• Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Register for our forum. Even if you don't want to post, you can still 'Like' and react to posts.

Home depot fender flares! (cheap fender flares)


dhkonrad

2013 Offroad TOTY
Supporting Member
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
2013 Truck of The Year
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
890
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Auburn California/ Boise Idaho
Vehicle Year
1993
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0L
Transmission
Manual
Original Poster: dhkonrad

Difficulty: 1 out of 10

Time to install: 1-2 hours


Disclaimer: The Ranger Station.com, The Ranger Station.com Staff, nor the original poster are responsible for you doing this modification to your vehicle. By doing this modification and following this how-to you, the installer, take full responsibility if anything is damaged or messed up. If you have questions, feel free to PM the original poster or ask in the appropriate section of The Ranger Station.com forums.



Fender flares! Whether you want fender flares to keep mud off the side of your truck, or merely to have fender flares to comply with state laws, this article will show you how to make and install fender flares very inexpensively.

Take your truck from this:

to this!




Tools Needed:
- drill gun
- tin snips, large scissors, or a sharp knife
-a second pair of hands may be helpful, but not necessary
-pliers or preferably sheet metal pliers Example clicky!


Parts Needed:
- sheet metal screws with a large head, or with washers
- lawn edging (readily available at home depot)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This write up is assuming you already have cut fenders. If you do not, here is an article on that.
If you do not have cut fenders, the procedure may be modified to fit, but the rest of the article will assume you have cut fenders.

The type of lawn edging you purchase is up to you, depending on what you think will look best, but I used this type
clicky!!
And it worked really well for this application.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that you have all the required materials, lets start.
1) first we will need to prepare your cut fenders for attaching the lawn edging.
If your fenders do not already have a "lip" at the bottom

then you will need to add one. This can be done simply by using your pliers (or sheet metal pliers) to gently fold over the bottom inch or so of fender. This should be done in small increments to avoid wrinkling the fender
Here is a picture during the folding over


and here is approximately what it should look like after the fact

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Cut the edging material to the desired length for each wheel well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Now comes the step of attaching the material to the fender. This part is a little tricky and may take a little massaging to have it look exactly how you want, but is relatively pretty simple.
The general idea how the edging is attached to the fender is shown in this diagram:

As you can see, there is a lip on the bottom of the lawn edging (at least there was on all the different types I saw at home depot) and you will hook that on the lip of your fender all the way around.
You can then run a sheet metal screw through the lawn edging into the lip of the fender to hold them secure. Be careful not to over tighten the screws as it will deform the plastic flares and possibly pull a screw right through the plastic.
I chose to use screws like this

for two reasons. One because the head was large so it wouldn't slip through the plastic fender flares, and two because the heads are rather flush so it wont chew up your tire if you happen to stuff one all the way into the fender.

The tricky part is on most rangers, the fenders are not straight up and down, as seen here:

If you pull the edging out as far as you can so that the lip of the fender is right up against the lip of the lawn edging, it will cause the fender flare to take on a funny shape as seen here:

It is rather flat in the front and the curve comes to a point at about 2 o'clock of the wheel well.

In order to counteract that, I pushed the fender flares in slightly at the top, and cut the lip off at the bottom of the fender, so that I could pull them out slightly (see diagrams)




You can see the results of what I am talking about in these pictures




Something to note is that the rear fenders have an inner fender that comes out to meet the outer fender. When I cut my fenders I cut into the inner fender so I was able to slide the lip of the fender flare in between them. This however may not be the case with your application, and some modifications may be necessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.
 
Last edited:


dhkonrad

2013 Offroad TOTY
Supporting Member
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
2013 Truck of The Year
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
890
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Auburn California/ Boise Idaho
Vehicle Year
1993
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0L
Transmission
Manual
Thoughts? Too simple for a write up?
 

alwaysFlOoReD

Forum Staff Member
TRS Forum Moderator
TRS Banner 2012-2015
TRS 20th Anniversary
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
13,933
Reaction score
5,086
Points
113
Location
Calgary, Canada
Vehicle Year
'91, '80, '06
Make / Model
Ford, GMC,Dodge
Engine Size
4.0,4.0,5.7
Transmission
Manual
2WD / 4WD
4WD
I can't say if it's write up material but I like it. It's pretty self explanatory now that you've explained it...lol.

Richard
 

dhkonrad

2013 Offroad TOTY
Supporting Member
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
2013 Truck of The Year
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
890
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Auburn California/ Boise Idaho
Vehicle Year
1993
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0L
Transmission
Manual
I can't say if it's write up material but I like it. It's pretty self explanatory now that you've explained it...lol.

Richard
I felt the same way. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I wrote it all up. Then in hindsight I was thinking it seemed too easy. I wouldn't have minded a step by step when I was thinking of doing it though...
 

Lil-Pony

Active Member
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Nov 6, 2012
Messages
1,085
Reaction score
5
Points
38
Age
30
Location
San Antonio, TX
Vehicle Year
1984
Make / Model
Take a Guess
Engine Size
2.8 soon to be 4bt
Transmission
Automatic
A very pleasing solution for those who are unwilling to spend the $$$$$

I believe this is worthy
 

Jim Oaks

Just some guy with a website
Administrator
Founder / Site Owner
Supporting Vendor
Article Contributor
TRS Banner 2010-2011
TRS Banner 2012-2015
TRS 20th Anniversary
VAGABOND
TRS Event Participant
GMRS Radio License
Joined
Aug 2, 2000
Messages
13,481
Reaction score
8,680
Points
113
Location
Nocona, Texas
Vehicle Year
1996 / 2021
Make / Model
Ford Ranger
Engine Type
4.0 V6
Engine Size
4.0 / 2.3 Ecoboost
Transmission
Automatic
2WD / 4WD
4WD
Total Lift
6-inches
Tire Size
33x12.50x15
Thoughts? Too simple for a write up?
Never assume something is 'to simple'. I'm willing to bet someone will use the idea and your write up as a guideline to get it done.
 

swynx

Active Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
2,401
Reaction score
9
Points
38
Age
31
Location
lewiston idaho
Vehicle Year
1994
Make / Model
Mazda
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
Never assume something is 'to simple'. I'm willing to bet someone will use the idea and your write up as a guideline to get it done.
I will...
 

shahzaib85

New Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Vehicle Year
2012
Make / Model
2015
Transmission
Automatic
I really appreciate that you took all this time to try and help us.Your work is carry the information to the other people.
 

dhkonrad

2013 Offroad TOTY
Supporting Member
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
2013 Truck of The Year
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
890
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Auburn California/ Boise Idaho
Vehicle Year
1993
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0L
Transmission
Manual
I really appreciate that you took all this time to try and help us.Your work is carry the information to the other people.
Thanks! I was just hoping it would help someone, even if it was only by seeding an idea.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

Staff online

Today's birthdays

Member & Vendor Upgrades

For a small yearly donation, you can support this forum and receive a 'Supporting Member' banner, or become a 'Supporting Vendor' and promote your products here. Click the banner to find out how.

Latest posts

Truck of The Month


Shran
April Truck of The Month

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Events

25th Anniversary Sponsors

Check Out The TRS Store


Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

Sponsored Ad


Amazon Deals

Top