Help with fender flares

[gmanpaint]

I am getting tired of making my truck look like gmans But those flares are nice, and they are availble on Amazon for 66.00 for a set of 4 flares.

 

[-junior]

on, but wasn't feeling them

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to update you on the fender flare project. I got them in the mail the other day and spent some time cutting them to length and mocking them up.

***great tip gman on the lubricant for the steel reinforced rods, I used some wd40 and the straw nozzle fits perfectly in the guiding holes, made the process so much easier***

***another great tip was to have an extra set of hands, this made everything go very smooth, like gman said, you won't have to worry about the curve or the alignment if someone else is holding the flare straight to the fender***

To try and add some light of my own, I would not recommend using the existing mounting holes on the fender flares (as ldyhunter pointed out) these are too close to the exterior of fender. Just go 1/4" in from the pre-existing holes they want you to use, there is still enough bite on both sides and you're not hovering on the edge of the stock fender lip. Pilot holes are a must IMO just to make everything clean and mount up nicely. The stock fenders are plastic too, so be careful over tightening, or possibly splitting the plastic without a pilot hole.

In the instructions it says to remove the wheel, but I didn't have to. The rear wheel well is open enough to get a drill in there (I used a home depot ryobi cordless). For the front you can just turn your wheel as far as it will go to get access to the bends of the fender you need.

After getting them on, I just didn't care for the look. The fender flares themselves looked great, but my truck is stock suspension with the exception of 265/70/r16's. The flares give it a great off-road look, but in my case without a lift, wider tires, or wheel spacers I just didn't care for it.

It looked great from the side, but from the front and rear I just didn't have any tire to warrant the fender flares, they were almost like wings. I got that, "look at me, I'm tough feel", and as my friend who helped me put them on said, "you should look at it, and love it," if you don't love it, take em off.

So I wanted to thank everyone for the help and guidance, maybe I'll throw them on down the road after some more mods.

Side view (looks good to me)

Front

Back

 

[specialized7]

need wider tires or spacers imo

 

[jd4242]

What size are those?

 

[-junior]

My tires are 265/70/r16's on stock rims.

The fender flares are the steel re-enforced 3" Pacer Flexy Flares.

I like that offset look, but my tires are tucked so far into those rear fenders the flares just didn't do it any justice.

I was thinking going wheel spacers, but there is a ton of controversy on this site about them, I'll have to do some more reading.

Just purchased the Bridgestone Duelers, upgraded from 235/70/r16 to 265/70/r16 so the budget is kind of tight on tires. I would agree though, wider tires, wider rims with a bigger offset, or spacers would look really good. I think both ldyhunter and gman had lift and wheel mods before the flares, their rigs look really awesome.

 

[ldyhunter]

Junior hate to say it but I agree with you about the look (sorry) I think a smaller size would have worked better but hey you got the experiance and sounds like you done a great job!!

 

[-junior]

No need to be sorry ldyhunter I agree with you totally. Thank you for the help and guidance though.

I suppose that's the nature of modifications, you won't get a winning idea or the right look you want everytime