Yet another post on flare removal... (1 Viewer)

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Fort Apache: Victoria
I did a search, but I couldn't find the specific answer I need...


Is it possible to remove the flares without damaging the body, but without accessing inside the rear sheet-metal?

I built my storage box, and taking it out to access inside the quarter-panels would be a huge PITA.

I know there's the little plastic clips, but there's also a metal bracket securing the rear flares, isn't there? Can that bracket be removed from the outside?
 
I don't think you're going to need to get in to the quarter panels. The nuts that hold the clips on will rattle around in there though.
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That's my quarter, there is nothing that can't be removed from the outside in the quarter area.
 
Just took mine off today. I had to get at the 10mm nuts through the panels in the rear. The left was easy through the jack cover, the right side I had to pop the trim loose to get in there. The rest was easy.
Good luck!

Randy
 
Okay, I'm clearly doing something wrong here.

I'm following my FSM, but all it says is "remove (x number) of bolts and nuts". I can access the ones at either end of each flare, but what about the ones in the middle (top) of the arch? Do you have to remove the wheel-well steel to get into the fender?

on edit: as I continued to search, I found Dan's post on removing the marker light to access the front flares (thanks Dan!), but what about the fasteners at the rear doors and the rear wheels?
 
above the rear wheel well, the bolts on the left quarter panel (don't know about the right rear quarter) are accessed by opening up the jack stowage. I would imagine that for the right side you either must remove the entire plastic quarter panel or at minimum the storage cubby. As for the bolts, the flare should slide off of these clips, not necessitating their removal. The flares do pop directly into the plastic inserts (the yellow points in chibo's post), so unpop those first, then slide the flare off of the metal bolt thingies. (After removing the bolts at the rear end of the flare first). I can only speak to the rear flares over the wheel well. Hope this helps.
 
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For the rear flares there are nuts, I believe two on both sides, that can only be reached by removing the panels on the interior of the truck. Screws that thread through the flare, into the body, and a nut that is reached from the interior of the vehicle.

If you don't mind destroying your flares and possibly causing some minor body damage (might stretch the holes a bit), you could probably just brute force rip the fenders off. It would likely tear either the screws through the fender flare, or strip the nuts off the inside. Then you could drill them out...just a thought.

Probably easier to just move the drawers around enough to pull the panels!

Good luck!
 
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Probably easier to just move the drawers around enough to pull the panels!

Good luck!

Nuts to that!

You know how it goes... you take one baby step, then another baby step.....


and before you know it you've passed the point of no return.....
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More step-by-step later. I'm going to take the truck up to work so I can grind a bit, and drill out the brackets. Then a little primer and off to the Line-X guy next week.

BTW, I LOVE the flareless look, especially from behind. It immediately loses the remnants of its mall-cruiser bloatedness.
 
The rivets in the rear doors that hold those brackets on are very simple to get off. I used a drill to drill the heads/spin the heads off those rivets, and the brackets popped right off. As far as my rear panels, I took off the jack storage door, reached in with a small socket and got out the nut on the back side. The whole process of removing my flares took less than 30 minutes, and it was simple.

The brackets look alot harder to remove than they are.
 
The rivets in the rear doors that hold those brackets on are very simple to get off. I used a drill to drill the heads/spin the heads off those rivets, and the brackets popped right off. As far as my rear panels, I took off the jack storage door, reached in with a small socket and got out the nut on the back side. The whole process of removing my flares took less than 30 minutes, and it was simple.

The brackets look alot harder to remove than they are.

Yeah, it was pretty easy after all. Just a matter of brute force melded with reckless abandon.

I'm all done and I've marked-off the area to be bedlined. Taking it in to Line-X on Wednesday.
 
Pretty good, IMO. What do you guys think?

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By the looks of yer west coast pinstripes maybe you should have done up to the drip-rails:D
 
By the looks of yer west coast pinstripes maybe you should have done up to the drip-rails:D

Funny you mention that, but I'm seriously thinking of doing an all-over covering. I thought it might look cool done up to the drip-rails, with a white roof a-la the 40 series.

I don't think I have too many cut-polishes left in that paint; when it gets too wrecked to buff, I'll probably do a Dan Kunz.

It would be a shame to spray over my kick-ass "Twin-Cam 4500i" stickers though:grinpimp:
 
How did it work out around your doors for clearance?
When I line-xed my truck box the aready perfect tailgate fit became a real bitch after the 3/16 ths of line-x was applied.
 
Thanks, I've been wondering what my green LX would look like with the black stuff...and I've got similar pin stripping.
 
How did it work out around your doors for clearance?
When I line-xed my truck box the aready perfect tailgate fit became a real bitch after the 3/16 ths of line-x was applied.

It is very close but everything opens/closes flawlessly.

The tolerances are so tight, though, that when I was hung-up on a huge boulder (see rocker panel in first photo :( ), when I opened the door to look out, the liner wore off a little, just because of the tightness between the leading edge of the door and the front fender. Jut that small amount of body flexcaused some rubbing. Nice thing about liner is a little epoxy mixed with some Testor's enamel paint is the perfect patch-job.
 
With that pinstriped green I would have gone up to the factory pin stripe.. :D But as it is now that is an interesting line that was chosen, a couple of inches above the sheet metal grooves on the door.

Yeah, I went that high for two reasons - first of all that's the widest part of the truck, and secondly because If you look at trucks with a lower line-x "waistline" the arches around the wheels don't actually follow the curve of the wheel-arch. They have to "bulge out" a bit to follow the shape of the flares. Raising the "hem-line" means that the line-x more accurately follows the curve of the wheel arches. Stupid little thing, but I think it looks better.
 
I know this is an old thread, but am doing a ton of searching, have a FSM and am still unclear as to getting off the front fender flares...

Luckily, a pine tree yanked one off this weekend, but I'm left with the DS flare and detaching the hardware left behind by the front passenger side flare.

Any tips from the old thread contributors??
 

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