Fiberglass fenders and air intake

Hi all,

I recently read a thread or two about some folks saying that there were issues with their glassworks fiberglass fenders and their air intakes (specifically not having any protection against things like water getting in). I'm sort of assuming these were cold air intakes, but I can't be certain.

Are there any issues with installing the fiberglass fenders and the stock intake? It rains often here (plus road salt in the winter), so I'm hoping that just installing fenders up front doesn't result in a gaping hole to allow random crap to fly into the engine bay. I've read a few posts about people making their own inner fender wells, but it seems like that just protects the inside of the fender? Does installing them (and not making a replacement inner fender well, or whatever you have to remove) indeed give a straight shot into the engine bay, or is it just that the underside of the fenders are exposed?

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks!

 

When you pull the plastic guards in the fender it exposes the air intake which pokes through the side there from the engine bay. I had mud and all sorts of crap up in mine so I cut the end of it off and just zip tied it back in the engine bay and sealed up the hole. I'll be getting a snorkel soon so it doesn't matter to me, no fiberglass here obviously.

 

thanks for the reply. was the mud and crap you had up in your engine bay? were you using the stock intake/intake box?

I'm trying to minimize the amount of hacking/cutting of stuff that I need to do when i install my lift and fenders. I was hoping that if need be, everything *could* be reverted back to stock, and so far it sounds like the fenders may be the only thing requiring any cutting (strangely enough).

Any other responses are much appreciated. thanks!

 

No, it was just mud and water that were thrown up into the fenders from my tires. Because the air intake is in the fender and sticks out, when you pull those plastic guards its exposed to all that crap. So it sucked it up into my filter from there.

Stock intake. I cut off the little "cup" at the end and that gave me enough clearance to pull the intake tube out and back towards the fire wall where I ziptied it.

I will get pictures tomorrow perhaps.

 

thanks maxamillion. I'm looking forward to seeing any pictures you can post up. I'll head over to my truck tomorrow to take another look at the fender well interface on the inside, as I'm still a little confused as to what piece is apparently removed when installing the fiberglass fenders. when I did this on my last truck, there was still a protective (fender well material) piece that was between the engine bay and where the fender attached (with both the stock fender and the fiberglass fender). Granted this was 15 years ago on a 1995 toyota pickup, but I thought they looked similar at the engine bay/fender well connection.

If anyone has an "easy" fix to this, that would be very much appreciated. Certainly pictures of the piece you cut off and zip-tied back on will very helpful with this respect. thanks again!

 

I may be mistaken but my understanding is that when you add glass fenders you lose that plastic liner, thus exposing your intake.

 

is there a downside of having the intake in the engine bay? i have fiberglass fenders and i'm looking for a way to cover my intake