Ok, I've been asked by a few folks to do a write up on this. To be clear, I am no master at this; I just looked at what others have done and put my own spin on it when I didn't have guidance and the situation called for it. Let this be a confidence builder that you can do this project and it will turn out great. That's not to say there won't be some hiccups along the way, there certainly was for me. Hopefully with my lessons learned yours will be smoother than mine. I'll attempt to not just add the "How", but the "Why" as well in this tutorial. Many of you probably already know this stuff, but for me a lot of it was new and required me to think through the process, so hopefully I can save someone a little bit of time here and make it safer too.
Why are we doing this? ...to prevent this
I have a decently built TJ for crawling and wanted the WJ's focus to be on a smooth Daily Driver with stout Overland capabilities as I like doing long road trips to trails and camping, etc. The stock height WJ was no good for me as I wanted to run JK Rubicon takeoffs (got a set of 5 tires and rims 1 year old for $400!). So I went with Bilstein 5100's, 2" BDS springs, a 3/4" spacer up front to level due to the 4.7 engine and winch, new top and bottom isolators all around, JKS disconnects up front, and an Addco sway bar in the rear (currently in the process of fabbing a disconnect for this when offroad).
Road Test Results; I absolutely love the way my WJ drives on the highway and around town, it feels like it's on rails, it corners with much less body roll and allows for more driver control. This is due to the stiffer springs and the beefy rear sway bar holding things down. For those considering the front Addco I've been talked out of it by some friends as they said the difference would be barely noticeable; I'm happy where I'm at and chose to put my money elsewhere. If someone has experience with it chime in!
Off Road Results; As great as the on road experience was, offroad the 2" lift and 32" tires were not meshing well, as can be seen in the above pics at Uwharrie. I didn't want to lift it higher so trimming the fenders was the obvious choice.
I looked online and found these threads I'd like to credit with helping me the most.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...iteup-1412915/
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/bo...ng-done-right/
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...-help-1405214/
http://mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthr...ender-trimming
http://mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthr...g-Pics-Methods
The 3 big things you will need to do this:
1. A welder (for the rear wells)
I've seen this done without a welder but after doing it, I could not advocate someone doing this if you want to have a solid, weatherproof, and durable rig.
2. Patience
Measure twice cut once kind of patience. Dialing the welder in to just the exact wire feed speed and voltage kind of patience (or else you will evaporate your sheet metal). I basically learned how to weld by doing this project, and from what I'm told, thin auto sheet metal is tough enough for guys with experience, so if I can do it you can do it.
3. Time (not the same as Patience)
Simply put for me I could not of done this if I had to drive the WJ every day. I wouldn't of even been able to do it in a weekend with my families demands, etc. If I had no distractions maybe I could of done this in a long weekend, but that's me, I try to be meticulous with my jeep projects, work to the best of my ability, and improve my skills along the way. I mention this so you can plan accordingly and maybe get a friend to help. Be prepared for time killers such as paint drying, letting the sheet metal cool, taping and draping to prevent your paint from getting destroyed, and store runs for more welding wire (I used a ton of it so buy a lot in advance).
The rest of the equipment needed is basic tools everyone usually has or can acquire easily enough:
Cutting tool: I used a Dewalt 13 amp angle grinder and my Dremel 4000 for cutting (don't get the 4200 or whatever one has the quick attach bits, they have problems of the attachments flying off and cutting you...not cool). Have lots of extra grinding, cutting, and sanding, and wire wheels standing by for both tools.
A friend gave me a tip to use the sanding wheel attachment on the Dewalt when cleaning up your welds, and it works like a dream! It levels everything out quickly and beautifully without taking away too much metal to where you can accidentally make a big mistake (these mistakes are easier to make if using the hard grinding wheel)
Full Face Shield: I strongly recommend you pick up a full face shield (like $12 at Home Depot) instead of just using safety glasses. There were times to get the right view of what I was cutting things were a bit close for comfort. Besides you don't want this to happen when a disc snags in the metal and breaks.
...good thing he had eye protection on
get this
Heavy duty gloves and jacket, and junky pants/ shoes: I won't lie to you, some times when I was trying to just get a few minutes of work in here and there; I welded in expensive running shoes and my favorite surf trunks. I now have tiny burn holes in both to remind me of my mistake, not to mention that hot metal up against your skin. Not fun.
Understand that tiny HOT metal shavings will go EVERYWHERE when grinding and sanding. Let me repeat EVERYWHERE. Pay attention to that sports gear on the opposite wall, the Macbook on your work bench, etc.
Sharpie marker, Tape measure: to mark your cut and bend lines.
Razor blade: To cut a break line in the exterior paint so that it doesn't chip and peel when you bend it.
Pliers (normal and "duck-billed"): for bending the sheet metal into place.
Hammer: for BENDING the sheet metal into place!
Flat head Screwdriver: For scraping foam out of the panels in the rear.
Painters tape, newspapers: to protect your exterior paint job.
Fire extinguisher: just in case, I had some moments where insulation started smoking pretty good and I thought the car was going to go up in flames, when it was in my garage, with no wheels on.....not a good feeling, I had visions of my whole house burning down! Just to be clear I never had to use a fire extinguisher! *I'll be sure to list where all the removable insulation is but you can't reach ALL of it (this is where going slow and letting things cool comes in)
Welder's paint or hi-temp engine or BBQ paint: This is for the backside areas of bare metal you have cut, de-rusted, or added to your new wheel well shape. You will have to bend this metal up against the unibody so you never see it again but still have to weld on it. If you just used normal paint the heat from the welder would destroy normal paint then you'll have the rust problem you just fixed or are trying to prevent starting all over again.
Loctite 8x adhesive, caulk gun, putty knife: This is to fill small gaps, give everything a smooth non jagged edge (you will not be able to perfectly sand every little edge and contour), and definitively seal everything up so it's weather/water proof.
I came up with using this myself and am convinced it's a perfect product for these types of projects. I've seen and heard of too many things going wrong with bondo or other types of vehicle specific body fillers and compounds.
JB weld: I used this to fill some larger gaps that weren't specifically part of the wheel well project (although you could use it for that if needed). When you remove your rear bumper most likely on the rear corners you will have rusted metal or already holes rusted out from all that foam that sits just inside. I cut all that crap out with my dremel took and built it back up with the JB Weld. You can re-weld in some sheet metal too which I did in a few sections with 16 gauge steel. Then of course prime and paint. I don't want to ever have to mess with this issue again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FRONT WHEEL WELLS
Decide how much you want to trim, with all the work this was going to take I wanted to remove as much metal as I could without it looking ghetto. For me that meant retaining a little bit of the vertical wheel well edge instead of cutting on the angle where the slanted part of the wheel well starts. Cutting on top of all of that was too extreme for what I was looking for.
The way I marked this was to take a tape measure with a few inches extended in one hand, a sharpie in another, and I made little hash marks along my desired edge for 1.) removing metal completely 2.) where I would bend the sheet metal inward. I wanted to do this instead of just having a thin sharp edge that might slice my tire somehow or my crazy kids dragging their hand on the Jeep as they run by. I've seen too much of those dumb accidents so I tried to mitigate any future damage the best I could. I've seen where guys just cut the single edge and put weather stripping or the like on it but that's not the way I wanted to go.
Remove the plastic sliders on the bottom of each side. There are Phillips screws holding each end of these in, and even if you have a stubby screwdriver it's best to remove the wheels to get to this out. The fronts can be removed by turning the front wheels if I remember correctly.
Remove the short plastic cladding pieces on either side; these are the ones forward of both front doors. They are held in place with two Phillips screws and a snap fastener that is made of plastic. Be gentle and don't rip it out.
Remove the plastic wheel well linings up front (I only had them up front). I actually kept mine in place for my first side cut but it ended up being too much of a pain in the butt trying not to cut it so I removed it for the next side. It's held in place with plastic snaps, that can be re-used if you can remove them gently but most likely won't due to the twisting and prying to get them out. I used a dash tool designed for this; they're cheap and available at the big box auto stores. I kept the liners thinking I was going to re-use them, I like the idea of protection from road salt and grime, but in reality after a bunch of finagling, zip tying, folding and bending, then cutting, I ended up throwing them away and have never been happier. The contours of the plastic liner just doesn't lend itself to fitting properly in this new open space. To compensate when I coated the entire bottom of my WJ with the POR-15 system I was sure to lay it down thick in the wheel wells too.
So the everything below the bottom line you are just removing, so the cut doesn't need to be too perfect. This edge will be bent up inside the wheel well.
....tape and cover your rig up, unlike I have in these particular pics. It will prevent micro cuts in your paint. I learned this lesson after this first wheel well.
Then just cut a bendable "fin" every so often, cut them closer together on the sharper turns, and further apart on the straight areas (as wide as your duck-billed pliers are). All this was honestly pretty easy; cut, bend up with the pliers as much as you can (inner wheel well will only let you go up so high), then bend it up the rest of the way with a hammer. The part I messed up is right after that. I used the pliers to then grab the outside and inside of the new wheel well and press it together tightly (grip strength) to make a nice uniform bend, that part worked, but what I didn't know is that it also created this kind of ripple in the outward appearance of the fender so don't go too crazy pressing these two ends together.
You can see a little of that ripple effect I was talking about here, it's not too bad but could be avoided.
This cleared up a lot of room
Then after everything was in place I used primer spray paint on any bare metal on the inside of the wheel well to protect everything. Then I used the Loctite adhesive in a caulk gun and ran a very thick bead inside the wheel well along the open space (the top of the "u" created by folding the metal in and up). Next, I used a putty knife and pushed the adhesive in a top to down motion, filling in any open spaces that would trap water, and leaving a nice smooth exterior appearance to the inner well. After this dried completely I coated it with the POR-15. I have lots of pics of this for the rears, below.
So the fronts are pretty easy all things considered.
THE REAR WHEEL WELLS
The fronts are checkers, the rears are chess.
The rears; keep the motivation up here, it's a bit more complex for this part, but just keep thinking how awesome this is going to look and all the articulation you're going to get out of it!
The concept of what is going on here is that there are two panels that join to make your rear fender. When you raise the fender (by removing and/ or bending metal) you separate these panels; causing a break in the integrity of the vehicle, which decreases the strength of the uni-body and leaves it open to rusting on the inside and getting crap caught up in there. The best fix is to weld these areas back together, in order to weld you need to remove foam so you don't catch your WJ on fire. The foam has been put in there for soundproofing and if you ask conspiracy theorists, so that your fenders will rot out, causing you to buy a new Jeep (or Toyota!).
Each section of the rears has its' own technique:
1. The very bottom towards the front of the vehicle; depending on your rust, you may even want to add a small piece of 16 gauge steel here to "re-build the inner fender wall" after you're done cleaning everything out. Your cut here will remove a portion of the hull like uni-body sliders. Pay attention to how you fold the remaining metal for the best coverage. There is also a lot of foam in the sliders, remove what you can reach so it doesn't catch on fire. I had lots of times where the metal would get hot and hit foam I couldn't reach, then the WJ would smoulder for a minute or two out of the rectangle holes from where I removed the plastic sliders.
2. The vertical on the forward side of the wheel well; this is the easiest section for sure. You basically are just folding the tabbed metal inside then welding the tabs all together and onto the body.
3. The horizontal section; challenging but very doable, fold the inside panel out and the outside panel in to create a nice overlap. Tack weld many times.
4. The hardest section IMO. This is because the WJ's unibody gets wider at this back section, meaning it is harder to have the metal you overlap to cover everything, it all comes down to strategy and how you cut and fold. I did an OK job but had some significant (1/4" or more) gaps here and there.
Mark the line you want your new wheel well to be and tape it up
I was so happy to be getting rid of this rust bubble
I missing some pics here but now you want to remove a minimal amount of metal all along the bottom edge; just enough to separate the panels from one another. Once you do this it will be pretty apparent how to proceed. Twist a screwdriver in between the two panels and get them apart enough that you can scrape ALL the foam out you can. On the first link I attached above (done by TJSWJ) he did a great job at documenting this portion.
When I read the other threads, I understood they were talking about scraping out all the insulation in order to weld properly but didn't quite catch the bit about the separate piece that was INSIDE the cabin. I figured it our real quick when I was welding and a little flame flickered and didn't go away, at first I thought it was just the tape, but it got bigger. You'll need to partially remove the plastic coverings over the rear quarter panels; You need just enough room to pull out a piece of thick insulation laying in each wheel well. I ended up removing the whole sections because I'm insulating and soundproofing my interior.
The piece I'm talking about is the long and thin yellow foam on each side of the interior
Here WJ Jeeps instruction on how to remove the cargo area left trim panel
http://www.wjjeeps.com/trailer.htm
and the right trim panel
http://wjjeeps.com/power_outlet.htm
This top section is pretty straightforward
Just cut and fold it up and in
After it's all cut and folded in you want to tack weld the folds in place. How crazy you want to get doing this is up to you. I got pretty crazy.
I figured out a technique to essentially use the welder to fill in gaps. I would dial down the power and dial up the spool speed (just slightly), then angle the welder on a big slant so it's aimed in the notch of what I wanted to start filling in.
This bottom section used to look like the gap just above it.
Why are we doing this? ...to prevent this
I have a decently built TJ for crawling and wanted the WJ's focus to be on a smooth Daily Driver with stout Overland capabilities as I like doing long road trips to trails and camping, etc. The stock height WJ was no good for me as I wanted to run JK Rubicon takeoffs (got a set of 5 tires and rims 1 year old for $400!). So I went with Bilstein 5100's, 2" BDS springs, a 3/4" spacer up front to level due to the 4.7 engine and winch, new top and bottom isolators all around, JKS disconnects up front, and an Addco sway bar in the rear (currently in the process of fabbing a disconnect for this when offroad).
Road Test Results; I absolutely love the way my WJ drives on the highway and around town, it feels like it's on rails, it corners with much less body roll and allows for more driver control. This is due to the stiffer springs and the beefy rear sway bar holding things down. For those considering the front Addco I've been talked out of it by some friends as they said the difference would be barely noticeable; I'm happy where I'm at and chose to put my money elsewhere. If someone has experience with it chime in!
Off Road Results; As great as the on road experience was, offroad the 2" lift and 32" tires were not meshing well, as can be seen in the above pics at Uwharrie. I didn't want to lift it higher so trimming the fenders was the obvious choice.
I looked online and found these threads I'd like to credit with helping me the most.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...iteup-1412915/
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/bo...ng-done-right/
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...-help-1405214/
http://mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthr...ender-trimming
http://mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthr...g-Pics-Methods
The 3 big things you will need to do this:
1. A welder (for the rear wells)
I've seen this done without a welder but after doing it, I could not advocate someone doing this if you want to have a solid, weatherproof, and durable rig.
2. Patience
Measure twice cut once kind of patience. Dialing the welder in to just the exact wire feed speed and voltage kind of patience (or else you will evaporate your sheet metal). I basically learned how to weld by doing this project, and from what I'm told, thin auto sheet metal is tough enough for guys with experience, so if I can do it you can do it.
3. Time (not the same as Patience)
Simply put for me I could not of done this if I had to drive the WJ every day. I wouldn't of even been able to do it in a weekend with my families demands, etc. If I had no distractions maybe I could of done this in a long weekend, but that's me, I try to be meticulous with my jeep projects, work to the best of my ability, and improve my skills along the way. I mention this so you can plan accordingly and maybe get a friend to help. Be prepared for time killers such as paint drying, letting the sheet metal cool, taping and draping to prevent your paint from getting destroyed, and store runs for more welding wire (I used a ton of it so buy a lot in advance).
The rest of the equipment needed is basic tools everyone usually has or can acquire easily enough:
Cutting tool: I used a Dewalt 13 amp angle grinder and my Dremel 4000 for cutting (don't get the 4200 or whatever one has the quick attach bits, they have problems of the attachments flying off and cutting you...not cool). Have lots of extra grinding, cutting, and sanding, and wire wheels standing by for both tools.
A friend gave me a tip to use the sanding wheel attachment on the Dewalt when cleaning up your welds, and it works like a dream! It levels everything out quickly and beautifully without taking away too much metal to where you can accidentally make a big mistake (these mistakes are easier to make if using the hard grinding wheel)
Full Face Shield: I strongly recommend you pick up a full face shield (like $12 at Home Depot) instead of just using safety glasses. There were times to get the right view of what I was cutting things were a bit close for comfort. Besides you don't want this to happen when a disc snags in the metal and breaks.
...good thing he had eye protection on
get this
Heavy duty gloves and jacket, and junky pants/ shoes: I won't lie to you, some times when I was trying to just get a few minutes of work in here and there; I welded in expensive running shoes and my favorite surf trunks. I now have tiny burn holes in both to remind me of my mistake, not to mention that hot metal up against your skin. Not fun.
Understand that tiny HOT metal shavings will go EVERYWHERE when grinding and sanding. Let me repeat EVERYWHERE. Pay attention to that sports gear on the opposite wall, the Macbook on your work bench, etc.
Sharpie marker, Tape measure: to mark your cut and bend lines.
Razor blade: To cut a break line in the exterior paint so that it doesn't chip and peel when you bend it.
Pliers (normal and "duck-billed"): for bending the sheet metal into place.
Hammer: for BENDING the sheet metal into place!
Flat head Screwdriver: For scraping foam out of the panels in the rear.
Painters tape, newspapers: to protect your exterior paint job.
Fire extinguisher: just in case, I had some moments where insulation started smoking pretty good and I thought the car was going to go up in flames, when it was in my garage, with no wheels on.....not a good feeling, I had visions of my whole house burning down! Just to be clear I never had to use a fire extinguisher! *I'll be sure to list where all the removable insulation is but you can't reach ALL of it (this is where going slow and letting things cool comes in)
Welder's paint or hi-temp engine or BBQ paint: This is for the backside areas of bare metal you have cut, de-rusted, or added to your new wheel well shape. You will have to bend this metal up against the unibody so you never see it again but still have to weld on it. If you just used normal paint the heat from the welder would destroy normal paint then you'll have the rust problem you just fixed or are trying to prevent starting all over again.
Loctite 8x adhesive, caulk gun, putty knife: This is to fill small gaps, give everything a smooth non jagged edge (you will not be able to perfectly sand every little edge and contour), and definitively seal everything up so it's weather/water proof.
I came up with using this myself and am convinced it's a perfect product for these types of projects. I've seen and heard of too many things going wrong with bondo or other types of vehicle specific body fillers and compounds.
JB weld: I used this to fill some larger gaps that weren't specifically part of the wheel well project (although you could use it for that if needed). When you remove your rear bumper most likely on the rear corners you will have rusted metal or already holes rusted out from all that foam that sits just inside. I cut all that crap out with my dremel took and built it back up with the JB Weld. You can re-weld in some sheet metal too which I did in a few sections with 16 gauge steel. Then of course prime and paint. I don't want to ever have to mess with this issue again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FRONT WHEEL WELLS
Decide how much you want to trim, with all the work this was going to take I wanted to remove as much metal as I could without it looking ghetto. For me that meant retaining a little bit of the vertical wheel well edge instead of cutting on the angle where the slanted part of the wheel well starts. Cutting on top of all of that was too extreme for what I was looking for.
The way I marked this was to take a tape measure with a few inches extended in one hand, a sharpie in another, and I made little hash marks along my desired edge for 1.) removing metal completely 2.) where I would bend the sheet metal inward. I wanted to do this instead of just having a thin sharp edge that might slice my tire somehow or my crazy kids dragging their hand on the Jeep as they run by. I've seen too much of those dumb accidents so I tried to mitigate any future damage the best I could. I've seen where guys just cut the single edge and put weather stripping or the like on it but that's not the way I wanted to go.
Remove the plastic sliders on the bottom of each side. There are Phillips screws holding each end of these in, and even if you have a stubby screwdriver it's best to remove the wheels to get to this out. The fronts can be removed by turning the front wheels if I remember correctly.
Remove the short plastic cladding pieces on either side; these are the ones forward of both front doors. They are held in place with two Phillips screws and a snap fastener that is made of plastic. Be gentle and don't rip it out.
Remove the plastic wheel well linings up front (I only had them up front). I actually kept mine in place for my first side cut but it ended up being too much of a pain in the butt trying not to cut it so I removed it for the next side. It's held in place with plastic snaps, that can be re-used if you can remove them gently but most likely won't due to the twisting and prying to get them out. I used a dash tool designed for this; they're cheap and available at the big box auto stores. I kept the liners thinking I was going to re-use them, I like the idea of protection from road salt and grime, but in reality after a bunch of finagling, zip tying, folding and bending, then cutting, I ended up throwing them away and have never been happier. The contours of the plastic liner just doesn't lend itself to fitting properly in this new open space. To compensate when I coated the entire bottom of my WJ with the POR-15 system I was sure to lay it down thick in the wheel wells too.
So the everything below the bottom line you are just removing, so the cut doesn't need to be too perfect. This edge will be bent up inside the wheel well.
....tape and cover your rig up, unlike I have in these particular pics. It will prevent micro cuts in your paint. I learned this lesson after this first wheel well.
Then just cut a bendable "fin" every so often, cut them closer together on the sharper turns, and further apart on the straight areas (as wide as your duck-billed pliers are). All this was honestly pretty easy; cut, bend up with the pliers as much as you can (inner wheel well will only let you go up so high), then bend it up the rest of the way with a hammer. The part I messed up is right after that. I used the pliers to then grab the outside and inside of the new wheel well and press it together tightly (grip strength) to make a nice uniform bend, that part worked, but what I didn't know is that it also created this kind of ripple in the outward appearance of the fender so don't go too crazy pressing these two ends together.
You can see a little of that ripple effect I was talking about here, it's not too bad but could be avoided.
This cleared up a lot of room
Then after everything was in place I used primer spray paint on any bare metal on the inside of the wheel well to protect everything. Then I used the Loctite adhesive in a caulk gun and ran a very thick bead inside the wheel well along the open space (the top of the "u" created by folding the metal in and up). Next, I used a putty knife and pushed the adhesive in a top to down motion, filling in any open spaces that would trap water, and leaving a nice smooth exterior appearance to the inner well. After this dried completely I coated it with the POR-15. I have lots of pics of this for the rears, below.
So the fronts are pretty easy all things considered.
THE REAR WHEEL WELLS
The fronts are checkers, the rears are chess.
The rears; keep the motivation up here, it's a bit more complex for this part, but just keep thinking how awesome this is going to look and all the articulation you're going to get out of it!
The concept of what is going on here is that there are two panels that join to make your rear fender. When you raise the fender (by removing and/ or bending metal) you separate these panels; causing a break in the integrity of the vehicle, which decreases the strength of the uni-body and leaves it open to rusting on the inside and getting crap caught up in there. The best fix is to weld these areas back together, in order to weld you need to remove foam so you don't catch your WJ on fire. The foam has been put in there for soundproofing and if you ask conspiracy theorists, so that your fenders will rot out, causing you to buy a new Jeep (or Toyota!).
Each section of the rears has its' own technique:
1. The very bottom towards the front of the vehicle; depending on your rust, you may even want to add a small piece of 16 gauge steel here to "re-build the inner fender wall" after you're done cleaning everything out. Your cut here will remove a portion of the hull like uni-body sliders. Pay attention to how you fold the remaining metal for the best coverage. There is also a lot of foam in the sliders, remove what you can reach so it doesn't catch on fire. I had lots of times where the metal would get hot and hit foam I couldn't reach, then the WJ would smoulder for a minute or two out of the rectangle holes from where I removed the plastic sliders.
2. The vertical on the forward side of the wheel well; this is the easiest section for sure. You basically are just folding the tabbed metal inside then welding the tabs all together and onto the body.
3. The horizontal section; challenging but very doable, fold the inside panel out and the outside panel in to create a nice overlap. Tack weld many times.
4. The hardest section IMO. This is because the WJ's unibody gets wider at this back section, meaning it is harder to have the metal you overlap to cover everything, it all comes down to strategy and how you cut and fold. I did an OK job but had some significant (1/4" or more) gaps here and there.
Mark the line you want your new wheel well to be and tape it up
I was so happy to be getting rid of this rust bubble
I missing some pics here but now you want to remove a minimal amount of metal all along the bottom edge; just enough to separate the panels from one another. Once you do this it will be pretty apparent how to proceed. Twist a screwdriver in between the two panels and get them apart enough that you can scrape ALL the foam out you can. On the first link I attached above (done by TJSWJ) he did a great job at documenting this portion.
When I read the other threads, I understood they were talking about scraping out all the insulation in order to weld properly but didn't quite catch the bit about the separate piece that was INSIDE the cabin. I figured it our real quick when I was welding and a little flame flickered and didn't go away, at first I thought it was just the tape, but it got bigger. You'll need to partially remove the plastic coverings over the rear quarter panels; You need just enough room to pull out a piece of thick insulation laying in each wheel well. I ended up removing the whole sections because I'm insulating and soundproofing my interior.
The piece I'm talking about is the long and thin yellow foam on each side of the interior
Here WJ Jeeps instruction on how to remove the cargo area left trim panel
http://www.wjjeeps.com/trailer.htm
and the right trim panel
http://wjjeeps.com/power_outlet.htm
This top section is pretty straightforward
Just cut and fold it up and in
After it's all cut and folded in you want to tack weld the folds in place. How crazy you want to get doing this is up to you. I got pretty crazy.
I figured out a technique to essentially use the welder to fill in gaps. I would dial down the power and dial up the spool speed (just slightly), then angle the welder on a big slant so it's aimed in the notch of what I wanted to start filling in.
This bottom section used to look like the gap just above it.