EAG Front Fenders: Involuntary Transitioning and Lost in Translation

Mad Mac

Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2021
Messages
37
Location
Far Northwest Deep East Texas in the Dirty South
For Spring Break, my grandson, age 16,
and three of his friends, age 15,
came up to my place.

Acres of space, yet one of the boys
managed to mash my TJ's right front fender
into my grandsons pristine F150 left rear fender.

No one was hurt, thank heavens,
and all the lights worked
and my grandson was able to drive back home.

That TJ was a '98 I bought in 2014.
Twenty-five years old, rust free and still like new.
Completely original, including the carpet and upholstery,
with no dents, dings or scratches.

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The crumpled fender, however, was all I needed
to uncork the inner rock crawler,
and sent me scouring the inter-web for ideas.

One possibility was a complete painted fender.
This included the inner fender welded to an outer fender.
The inner fender on the TJ was undamaged,
and would have to be separated from all attachments.
Body color painted fenders were only available
from 2020 on, leaving out my Moss Green 1998 Sahara.

Some tube fenders also had inner fenders,
making installation complex, and they cost more.
Some outer-only tube fenders required trimming
the battery platform and disconnecting other bits.

Being a confirmed COB (Cheap Old Bastard),
eventually fender dysphoria was overcome
and I settled on a pair of inexpensive
EAG front fenders 97-06 Wrangler TJ, on Amazon.
EAG calls them fender flares, they're so skinny.

No inner fender to disassemble,
no tubes for interference
and black goes with everything.

EAG is a trade name used on Amazon
and elsewhere for Jeep parts
distributed by Paramount Automotive,
their 6.5 inch fender is shown here.

Where is that angle grinder...
 
While waiting for the EAG fender "flares" to arrive
I searched YouTube videos for installation tips.
Scant videos for EAG but videos of other brands also helped.
This thread is not meant to replace the videos.
It is to merely attempt to provide a few pointers.

First order of business was to remove the pontoons
on the sides of the Sahara. The steps could stay.

Then came the rubber flares.
After watching a YouTuber struggle with them,
I decided the easy way out
was to use the saw blade for my angle grinder
to cut the flares off so I could get a ratchet wrench
onto the screws from outside and pliers onto the
fittings inside while the flare was still on the jeep.
My plan was to add the metal fenders to my junk pile
destined for the scrap metal yard.
Otherwise I would not have bothered separating them.

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Another tip was to cut the fender into small pieces
instead of trying to take the whole thing at once.
Taking the angle grinder to the damaged left fender was easy.
Cutting the undamaged right fender made me slightly nauseous.

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Tape lines like some YouTubers used
helped these old eyes, looking through a scuffed up face shield
and showers of sparks, stay on the line.

The written instructions said to pry back the cut fender
to get to the four screws holding the fender to the tub.
An ingenious YouTuber simply cut the fender vertically
about an inch from the tub to completely remove the fender
and gain easy access to the screws. Brilliant.
Cut all the way to the top.

When making the lengthwise fender cut
one has to stop short of the tub so as not to cut it.
That's okay, because the vertical cut will finish it.
It's a queasy feeling to have the inner fender loose and sagging
but just remember it will be bolted to the new fender.
That inch that was cut off at the top comes in handy later.

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Before going wild with the angle grinder
check to make sure there is clearance on the inside.

Wear hearing protection to preserve the hearing you still have
and wear a face shield.
If you have ever had a cut-off disc break and hit you,
you know why.
 
One boy -whole boy

2 boys - half boy

3 boys- no boy at all.

I wrecked a car when I wasn’t even driving it at that age. Young boys trying to turn into men are about the dumbest thing on the planet.
 
One boy -whole boy

2 boys - half boy

3 boys- no boy at all.

I wrecked a car when I wasn’t even driving it at that age. Young boys trying to turn into men are about the dumbest thing on the planet.

That's as true a statement as I've ever heard. I have a 14 year old and watching him and his Boy Scout buddies cut up at their weekly meeting provides us parents with no end of entertainment... as well as the occasional heart attack.
 
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Note the tape going around the hood latch
and passing close to the drip rail near the tub.
Leave material for the new bolts that will hold up the inner fender.
Straight lines are safer than trying to cut a curve.
After cutting, it was possible to flatten the left fender.

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Don't do this. The upper cut does not help and risks cutting the grill.
The horizontal cut and diagonal cut are all you need.

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The diagonal cut should not have been trimmed short.
That left the first EAG screw hole out in the breeze.
I put a fastener through it anyway to hide my sin.

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Before putting the EAG fenders on, loosen the two rod braces above the engine
that run from the tub to the grill. There is a little adjustment available at the grill.
Leave those two screws loose. The grill will probably have to be pushed back
about a quarter of an inch.

The view from comfortable cardboard on the floor.
The short one-inch bolts provided could not quite reach
through the stiffening panels bracing the thin factory fenders.
A two inch bolt was used to cinch down and squeeze the under-metal
and then replaced with a one inch bolt.

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Foolishly, I did not give the undersides of the naked TJ a good flush and scrub.
Sand, red clay and... cow poop were bombing me during the project.
I began dry brushing places in advance in order to eat less dirt.

But there is some other wrench spinning to do before this point.
Coming up next.
 
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There are a lot of fasteners and I needed a way to organize them.
In the past I've used zip lock bags and written on them.
The white cardboard box was at hand, but if it had been bumped
in the crowded garage, all would have been lost.

Note that the front three are not there.
The grill was the easiest to get to so I ratcheted them down first.
Don't do that. I had to back them out.
Just use one loosely screwed in so the fender does not fall on you.
The critical ones are the "inner rear 4". Do those first.

They are "inner" between the inner and outer fenders
and hold the fender to the tub, the only solid attachment point
that has no give in it. Everything else stems from there.

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The two upper screws can be installed from above.
The two lower screws from below lying beneath the jeep.

Some caution that when working underneath a vehicle
even if it has not been raised
a jack stand should be put under the axle
in case a tire goes flat.
Not likely to happen but probably a good idea.
I've used jack stands that way
but I'm a bit OCD.

There is so little room to use a ratchet wrench
between the EAG fender and the inner fender
it may take one click at a time.

There is room for adjustment in the EAG "flares".
Slide them up or down to get it squared up with the tub
before cinching down any screws.

From this point on everything gets a little easier,
sort of.
 
Faithful readers may be wondering why I'm having so much difficulty.
Well, in this case not only are the instructions poorly written,
which is not unusual, but only pages 1 and 2 are for a TJ.
Pages 3-6 are for a YJ or a CJ, different enough to throw a curveball.

So I decided to report the problem to EAG and ask for clarification.
What should have been simple became a daunting task requiring detective work.
A Google search, the packaging and the instructions provided no clue
how to contact EAG except for a return address on the shipping label.

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This address Googled me to Paramount Automotive.
When I contacted Paramount using the contact form on their website
they did not reply to me.

It is unfortunate that a product so nicely turned out
has such bad instructions and customer support.

Page one is the only page that mentions
for which vehicle the fenders are intended;
97-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ.
There is no mention of the model on the other five pages.
It's easy to understand why 12-year old Chinese girls
got them mixed up.

Child labor laws in China
allow children as young as 12 to work in factories.
But otherwise those children,
or maybe it's the Uyghurs in labor camps,
do a great job. Can't beat the price.
 
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The EAG fender will go over the hood latch mounting holes.
Drill new holes from underneath for the latch.
The bumper pad holes are not accessible from underneath
because of a sturdy fender bracket.
After you bolt down the latch line up the bumper pad
and use the bumper pad nipples
to guestimate the location of those holes.
Then drill those two holes from the top.

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That picture was taken before trimming the fender close to the latch holes.

Now that I think about it, maybe the smart thing to do would be to drill down
through the bracket, then mount the EAG fender
and then drill up for the bumper pad holes the same as for the latch holes!
Sometimes I scare myself.

Putting the bumper pads back on seemed impossible
until I realized that the Chrysler engineers in all their wisdom
had put those little holes in the rubber bumpers just for that purpose.

Select a small rod, dowel or a machine screw,
anything that is blunt and small enough
to fit easily into the hole.
Press it very firmly into the hole
and seat the nipple in the fender.
Easy peasy.

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I drilled the mounting holes too close to the hood latch
and had to trim off the end of the bumper pad.
 
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Bolting in the EAG splash guards was a challenge.
It is a sandwich formed by the EAG splash guards,
the TJ inner fender and the TJ bracket attached to the tub.
Those brackets are stout.
The passenger side bracket supports the battery.

With no instructions for this,
I figured the 8 bolts included by EAG were provided for this purpose.

The first step is to knock out the four u-clips on each bracket.
They will just be in the way.
A really big screwdriver and a hammer took care of that.

The second step is to take off the front wheels.
Use jack stands, please.
That allows easy access for a drill, wrenches and elbows.

Beginning with the hole that was lined up the best,
I reamed it out with the drill and put a bolt through it.
The one-inch EAG bolt would not go far enough through the sandwich.
A two inch bolt was used to mash the sandwich together,
then replaced with a one inch bolt.
The other three bolts then went in okay after reaming with the drill.

Except for one nut in a tight spot
it was possible to hold one ratchet wrench on the inside
and spin one ratchet wrench on the outside.

One of the YouTubers had a problem with the tiny EAG washers
going sideways into the generous slots on the EAG splash panel.

Forewarned, I bought 16 fender washers.
One for each of the bolt heads on the EAG splash guards
and one for each of the nuts on the brackets attached to the tub.
One of my better decisions.
One nut had interference so I had to use the little EAG washer.

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For the time being, I put the pontoons back on
until I figure out what I'm going to do with the rocker panels
and rear fenders.

Or someone else runs into me.
Whichever comes first.
 
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One of the advantages of buying the modest EAG fenders
is that they come with an "Eagle Eye" led turn signal light.
But wait, not so fast.

When an LED bulb is put on an old vehicle
with incandescent bulbs
there will be hyper flashing,
rapid flashing as if there was a bulb burned out.
That is because the relay has a feedback loop
on its itty bitty teeny tiny circuit board
that when interrupted by a burned out bulb
causes other bulbs to hyper flash and let you know.

There are YouTube videos to show
how to disassemble the relay
and where to cut the circuit.

I'm cheap, but not that cheap.
The relay is 25 years old!
It's done its job.
And if I have to do all the work
to remove and replace the relay,
it is time to retire the old relay.

On a '98 TJ, the relay can be accessed
by removing the panel below the steering column
and the metal heat guard.
No need to mess with the steering column clamshell.
The relay is hiding behind a hose
and held on with one nut under the dash.

To get it out I held onto the socket with my right hand
and used pliers to pull the mounting bracket and relay out.

The new relay does not have grooves in the side for the bracket.
I squeezed the new relay into the bracket anyway
and kept the old relay, you know, just in case I broke the new one.

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Proper flashing left and right turn signals and hazard lights now.