure they tend to bond together.

My guess is the old flares were removed recently as the inside of the fender well did not have any of the clay that the rest of the underbody was coated with. You will note that I am missing some clips. The EPC sketches are confusing and some of the clip locations are not shown clearly. The net result in this some cases I need to order 4 clips with the same part number (for each side instead of 1).

I got the hardware ordered correctly on the front flares but as you can see the front most clip was not installed. Despite ordering the correct clip per the EPC, the clips shipped in the official Toyota parts bags are not the correct piece. The EPC shows a sketch with a dimension of the part and it does not match the part sent. Looking at the EPC they show an exposed hole in the front flare similar to the rear flare. This might fit the clip shown in the EPC put not the one they sent. The genuine Toyota flare marked with the part number from the EPC does not have this hole and the molded cavity in the back of the flare would not accept either. Looks like I get to make a custom clip and drill a few more holes in the fender. The front holes in the fender are smaller so I used a smaller stainless rivet with backup washer on the front as the clip holes are larger. As you can see one of the washers distorted and popped off but the rivet is still tight. I did not have ready access to the back of the fender so no backup washers out back.

So time to order some clips and then start fabricating a custom clip for the front flares, so expect it will be few weeks before the next post.

 

[peakbagger]

Well the flares are done after a few months of delays. I also have the factory mud flaps but they will wait until spring.

As for parts sources I bought most from the UAE but needed to source the front flares from Japan as they were out of stock in UAE (more on the front flares later). The only no longer available parts are the front lip seals which fit on the lip of the flare and seal to the body. I have the correct seals on the rear but for now I have a non OEM seal left over from the non OEM flares. They work but have more potential to trap dirt. The factory lip seals have a thin contact area like the edge of windshield wiper, far less prone to trapping grit. Note A repaint is in the future but the old paint shows a distinct rub line where the lip seals rode so they still need cleaning. I ordered a set of the rear lip seals for the front flares to be installed later since the vehicle will be parked over the winter.

For anyone contemplating this be aware that using the EPC is not easy. The two part diagrams for front and rear use different approaches. The front diagram is superior while the rear diagram takes some short cuts. It took me a second round to fill in the missing parts. Unlike the front diagram they have symbols in some places without showing hardware. Count the symbols not the hardware.

The other big issue is that the front flares do not fit as well the rear ones. The numbers are right to the EPC but Toyota must have changed the stamping dies for the fenders. Looking at photos of other LJs with factory flares they show the big round mounting hole that is present on the rear flare on the front of the front flare. The flares I got from Japan with the correct part number do not have this hole and the underlying mounting bracket fro this location is completely different along with holes drilled in the fender sheetmetal. Its close but I did need to file down the front lip and use a different bracket. There is also a wider gap between the flare and body at about 3/4s back. There are locating brackets and mounting brackets that hold the flare on. Although the mounting bracket has some slop, the locating brackets do not so the gap is there. I could build up the lip in this area and then file it back in but for now it will sit. Note photos of other LJS with factory flares show the round hole and a slightly different profile at the front of the flare so there are two versions. Given the freight costs to get two flares shipped, I elected not to try to return them but caveat emptor.

I just rolled two coats of catalyzed poly on them for now but expect when I do a repaint they will get shot along with the rest of the body.

 

[chrisspaulding]

Real great work on an expensive and challenging project. Having said that, I hate to say this... I think you got the wrong front fenders. Those aren’t the ones for the early LJs... that’s why they don’t fit correctly.
what part numbers do you have for those.... those look like BJ/HZJ flares. The correct flares will match the contour of the fender.

 

[FJ73Texas]

OEM fender flares attach to mounts (in the body) using bolts. The mounts are riveted to the body, not screwed. If your mounts are riveted, then they are OEM.

I am in the middle of doing some work on my OEM flares and cleaning the best I can underneath (no rust issues thankfully). I am finding that in some places, rivets are used instead of bolts to attach the flare to the mount. I have to drill out the rivet carefully before removing the flare and re-tap the mount to accept a factory M6X1.0 bolt instead. Not sure why it is done this way as I expected all bolts for flare to mount attachment.

 

[JuanJ]

Hello,

Some mechanics prefer rivets to bolts.

Why they do that is something I cannot understand.






Juan

 

[FJ73Texas]

Hello,

Some mechanics prefer rivets to bolts.

Why they do that is something I cannot understand

Juan

It appeared to all be factory installation with a combination of bolts and rivets between the flare and brackets (not talking about the rivets to the body) but no way to tell after all these years. Carefully drilling out the rivets was the only way to remove the flares and I won't be using rivets to secure the flares back on.

 

[TonyP]

It appeared to all be factory installation with a combination of bolts and rivets between the flare and brackets (not talking about the rivets to the body) but no way to tell after all these years. Carefully drilling out the rivets was the only way to remove the flares and I won't be using rivets to secure the flares back on.

Yup, rivets are on the parts breakdown and what came in my kit from Dave for my flares. It was a ton of little brackets, rivets and fasteners. Seemed weird to me too.