KEEPING IT LEGAL (KINDA)
Without the stock fenders in place, our Jeep is now without parking lights or front turn signals. To correct this, we drilled some holes in our grille with a hole saw and added these inexpensive marker lights we found at an 18-wheeler parts store. You can wire these to the factory wires to act as turn signals and parking lights. In the long run, we will add some more lights to the side of the Jeep to replace the running lights that used to be in our factory fender flares.
JEEP DIAPERS
The last thing we had to address on the front of our TJ was its lack of inner fenderwells. Rainwater, mud, and other road debris could have easy access to our engine and electrical components under the hood. To correct this problem, we ran down to the local hardware store and grabbed some rubber pond-liner material made by Firestone. The flexibility of the rubber sheets allowed us cut pieces to fit into the wheelwells. After installing some soft-top snaps and brass grommets, we were able to zip-tie and snap the rubber in place. Our new Jeep diapers might look funny, but they keep mud out of the engine compartment even better than the stock steel inner fenders. And they are easily removed if we need to clean or get at the engine, computer, or other underhood items.