YJ Flare install on an '87 Samurai

...a work in progress!

As some of you may know by now, I like to keep my centre of gravity low. In order to do that, it is necessary to keep the amount of lift (suspension and/or body) to a bare minimum. I am a strong believer in the theory of "only lift as high as you need to in order to fit the tire size you desire". With that in mind I look for creative ways to fit the largest tires I can without lifting the truck too much.

In this case we are looking at an '87 Suzuki Samurai. When I bought the Samurai it was running 235/75 LT tires on the stock Samurai rims. After removing the bump-stops and anti-sway bar, as well as opening up the spring pack clamps and relocating the brake line brackets, I had managed to increase wheel travel dramatically.

With this new found flex I was soon rubbing the 235s. In order to fix that problem I installed a set of 2" longer than stock (1" actual lift) shackles that I made out of 3/8" thick mild steel and 1/2" grade 5 bolts with Nylock nuts. That took care of that problem temporarily.

Note that this Samurai did not come with the stock front bumper and the clearance problems that are inherent with that bumper. I did however remove the bumperettes or ends of the rear bumper before finally building a low profile or "rock crawler" bumper for the rear.

Next up was a set of 31" BFG ATs on some el-cheap-o chrome directional rims that I had had on my first Jeep ('77 CJ5). Now I was rubbing again. I started my quest for no or at least limited rubbage by first resorting to brute force and contempt for anything made out of recycled steel.

I removed the tire/wheel combos one at a time, and used a BFH to bang the inner lip of the wheel wells flat. These body sheet metal seams have a nasty way of cutting directional lines in the tires. Once those were dealt with, I noticed a couple more spots that were a problem, the very rear and front ends of the front wheel wells. In the rear section I used the hammer again pounding in the firewall/foot area where I could see the tires had been rubbing. In the front section there is a pocket of steel behind the headlights that the tires made contact with. This time I whipped out the angle grinder (because you all know I-LIKETO-CUTMETAL Inc.) and cut slits in the sheet metal. I then called up the services of BFH once again, and managed to negotiate a surrender out of those steel pockets.

Still not quite enough room eh? Well then...next up I replaced two or three leafs in each spring pack with Jeep CJ lift spring leafs. I also cut the lower edge of the rear wheel wells and 1/4 panel out. I can't remember if I did that for tire clearance or just for clearance off rocks etc., but I did it and I liked it so there.

Great, so now I had enough clearance for 31s without rubbing right? Well, not exactly. I still had some rubbing issues at full flex, but a little rubbing didn't bother me. So the tires got a little cut up on the outer edges of the tread, just more siping as far as I'm concerned. I also had some rubbing on the front springs at full lock, but that wasn't cutting the tires. Best fix for that is in-boarding the springs, which will also help flex.

Phew, ok so now we get to the idea of using YJ flares. The title for this article is a little deceiving. It's not just about installing YJ flares. Yes I'm using YJ flares here, but I'm doing something a little different than what I usually see with YJ flare swaps on Suzukis. Most people use rear YJ flares just in the rear of their truck or use rear YJ flares on both the front and rear of their trucks. The reason they do this is that the rear YJ flares fit better on the front of a Suzuki than the front YJ flares. Of course I think it looks a little goofy, but as long as it works who cares right!

Well then, what is the problem with the title you're wondering. It's all in a word, "Tubbing". No not Teletubbing (a new craze sweeping the pedophile crowd...I'll let your imagination take over from here on that one). No I'm talking about tubbing out wheel wells. For years drag racers and hot-rodders have been doing this to fit larger tires. Not until recently have I seen 4wheelers doing this though, and I've always wondered why they haven't caught on a little quicker. Oh sure there have always been a few nuts not willing to follow the Pied Piper, but for the most part the common way to fit larger tires has been to lift a truck higher and higher.

As mentioned earlier, lifting a truck to a limit is fine with me, but I'll always try to get away with as little lift as possible. In order to do that I am more than willing to break out some serious spark farting tools and have at 'er. With that in mind, I took a look at the front YJ flare dilemma that most Suzuki owners haven't seemed to be able to get their heads around. That's ok though, my head is fairly twisted so it was an easy problem to solve for me. Just pull those metal cutting and melting tools out and "have at 'er".

I haven't gotten around to doing the front yet, but it will look a lot less like a Samurai when I'm done with it that's for sure. I'll be chopping the fenders to be much like a flat fendered Jeep (just the way I like 'em), and in-boarding the headlights. Anyway, enough of that and on to the rears...

It's been a while since I did this mod so I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details.

First off you need to remove the plastic flares and the metal mounts. The metal mounts are spot welded onto the 1/4 panels. I went around the mounts with a centre punch and hammer, and I punched a guide for the drill bit in the centre of each weld dimple. I then drilled out the welds. I think I used a counter sink bit to do this, but you can either use the appropriate sized regular drill bit or better yet a spot weld removal bit.

Once that was done I used a large screw driver and hammer to break the mounts free from the body. Not to my surprise there was a good showing of rust behind the mounts. This is where it would be wise for others doing this mod but not tubbing, to do a good job of repairing the rust damage so that it doesn't rear it's ugly head in the near future and bite you in the pocket book. Since I was tubbing I had no need to repair it, I just cut it out.

The YJ flares have a 1/2" lip along the bottom inside edge. This helps to locate the flare on a YJ fender. The first thought that you would think would come to mind for mounting these flares flush with the Samurai body would be to cut the lip off. Noooo..no...noooo...much better idea: I traced the shape of the flare onto some 1/2" PVC sheet and cut the shape out. The PVC allows for a strong mounting flange between the body and flare, but more importantly to me it allows for an extra 1/2" of tire coverage over the idea of cutting the lip off.

Once the PVC was cut to shape, I drilled it for mounting bolts. It's important to do a mockup at this step. Before drilling the holes you should clamp the PVC to the body so you can see where would be the best place to drill the holes. Now marked on the PVC I drilled them out for 1/4" bolts. I then clamped the PVC flanges/spacers to the body again, and used them as a template to drill the mounting holes in the body.

At this stage I used PVC glue and a whole bunch of C-clamps to join the flares and flanges together. After letting the glue set a bit I used 316 stainless steel nuts and bolts to mount the flares on the body.

Well there you have it. Not yet complete, but still tonnes of room for larger tires. I still need to completely replace the inner wheel wells with larger ones that I will TIG weld. I also have yet to even start the front fenders, but with spring looming I feel the urge to turn Japanese again...well, not intirely...the little Nippon Warrior is going to have a Samurai's skeleton and skin, but the coat of armour, it's heart, limbs and spirit will be all Rock Monkey baby (details to come).

...and why all the fuss and bother you say?

For starters it's just plain fun. Besides that, I have my eye on a set of 34x10.50 Interco LTBs. Seems like the perfect size tire for a Samurai around these parts if you ask me. That's just my imagination working overtime again though, we'll just have to see how they work when they get here. As for the rest of it, I like to do things a little differently than most, usually not intentionally, it's just the way I think I guess. At any rate, this is a useful mod for other applications as well. Even if you have done an SOA on your Suzuki you might look into this depending on the tire size you are aiming for or with taking into consideration such things as wider axle swaps and such.

 

Written by jo-jo