Rotted Out Rear Jeep Cherokee Flares Replaced With Jeep Pickup Rear Fender Flares

[ghcoe]

So, we know that rear Cherokee fender flare rot out. We know that these parts are no longer available. We also know that the Jeep Pickup used a very similar fender flare. Although it looks the same on the outside it is the inside that is totally different. The pickup is a single wall flare that extends to the wheel well, unlike the Cherokee which has a double walled flare. The flare itself stops at the quarter panel, and the inner wall flows into the wheel well. Why Jeep decided to make the Cherokee flare so much more complex? I don't know.

Since the Jeep Pickup used a single sheet of metal to make the rear fender flare you can often find good flares on rotting Jeep pickup beds. The flares were made right while the beds... well you know, like the Cherokee rear flares the beds rot out.

I manage to score some pickup rear fender flares that where in great shape a few years ago and they have been sitting around while I tried to figure out what I was going to do with them. Thinking that I could just do them myself I started to look at the situation and then though better of it. I knew the Cherokee was double walled, but it looked way more complicated than what I was comfortable with, so they sat in the storage shed.

At one point I did find a body shop that would do them for me for a good price. But, by time I got the money together to have them done they had retired and closed shop. Big bummer...

Again, a couple years ago I had another body shop that would do the repairs, but they wanted to paint the whole vehicle at the same time which bumped the price up beyond what I could afford so again it was put off.

Fast forward to earlier this year and the Cherokee had an engine fire. Well, there you have it. Time to get the Jeep repainted, but I need to get those fender flares taken care of. I called around for bids and no one would take on replacing the fenders. With no factory type replacements on the market, they considered anything grafted on as "custom" and would not touch it.

Calling the shop that previously said they would do it we were in! Except for them to do the work now with the extra engine bay cleanup and paint it was driving the cost too high again. He did however say that if I replaced the fender flares myself he could keep the rest of the work within budget.

So here I am again where I started and gosh darn it I am going to do it one way of another at this point. What do I have to loose.

Over the years I have looked online on how to do this conversion. Quite frankly I found very little information. Oh, sure there was the "I did it!" post and the "I think it will work" post and the "I tried and it did'nt work out" post. I could never find a how to thread. I got bits and pieces here and there, enough information to start putting a plan together.

So here I am going into the unknown and hope I have a successful thread here to document on how to do this, or how not to do this, or don't you dare even think about doing this... you have been warned!

Stay tuned!

[ghcoe]

The first thing I decided to do was to learn how to remove spot welds. Didn't look too complicated. You could just drill them out and leave a hole, or you could use a spot weld removal tool, that sounds expensive... There are some expensive spot weld removal tools out there for sure, but then I watch a guy use these.

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It did not look too complicated, so I decided to give them a try since the kit was only $16.00.

So, the kit arrived earlier this week and I decided to practice on the jeep pickup rear fender flairs first. When I had got the flairs, I used a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade to cut the flares out of the pickup bed. I needed to separate what was left of the pickup bed from the flares so this would be a perfect test and good practice.

This is what I started with.

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To use the spot weld removal tool, you find the spot weld and then use a punch and knock a divot in the center of it. Then chuck the spot weld removal tool into a drill. The tool has a spring-loaded center point that you put into the divot you made. Then you press down and start the cut. Start slow then once the cutter has created a bit of a groove you can start speeding up and apply more pressure to the tool.

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I was a bit skeptical that these would work well, but I was surprised. They worked great!

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I did all the spot welds with just one cutter. I figured I would break a bunch of cutters trying to figure them out. The first cutter is still sharp and ready to take on the other fender tomorrow. The nice thing about using these cutters is that you don't make a hole in the metal that you are trying to save.

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[tgreese]

Seems a shame to destroy a good truck bed for repairs on another vehicle. Typically the beds are the part that most often is hammered from use. You could imagine some cases where the rest of the truck is not worth saving but the flares are ok. Kinda think this would be a rare occurrence today.

I would point out - AMC upgraded these bed in 1973 from single wall to double wall. The back end of J-trucks changed too, going to the narrow rectangular tail lights and wider tailgate with a center latch instead of chains. These trucks were never big sellers, and I'm sure Kaiser sold even fewer of them annually than AMC.

Seems to me you are more likely to find a junked bed from these later trucks, since AMC grew Jeep Corp a lot, and the addition of the inner wall made them rust out faster than the earlier examples. I recall they added drain holes, and the inner wall was simply added to the inside of the bed, without changing the existing structure of the fender. The additional layer of steel does not seem like much of an obstacle to a sawzall, though you'd need to drill out another row of spot welds, or just cut between the inner and outer wall.

Like the WT Cherokee, the back end of the fender seems to rot faster than the front. I'd wonder if you could find enough properly-folded steel to rebuild your existing flares from one or more rusty J-trucks. Use the fronts of the rights for the backs of the lefts, and vice-versa.

[ghcoe]

Seems a shame to destroy a good truck bed for repairs on another vehicle. Typically the beds are the part that most often is hammered from use. You could imagine some cases where the rest of the truck is not worth saving but the flares are ok. Kinda think this would be a rare occurrence today.

I would point out - AMC upgraded these bed in 1973 from single wall to double wall. The back end of J-trucks changed too, going to the narrow rectangular tail lights and wider tailgate with a center latch instead of chains. These trucks were never big sellers, and I'm sure Kaiser sold even fewer of them annually than AMC.

Seems to me you are more likely to find a junked bed from these later trucks, since AMC grew Jeep Corp a lot, and the addition of the inner wall made them rust out faster than the earlier examples. I recall they added drain holes, and the inner wall was simply added to the inside of the bed, without changing the existing structure of the fender. The additional layer of steel does not seem like much of an obstacle to a sawzall, though you'd need to drill out another row of spot welds, or just cut between the inner and outer wall.

Like the WT Cherokee, the back end of the fender seems to rot faster than the front. I'd wonder if you could find enough properly-folded steel to rebuild your existing flares from one or more rusty J-trucks. Use the fronts of the rights for the backs of the lefts, and vice-versa.

I am here in Idaho so there are a few salvage yards that I know of that have some old Jeep Pickups in them. I just happened to be a in a high-volume salvage yard when I found these. It was a '66 with a 327 in it. I wish I had the money and place to put more parts since it had some goodies on it. It had a 327 in it and while I was looking at the motor I saw that it had been rebuilt at some point. It had all the rebuilt specs neatly stamped into the front of the block. It also had a long bed wrap around bumper. The bed was probably better than most I had seen, but still had the typical rust where the floor meets the sidewall.

It seem that I did hear that some flares where different. I think that may be where there is some conflicting reports that they do not work. good info to know. Maybe someone could confirm if there were some other changes to the flares other than just going to double wall. The '66 was just the first pickup that presented itself to me for flare salvage.

In all actuality my flares are pretty much all gone. You still have to do something with the inner wheel well even just doing partial replacements. This could be a good write up if someone just had rust in the lower areas. I think the front fenders could be good candidates for patches for sure.

Well back out to cut some more spot welds.

[tgreese]

Cool - In your place, I'd cut the J-truck bed for replacement flares.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=flare+vs+flair

I used to visit Orange County and I-10 Corridor yards a lot when my parents were still with us. Lots of pick-and-pulls on the I-10, with a surprising variety of cars. Once a car went into a pick-and-pull, it only came out as parts or scrap. May as well take what you find.

[ghcoe]

Cool - In your place, I'd cut the J-truck bed for replacement flares.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=flare+vs+flair

I used to visit Orange County and I-10 Corridor yards a lot when my parents were still with us. Lots of pick-and-pulls on the I-10, with a surprising variety of cars. Once a car went into a pick-and-pull, it only came out as parts or scrap. May as well take what you find.

True that!

Stupid Webster...

[ghcoe]

After getting all the spot welds dut out I ground down the buttons with a grinding wheel on my angle grinder.

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Making sure nothing was left proud where the panels will come together.

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Then I coated the fenders front and back with Ospho rust converter.

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This will convert the rust, so I don't have to deal with that as much when I do the sanding.

[SJohn]

Following as I need to do the same on my Cherokee, though I don't have any replacement flares yet. If anyone has a truck bed they want to cut up, I'm in need of some flares!

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

[rocklaurence]

I once sold a set of Cherokee rear flares for $1400 on Ebay. I only paid $900 for the complete vehicle. Those Fenders are Gold! Gold I tell ya! Sinefeld reference....

[threepiece]

There remains a great deal of misunderstanding surrounding the truck/Cherokee flair. Here is my belief on the matter. It is derived from replacing the flairs on a 1979 Cherokee with flairs from a 1966 J truck and and forty years of collecting, restoring and driving FSJ’s.

Jeeps creation of the Widetrack Cherokee was rather brilliant. They created a new body with a much sportier look with very minimal cost. By simply trimming the wheel opening of the two door Cherokee space was made for the rear flair from the truck. The only expensive stamping tool that was needed was a new outer wheel house. A very clever strategy if I may say.

It is this new outer wheel house that is responsible for the “double wall flair” confusion. The four door and two door SJ models also have this outer wheel house, it is simply shaped differently. A new outer wheel house shape was needed so it could be attached to the flair that is now several inches farther outboard. The part many call the inner flair is actually the outer wheel house, a part that has been on the SJ body from the beginning.

[threepiece]

I hope you marked the flairs right and left sides. They are different and won’t fit properly if they are switched. Also when fitting the flair pay little attention to the spot weld locations that are in the truck flairs. The shape of the Cherokee and truck bed bodyside panels are different, especially near the bottom. I believe the bottom of the Cherokee body curves inward near the bottom more than the J truck. The spot welds on the flair should be showing in this area when the flair is fitted properly.

[ghcoe]

I hope you marked the flairs right and left sides. They are different and won’t fit properly if they are switched. Also when fitting the flair pay little attention to the spot weld locations that are in the truck flairs. The shape of the Cherokee and truck bed bodyside panels are different, especially near the bottom. I believe the bottom of the Cherokee body curves inward near the bottom more than the J truck. The spot welds on the flair should be showing in this area when the flair is fitted properly.

I did not mark the fenders when I removed them. I really didn't even think about it then.

At one point I noticed a 1/2" hole drilled into one side of the wheel well. I was thinking that the rocker panel clean out hole in the Cherokee was in the same place and it would be easy to get the fenders on the proper side using that theory. However, once I got the fenders separated from the pickup sidewalls, I noticed that the fenders appeared to be mirrored and the holes where on the opposite edge. So, the 1/2" hole would be towards the front on one side and towards the back on the other side on a pickup. If someone has a pickup maybe they could clarify for us which side is the hole facing forward and which side is facing towards the back. In actuality, if this is the case, I think only one fender was produced and just flipped for the other side. Why they would put a 1/2" hole there I don't know. On the Cherokee there is a plug there that allows access to the rocker panel area. I assume it is for cleaning out the rocker panel void of mud and dirt. One the pickup? seems weird that the holes would be opposite of each other. It would make sense that they would just stamp one fender and flip if for the other side. Would cut costs for manufacturing.

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[tgreese]

The rear fender for a Townside was available as a repair part, according to the '74-80 parts book. They are the same, left and right, PN 957183, two required. Group 31.040-1. This is a '60s era part number.

Also listed in the '62-73 book with the same part number; a line each for right and left, with the same part number for both.

[ghcoe]

The rear fender for a Townside was available as a repair part, according to the '74-80 parts book. They are the same, left and right, PN 957183, two required. Group 31.040-1. This is a '60s era part number.

Also listed in the '62-73 book with the same part number; a line each for right and left, with the same part number for both.

Good info! Thanks!

When I saw that the hole was in the same place, I figured they were just mirrored.

[threepiece]

The rear fender for a Townside was available as a repair part, according to the '74-80 parts book. They are the same, left and right, PN 957183, two required. Group 31.040-1. This is a '60s era part number.

Also listed in the '62-73 book with the same part number; a line each for right and left, with the same part number for both.

Well this is curious. When I did this same flair swap I recall having trouble fitting the flairs at first. It was then that I switched sides and was able to get a proper fit. I also recall looking for the difference and discovered a very slight change in the shape between the front and rear portions of the flair that accounted for the misfit condition.

[ghcoe]

Well this is curious. When I did this same flair swap I recall having trouble fitting the flairs at first. It was then that I switched sides and was able to get a proper fit. I also recall looking for the difference and discovered a very slight change in the shape between the front and rear portions of the flair that accounted for the misfit condition.

I did notice that the spot weld pattern is a bit different on the forward and rearward sides of the flare. Maybe the spot welds created a difference in how the flares fitted up to the sheet metal and worked better one way over the other?

[ghcoe]

I was working on the flares over the Holidays, and I found that a easy way to tell what the front edge of the fender is by how much rock damage to the paint there is. If there is a lot of rock chips that is probably the front edge. At this point however, I don't really think it matters what way they go on since they are mirrored. The spot weld locations are different though.

[ghcoe]

The first thing I did was cut off the fender flare about a 1/2' out from the quarter panel.

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Then I cut the wheel house back so I could get to the spot welds.

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[ghcoe]

Once the wheelhouse was cut back past the quarter panel flange, I was able to use a spot weld cutter.

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This area here was the interesting challenge. This is where the outside flare, inside wheelhouse and end of rocker panel all come together. Needless to say, at this location there are 3 layers of sheet metal basically flat on top of each other. The wheelhouse and the outside flare are spot welded to all together here. Talk about a moisture trap! I am totally surprised this inner layer was not rusted through or even pitted. I had to use a grinder to thin out the metal and then use a pair of pliers to pull the thinned metal off the spot welds. Once I got the sheet metal removed, I was able to grind down the spot welds. I went slow so as not to damage this part.

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[ghcoe]

I first tried to cut reliefs in the wheelhouse to allow for the pickup fender to push up on them as I tried to get the flare to butt up to the quarter panel. There was however too much differences in the wheelhouse designs for this to work.

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I was able to get it to about 3/4"-1" in place. You can tell in the picture that the corner radius points were the big issue. The rear radius being the worst of the two. I cut bigger reliefs, but there is just not enough room in there to install the fender this way.

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So I had to go with option two. I marked out the best I could the inside edge of the pickup wheelhouse onto the Cherokee wheelhouse and cut it out. I was close, but still had some big gaps here and there. Not too worried about it since it will all be covered with some sheet metal later.

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One thing I will note here for others. If you get fenders from a pickup, try and get more of the wheelhouse than I did. If you notice in the above picture, you can see the seam where the inside and outside parts of the Cherokee wheelhouse come together. It would be better, I think, if you can get enough of the pickup wheelhouse to match up with that seam closer than this.

The pickup flare comes down below the bed similar to how the Cherokee comes down below the floor. I have found that the Cherokee and Pickup are the same in this area. If you follow along the inside edge of the fare that hangs down here it will meet up to the wheelhouse and that is where the seam starts on the Cherokee in the front and back. The other fender I have I think has enough metal to do this, Pictured below with a black line showing the cut line if you have enough metal.

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