Oem flares or none?

[Serina]

I am on the fence wether I should go with no flares or have my oem' painted and put back on.

I removed them and the paint on the fenders is pretty crappy with large scratches and scuffs plus the holes of course.

Any suggestions to help me out?

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I monstalined the bottom 1/3rd of my doors, under where the flares go and the flares and love it, @AMMO like the flared look too when he saw my cruiser. I like the flared look, but if you have skinny tires and do trails; I'd go Flareless.

 

[Serina]

I monstalined the bottom 1/3rd of my doors, under where the flares go and the flares and love it, @AMMO like the flared look too when he saw my cruiser. I like the flared look, but if you have skinny tires and do trails; I'd go Flareless.

Pics?

 

[Kaninja]

I recently took off my flares. I love the look. My paint is a mess and my flares were in bad shape.

One option is if you plan to Monstaline, put aluminum tape over the holes then 2 coats of Monstaliner over top. Should you want to ever put flares back on you can just barely make out where the indents are for the holes. Then punch through to re-install the hardware for the flares.

Seriously though it looks better de-flared.

 

[Broski]

If you wheel De-flared or The trail will do it for you

 

[Notch]

Yeah the trail will do it for you. I have lost each flare piece more than once...I've been putting it off but it's time to start welding up holes on mine.

 

[Dave 2000]

I too am on the fence with this, the problem lies with wheels protruding, that is illegal here in Spain.

regards

Dave

 

[Broski]

Ya I keep wanting fill the hole on mine but there all ways seem to be some other Maintenance and or repair that need to done to get me back on the trail for the next run with group I hang out with.

Stuffing the 37's at Hollister

 

[Broski]

I running 37/12.50 16 on stock wheels and as you can see they don't protrude past the Body

 

[Twinair]

My tabs are broken to the point of no repair is possible. I'm looking at these

 

[JCruse]

I like the look too much to take them off. But then I dont do any heavy duty wheeling that would endanger them much. Yet anyway. But Id rather keep them. Thats what made the rig look cool and tuff back when.

 

[BloodyMGT]

Yup, on an 80 they are just $400 worth of trail damage waiting to happen. I had to fold my mirrors on an "easy" pass this weekend. I would have left some unsightly fibreglass on Medano Pass had I left them on!

 

[gummycarbs]

I find it offensive on principle that Toyota bolted fiberglass flares to these rigs. Don't get me wrong, I think they look great, but they're such a weird mish-mash of friction pins and bolts, it's just a disaster waiting to happen. The gaskets break down, the paint gets scuffed, plastic pins pop out or break, and then a couple of bolts damage the body panels when the flare finally gets caught on something.

It's a lot of work to de-flare properly. Welding, grinding, filling, sanding, and repainting. I'm pretty sure you could get away with using polyester resin and a couple layers of fiberglass cloth on the back side, then fill the top with reinforced Bondo. I doubt you'd ever see that fail in the real world.

I'm considering using some universal rubber flares like these:

My tires currently stick out at rest. These is technically illegal, but nobody over the age of 20 ever gets ticketed for it here. More importantly, as an Oregonian, I absolutely despise people who throw up huge plumes of that godawful winter road mist, is it's important that I find a way to have flares and some degree of mud flaps.

Long term, I might refinish my flares and make some slightly flexible copies that could be held on purely with adhesive. I doubt there's enough force exerted on them at road speed that modern adhesives couldn't hold them in place.

 

[Dennis Hallack]

I recently took off my flares. I love the look. My paint is a mess and my flares were in bad shape.

One option is if you plan to Monstaline, put aluminum tape over the holes then 2 coats of Monstaliner over top. Should you want to ever put flares back on you can just barely make out where the indents are for the holes. Then punch through to re-install the hardware for the flares.

Seriously though it looks better de-flared.

I'm all about the de-flared look myself.

If I were to Monstaline my de-flared 1997, what kind of aluminum foil should I use before Monstalining?

 

[Kaninja]

I'm all about the de-flared look myself.

If I were to Monstaline my de-flared 1997, what kind of aluminum foil should I use before Monstalining?

View attachment 1548049

That tape should work just fine. You basically want stuff that will hold up to temperature and have wicked adhesive which that one seems to have.

If you plan on never putting the flares back in ever, then welding the holes up would be the the fully legit way to go......or just be cheap and lazy like me and use tape.

 

[Dennis Hallack]

That tape should work just fine. You basically want stuff that will hold up to temperature and have wicked adhesive which that one seems to have.

If you plan on never putting the flares back in ever, then welding the holes up would be the the fully legit way to go......or just be cheap and lazy like me and use tape.

I'm all about cheap and lazy, too.

I've had open holes in lieu of fender flares for months now, with a nagging worry that I'm putting water inside the fenders and fostering rust. I know these things are rust magnets and mine's looking rust free - on the outside, anyway.

 

[Kaninja]

I'm all about cheap and lazy, too.

I've had open holes in lieu of fender flares for months now, with a nagging worry that I'm putting water inside the fenders and fostering rust. I know these things are rust magnets and mine's looking rust free - on the outside, anyway.

Actually for the age of these they resist rust pretty well. Having owned Datsun, Honda, and Toyota's from the 70's to early 90's I would say the 80 doesn't rust at all by comparison.

Rust was one of the reasons I removed mine. Most holes were fine but 2 on the front fenders were in bad shape and needed a lot of grinding to get to bare metal. So I am very happy I tore them off.

 

[Broski]

Welding the holes just seems like a bad idea with no way to repainted the inside it would be a perfect place for rust to start JMHO. I'm not welding mine I will dimple the holes and fill with reinforced fiberglass bondo.

 

[Dennis Hallack]

Welding the holes just seems like a bad idea with no way to repainted the inside it would be a perfect place for rust to start JMHO. I'm not welding mine I will dimple the holes and fill with reinforced fiberglass bondo.

That's good thinking.

No reason to encourage rust.

When you say dimple the holes, you mean dimpling them in, to make a depression to fill with fiberglass and bondo? That would be a way to keep the outer surface smooth, I guess.

 

[Dennis Hallack]

Welding the holes just seems like a bad idea with no way to repainted the inside it would be a perfect place for rust to start JMHO. I'm not welding mine I will dimple the holes and fill with reinforced fiberglass bondo.

That's good thinking.

No reason to encourage rust.

When you say dimple the holes, you mean dimpling them in, to make a depression to fill with fiberglass and bondo? That would be a way to keep the outer surface smooth, I guess.