1971 Cj 5 Fenders

Does anyone have any experience with or recomedations for after market front fenders for a 1971 CJ 5? I’ve heard the repo fenders aren’t that great and don’t resemble the originals. As always thanks everyone!

 

I believe all the new fenders are from one source; MD Juan in the Phillipines. They are better than rusted junk, and can me made to fit OK. Otherwise, keep looking locally for a decent set of originals. You are looking for the later style with side marker lights. Keep an eye out for Postal Jeep fenders as they have the marker lights too.
It seems no one is very willing to ship fenders. I have been looking for a nice set for going on two years now.
-Donny

 

Thanks, kind of what I was thinking.

 

Depending on your skill level (cut and weld), you could shorten a pair of later fenders and have OEM quality that fits your Jeep. From 1972 on, Jeep lengthened the engine compartment by extending the fenders by 5". This extra length simply hangs off the back of the fenders, and you can remove it. Members of this forum (Sterlclan?) have shortened these later fenders, which are much more plentiful than the short fenders, and may even be available as NOS somewhere.

 

Some of the new repops are better then the original fenders now. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing how old the stock is from any retailers. None are likely to admit that they still have old junk to sell. MD Juan has come a long way in the past couple of years.

 

depending what is wrong with yours they are not terrible to rebuild. They rust out under the doubler panel on the rear, if thats the case you can drill out the spot welds under the doubler and replace the rusted metal underneath then weld the doubler back on , after coating both surfaces with weld through primer. If the fronts are bent up sourcing rusted out fenders with good fronts is one possibility. It sounds daunting at first but once you dive in it becomes easier and if your spot welding skills arent the best the will be way improved after the first one

 

Philip-TX made a fender out of two and it turned out well. See post 60 here:
Garrett's "59 CJ5 Project

I purchased a re-pop and the metal is slightly thinner and the stamping is not as sharp. Not totally awful.

 

I’m working on this now, but am also checkINg, in case things don’t go well, LOL

 

Any retailers that you would recommend?

 

I wasn’t aware this was an option, thanks!

 

the biggest difference . I have found with the replacements . other than fit and finish
is the inner fender panel . has a shock cut out for the later models . and no fender brace

 

yup peel em apart some ,hack em shorter weld em back up. i have done several sets this way with only minor trouble. (had some cracking on the first set,changed the cut line and the others are fine.)

 

I think I’ll give it a try. Any idea where to get Good NOS ones?

 

Junkyards? Try Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market - pick an arbitrary year like 1980. Note that some of these places may be marketing new repops, so you'll have to screen them.

You can also try online forums, like the Jeep forums or your local 4x4/Jeep forums. Private party will be cheaper if you can find what you want. Most of these places have WTB (want to buy) sections where you can ask for parts. Maybe also try the Craig's List consolidators? A quick look at eBay shows plenty of repops for sale but I did not see any OEM.

 

I got a couple of metal fenders off of a Postal Jeep, haven't tried to install them yet, but they are the shorter fender. Has anybody tried Postal fenders ?

 

Yes on my 67. See post 19 & 82.

North Texas CJ6


Final product on the right front.

 

Postal fenders work fine, but they have a couple extra holes on the top for the signal lights/guard. My only problem with them is they have the sidemarker recess that the earlier CJs didn't have, that and they are hard to find too.
-Donny

 

I cut the inner bracing out of some rusted original fenders and added them to the after market fenders and cut pieces to fill in the side marker lights on the after market fenders. The fenders that I used were on my Jeep when I bought it, I also had to adjust the right fender for the battery box, the after market fenders hit the battery box on my 64 134 F head frame.