OK, First things First – here are the pics from what would’ve been yesterday’s progress: removing the factory style fender flares. It’s super clean, since the originals were distorted a bit when I got the Jeep, and soon after I quit muddin’ and started hitting local car shows, I got some new flares.

The Bushwacker instructions say that these can be installed in 3-4 hours. Yeah… if they label stuff right, make the stuff to actually fit, and offered better instructions (OK, the instructions aren’t THAT bad, but I gotta gripe about those a bit as well).

Here’s where the fun begins: took the new body saw to the sheet metal… no going back now. That should give me enough clearance for basic street driving and light trail stuff – the mid-’90s Pro Comp 4″ lift suspension is still plenty sturdy, after all.

After holding up the flare to the fender, repositioning a dozen or so times, and realizing this one’s a bit warped, I eyeballed where the flare really needed to be ‘notched’ for the styled flange at the bottom of the fender (it was almost 2″ too low on the flare, so I needed to use the Dremel to make a new notch). After getting it back where I thought it’d fit the best, I eyeballed the second screw-hole back from the indicator and punched a hole. Then, mounted the indicator and that newly finished mounting point, straightened out the ends, and started punching holes for the other Torx-head screws. I noticed some of the screws are going to need double spacers in order to work properly (which I also read in another thread here in these forums, BTW), so I’ll make a trip the hardware store tomorrow before I get started again.

About a half hour later, we have an installed driver side front flare. And… I don’t like it.

Here’s one of the issues I’m not happy about: the flares hang down lower because they’re expecting to be mated up with the (included) rocker extensions… normally found on YJs. This kit is for both CJs/YJs of course, so the pieces are tailored more for YJs. Well, at least they finished these pieces so I don’t need to put the rocker extensions on (they would prevent my fenders from opening up).

Another “WTF” moment I discovered with this kit: The rear flares are either mis-marked (Left vs. Right), or they expect them to fit a whole lot differently than anything I can envision. The trailing ends of the flares would wind up hanging around 3″ below the bottom of the body, if the pieces were installed properly (levelish top surface) according to the labels I found on the inside of the flares. Fortunately, my line of thinking is to swap them, putting the longer end of the flare forward, so that both ends of the flares terminate at the lowest edge of the body. I also appears that the rest of the ‘CJs-with-Bushwackers’ world seems to agree with my line of thinking, and mounted theirs opposite of how mine were labeled – to include Bushwacker, as one can clearly see in their own pic that the leading end of the rear flare is longer than the rear. More on that tomorrow when I get the rest of them installed

In the back of my head, I knew I wasn’t going to like these, which is why I hadn’t ever ordered any. But – reality is, I don’t want to lift my Jeep any higher despite having gone with 35s, so this is my compromise. I guess I need to reserve judgment until they’re all on, even though the one above looks a LOT like my Jeep with them installed.

Oh yeah, my gripe with the instructions: For the rear ‘trimming’ they mention, they say to “align the rear corner of the flare with the vertical seam at the rear of the vehicle.” Yeah… if you don’t have that (like those with fiberglass tubs, or CJ-5s, or when I filled-in the corner seams when replaced my corners), you’re kinda screwed.

Another “Yeah… Right” moment in reading the instructions: “mark the mounting hole locations on the vehicle fender using the holes in the flare as a guide.” And what kind of a tool am I supposed to use for that, since I don’t have anything suitable to stuff through a 5/32″ hole in the flare to reach up to 3/4″ away. I suppose I could use a scratch awl… if I had one. Easier just to eyeball and mount up a couple of holes, then use a quick-release drill bit with an extension (3/16″s in the included instructions, BTW – not 5/32″ as they say in the online version of the instructions) to drill the remaining holes with the flare in-place.

OK – enough whining. Hopefully, I can get the remaining flares installed without any further hassle tomorrow.

Man, I need to find a decent working coin-op car wash ASAP. I hate my Jeep being THIS dirty.