Like so many others...my fender flares faded from blue to a marbled gray, so I decided to remove, sand and paint them. What sweet fun! Any advice from all you Jeep pros (I'm a newcomer) about hardware to use if I've lost about half of the plastic square "nuts"? Cannot find them behind the wheel well plastic. Of course the bolts that were screwed into inserts....half of those are frozen in the spinning inserts. Has anyone simply tried drilling out the inserts and using a larger bolt/fastener? Or is there a way to stabilize the insert to prevent spinning so the same bolt can be reused? Thanks for your help!
Hardware for TJ flender flares
Feb 06, 2004
2 Replies
Dude - Somewhere out there on the net is a video of a fella who just hit them with some heat from a heat gun & they came out looking just like new. I thought I had it in my favorites but can't seam to find it now.
L8r - Jersey
They can look pretty good painted. I wouldn't use a heat gun on them while they're still mounted, you'd stand a good chance of softening the paint. Hell I managed to turn some paint into goo just lifting the Islander edition stickers off a set of used half doors. They're getting painted anyway but just goes to show how easy it is to soften the paint.
As for the original question, M6 (6mm) 1" stainless steel bolts nuts and fender washers will mount the flares back up. Those plastic fasteners are a pain in the ass, I just dremeled through them on my YJ.
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