Beating your pinch weld flat with a sledge hammer. --Let's discuss!

That is Toyota Primer

 

A hair dryer won’t get anywhere hot enough, so you’ll need a heat gun. They can be had for cheap on Amazon so I’d recommend just buying one.

 

First you clean the metal as best as you can, I used CRC engine degreaser it comes in a blue bottle and you can get it at wallyworld. Make sure you clean the hell out of the metal. Opps I almost forgot before you do anything bring her to the truck wash and clean all the dirt and crap out of your fender wells. Once it’s dry and you have degreesed the hell out of the fender wells then flatten the pinch weld. I used three separate mini sludge hammers of different weights. You could do it with one, but I found useing the lighter 1 3/4lb on the top of he weld the 2lb in the center and the 3lb at the bottom of the weld work well for me. My rational was I did not want to over do it on the thinner parts of the weld or be under powered in the thick parts of the weld.
Next I painted it with Rusteluim paint and primer, I add a coat every 15 minutes and sprayed side to Side in a sweeping monition.
I removed both my liners because they were seriously torn up and for now I have my front fender flares removed until I decide If I want to put them back on.. If you want to reinstall the liners I would definitely use a heat gun they are super easy to use...FYI just don’t get the seam sealer in your hair etc. I would definitely jack up thfor truck put it on jack stands and remove the wheel..

 

I just noticed in the light my whole truck is green from the pollen, lol.. Weird choice in primer color yes, Know...

 

The fender flares took two minutes each to take off, I would not fully remove the liners if you plan on reusing them, just pull them out of they way and tie them to something..

 

How do you get them out of the way? Did you cut off the clip?
And then if you wanna reattach the liner after hammering how do you do it? The hole the clip anchors into will be hammered flat/shut right?

I really need to do this but also keep my fender liners

 

I detached two of the lower clips from the fender and I ran a piece of rope through each hole and tied it off t0 my passenger and drive side mirrors. After I had flattened my pinch weld, I decided to remove my fender liners since they were so messed up from wheeling etc.. Are you referring to the hole at the bottom of your fender you do not want to flatten this or you will destroy your fender..in my case I cut the clips since I did not need them anymore.

 

If my liners were not so messed up I would have kept them

 

Talking about this one. The clip holds pinches the liner against the pinch weld.
A) I don't know how to get the liner out from under without cutting off the head of the clip
B) I don't know how to reattach the liner there after beating flat that part of the pinch weld

 

I thought you were referring to the hole at the bottom of the fender..
A) From my understanding their is a tool one can use to remove the clips. I found many places online that sell either OEM clips or knock offs. If I were you I would order a bunch of exstra clips so you can reattach the liner. I cut my clips off from the backside using a wire cutter.
B) I’m not positive, but I would not worry about one attachedment point as you have muple points of attachment for your liner and when you hear it up with a heat gun the plastic should mold to the contour of you fender wells

 

You can also get the seam sealer in Black, they were just out of stock when I went to the local shop. To apply it I used a small & medium size puddy knife, plus popsicle sticks for reaching tighter spots and brushed it out with a acid paint brush

 

Did this last weekend. Already had the CMC done so this was the last thing to eliminate all rub of my 285 tires. No pics but a few observations:

I beat it flat to the outside. Driver side was WAYYY harder than passenger side for some reason, took 5x as long and when I was done my driver door was rubbing the jamb. Duck, okay so I pried it back and touched up the paint no biggie.
I also retained the fender liner using @Crom 's method with the heat gun (this took longer than beating the pinchi weld)

Before replacing the liner I bent the lip for the clip forward 90* so it's almost back where it was. This let me secure the liner using a new clip.

@Crom I'm guessing you have skinny 33"s? Because I see no cab mount chop in your pics. I'm asking because I too planned on reinstalling the mud flaps but I see no way with my fat tires...

 

Good job on the work! Cab mount got in the way for me, so I did take care of it.

Cab Mount Chop (CMC), Oct 2016

 

Okay so what did you do about the mud flaps?

 

They're still installed, but I modified them to be pulled back and take up less space so no rubbing.

 

Got a pic or any pointers how you did that? I live in Seattle now and need my mud flaps again. Down in San Diego I just said eff it and threw them in a corner

 

Getting 35s in the morning, going to be fun making them fit

 

Making my 34s fit was quite the adventure, so good luck man!!

 

Haha thanks man I'll post updates when I get it started

 

Well, you're not wrong.