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home-made splashguard mod

james t

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City, State
Texarkana AR/TX
Year, Model & Trim Level
94 SAS sport
well, i was gonna wait until i had them finished and on the truck, but its taking longer than planned... and i can wait no longer. i wanted some of the EE splashguards, but they dont sell them anymore. so, instead, i modified my stockers. this is an early pic, and ive already got this one sanded/smoothed out and ready to paint. any thoughts? they extend down 1.25" in front, and taper back to stock about halfway back...
 

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Thosze go behind the rear tires right? They look good. You using glass? Paint to match? I wanna see them on the truck. Get to work!
 






lol, im working, im working! yea, those are the guards that go behind the rear tires. on the left is the stocker. i used alot of fiberglass to "build up" the area on the bottom side, and used a cutout piece of 22 gauge steel as a guide to build the 'glass around. here is step one-
 

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here is another- the dots are were you follow the contour with the 'glass...
 

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i hope these work better than your "stare at my avatar for 30 seconds" thing :D get em put on so we can see what they look like, i need some splash gaurds, maybe you would make me some if they look good :)
 






ok- for whatever reason my $50 web cam is actually taking legible snap shots today... so here is a pic. this is with the 1st coat of what will proly be 3000 coats of primer.lol
 

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... and one more up close
 

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looks good james...... a lot cleaner than the stock one with the moulding..and it paintable insted of the chrome covers....
 






That is pretty slick James, you need to make me some. :p
 






yeah, that looks really cool. id have you make me some, but mine are "integrated" into my fender flares. im just going with little tiny mud flaps that you can barely see (i had them on before, but i took em off cuz my front tires rubbing slightly on em.)
 






Looks good!

How about a writeup for all of us who'd like to follow?

Ry.
 






lol, this is the write-up. basically, if you've never worked with fiberglass before, there is no way for me to show you how to do this. this is not a beginner thing. its not hard, but if you dont know what you're doing to begin with they will either take forever to do or possibly crack later on. i'll help anyone in any way i can if you decide to do this, but its just not something i can really explain well enough to instruct a beginner properly.

as far as me making them, ill be glad to. send me your stockers and a money order for $500, and ill have 'em back to you in 2 weeks. ;) sorry, but ive got atleast 10 hrs. in the driver's side alone... and its not even ready to be painted yet.
 






james they look great! you should mold the upper part into them as well (the plastic part on the stock ones) if you can figure out how to make that work right.

sounds like they are a ton of work if they are taking that much of your time (but i probably have more into my custom tails that i'm not gonna post until i finish...)

for everyone else who's not a metal working glass laying phenom you can just go the route i went and get the pieces off of a limited. check out my pics if you haven't seen them. that will set you back a bit more $$$ than doing it your self, but you will get the same result without all the work (and unless your an expert they will probably look much better than your own first effort)
 






do the limited ones hang down lower in front than the stockers?

and yea, i seriously considered molding the upper tupperware into the guard, but i dont really see any way to do it without them eventually cracking. you cant really get it thick enough in there, and i think that in time i would have a big lengthwise crack were the tupperware meets the guard.

the passenger side should go alot faster than the drivers, as i now have an idea of what exactly to do. im guessing i can do the other one in about half the time.

also, taking this route, there really is no "first effort". if you/I screw up too bad, you/I gotta start with a fresh set. either that, or sand and tear off about 6 layers of 'glass and Bondo.;)
 






I'll take 2 in green please. ;)
 






Originally posted by james t
basically, if you've never worked with fiberglass before, there is no way for me to show you how to do this

Alright... I'll just keep watching and I'll try to keep my drool off the floor? Deal?

:D

Ry.
 






james t, have you made any changes to your EXPLORER emblem on the back gate? i would like for mine to say only explorer, like yours, but i hear working with those emblems is a bit of a pain.......would like to take off the XLT and Control Trac stuff........
moldings look great :thumbsup:
 






on the 96's, there are holes under the emblems. i originally ripped all of them off, but had to put them back on:( . i cut the XLT off of the Explorer badge, and to cover up the hole left by the XLT, i stuck one of my V8 badges (that i removed from the front fenders) over it. i have no idea if the Control Trac has holes under it or not, but you will have to cover up the hole under the XLT.
 






before i shaved and fllled my emblems i used a dremel tool to remove the control trac part of the four wheel drive part of the emblems. it wasn't hard at all.
 



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if only i had V8 emblems to cover the hole...:(
expo5.0, were there holes under the control trac area?
 






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