Warflares and Rock Sliders

[Cooter_76]

I'm mocking-up some new rock sliders from White Knuckle Off Road and WH Gorilla Warflares, and could use some guidance. The rear fenders were cut and flared when I bought the Bronco. Fronts are currently uncut.


First question is about the sliders. My rockers were a bit dinged-up from contact with rocks. I've managed to beat them back into decent shape with a BFH. On both sides, when supporting the sliders with a floor jack, the gap at the bottom of the door is larger at the front vs the back. Not sure if the rockers need more massaging to tuck the front up higher, or if I should lower the rear of the slider until the gap is consistent.


Front Flare: I know these flares are flexible so you can adjust to fit your specific needs. I'm looking for a "traditional" install vs the "extreme" option. If I lay the flare over the fender where it naturally wants to go, it sits about 2" below the crease in the body line. At the rear it overlaps the rock slider. The current rear flares sit about 2.5" below the crease on the driver side and about 3" below on the passenger side.
Visually, does it matter if the front flare is closer to the crease than the rear? Is it fine as long as it's level? Should I trim the slider to accommodate the flare or try to overlap?


Rear Flare: The new rear flares seem to have a larger opening overall. If I match the front edge with the old flare, the rear edge wants to land a couple inches further back.


The current rear flare is right up against the front filler neck, which may limit options for positioning the new flare.

 

[DirtDonk]

Not sure about the lines and such yet, but for coupling flares with rocker protection, there are three ways to do it. Which way depends sometimes on what your goal is.
1. If you're not going off-roading and are just going to use the rock sliders for a step and for visual coolness, you can run the flares to perfection all the way to the bottom line and then cut the sliders short to meet up flush with the installed flares.
This obviously goes more towards a visual appeal while defeating the purpose of the sliders at the ends.
2. You can run the sliders full length for protection and cut the flares flat at the top line of the slider. This is, or at least used to be probably one of the more popular methods.
Generally the easiest I think.
3. You can install the sliders full length for protection, then massage the flares to overlap them. This gives you the visual of the flare all the way, has a cleaner look rather than a square-cut end, without losing any of the slider protection.
A little harder, but probably worth the work and (I think) the more common method these days.

Getting back to the flares meeting up with the body lines, that's a tough one. I think they always look best when lined up the best you can, but while the flares are "mostly" consistent, the body lines are not always where expected either. From the factory the Broncos were pretty darn good, but by no means perfectly consistent. Add fifty plus years of banging, flexing, cutting and otherwise modifying, including adding new panels, and mismatches are even more common now than they used to be.

Can't help with the slider-to-rocker lineup. Can you post some close-ups and overalls of the rocker-to-door relationship without the sliders in place?

Thanks. Good luck.

Paul

 

[Cooter_76]

3. You can install the sliders full length for protection, then massage the flares to overlap them. This gives you the visual of the flare all the way, has a cleaner look rather than a square-cut end, without losing any of the slider protection.
A little harder, but probably worth the work and (I think) the more common method these days.

Thanks Paul. This would be my preference. Can these flares be contoured with a heat gun to overlap the sliders?
Here are some more detailed pics of the sliders/rockers. I may need to notch the slider a bit more to clear the front rocker support on the inside of the body.

Inside:


Misc:

 

[DirtDonk]

Yes they can. I've never done it though, so can't give any pointers or heads-ups, or whoopsie/gotchas to look out for!
I would think if you've got a decent heat gun you'd want to be very careful about how much heat you apply. They're rugged, but they're still just plastic.
Not sure the best way to form them, but others have done it so maybe they can pop in and offer advice.

I'm thinking that your rocker does not look square from here. If not, then that's what you're seeing at the door/slider visual cue line.
It would bother me to see much of a discrepancy here every time I walked up to the Bronco, so if there is anything you can do that would be good to get it over with now.
The door gap does not look all that square along the bottom anymore either. Make sure the door is perfectly fitted into the body, and if it's not viable then some sort of mod to the rocker is called for. Whether the extreme of smacking it up a bit on the low side, or the easier and less intrusive step of spacing the slider down a bit on the high side. Looks like a rough fitting bit anyway at this point, with the mangled rockers and thick and un-flexible sliders not meeting up square.
But it also looks like it won't take much, whichever way you go.

Good luck!

Paul