Glassworks Fiberglass Fenders & Bedsides
Published by Trails Less Traveled on April 9th, 2004
INTRODUCTION
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In this article we will cover the installation of Glassworks Unlimited fiberglass fenders and bedsides in order to clear the widened long travel front suspension and long travel rear suspension we have planned for the TLT Tacoma in the very near future.
FRONT FENDER OVERVIEW
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Our 4wd Tacoma is going to be 3.5” wider per side after we install a long travel front suspension kit. The new front suspension increases travel from less than 7” to 13” of vertical wheel travel. In order to get the benefits of a long travel front suspension kit on an IFS truck, flared fiberglass fenders are a necessity. Wider fenders are also shaped with larger wheel openings so that over-sized tires will not come into contact with the bodywork under full compression.
In all the conversations we had while researching companies and fiberglass products, trying to find the best-made body panels for our Project Tacoma, the name Glassworks Unlimited out of Huntington Beach, CA kept coming up. We can confirm that theyre turning out some of the best fitting, well-finished, and most durable fiberglass replacement body panels currently available. On top of that, the styles fit and complement the bodylines of the trucks they are designed for.
FRONT FENDER INSTALLATION
The front fenders we installed have 4.5” of flare, and the wheel opening is cut 3” higher than stock. Glassworks also offers a less aggressive, 3.5” flared model for stock-width trucks that just want to cover larger tires. The front fenders are a bolt-on replacement for the stock sheet-metal; only requiring a few mounting holes to be drilled in the new fenders. The installation can be completed in about 2 hours with basic tools, and no additional parts or hardware are required. The installation is so straightforward that well fly through it here without having to show you how to turn the wrenches.
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Start on one side by removing the removing the corner light. There are two screws on the side of the housing, as shown in the photo, and one on the top, inside the hood line. Pull out the light, disconnect the wiring, then remove and set aside the corner light.
Remove the plastic inner-fender liners by unscrewing the assorted sheet metal screws that holds it in place and pull out the plastic snap-in retainers with pliers or by hand. A good hard yank will actually take the whole thing out pretty easily, and those clips do not need to be reused. Discard the inner fender liner.
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The front bumper must be removed in order to access two of the bolts that secure the fender to the body. First, disconnect the turn signals in the bumper from the wiring harness from behind the bumper. There are only two bolts on each frame rail that the bumper is mounted to, and there are only two more bolts (one on each side) that hold the outer edges of the bumper to the body. Set aside the front bumper to be reinstalled later. Finally, remove the two bolts securing the front of the fender to the body.
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To get access to the single front fender bolt, remove the painted lower front grill piece under the headlight by pulling gently on it from the outside edges (its a snap-fit). Remove the bolt that the cover-plate exposes, and then remove the three bolts along the top of the fender, inside the hood line. Next, open the door to get access to the bolt located within the door jam, close to the upper hinge. Finish by removing the two bolts at the bottom of the fender, at the rear of the wheel well opening. On the passenger side, the antenna mount must also be removed using a spanner wrench. Remove the fender and set aside.
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Test-fit the Glassworks fender, marking where the three holes need to be drilled in the fender along the hood line. Make sure to check the fender-to-hood gap as well as the fender-to-door gap. Remove the fender again and drill small pilot holes where marked. Re-fit the fender to verify that they are placed correctly and then drill out the holes to 5/16”.
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Reinstall the stock hardware to firmly secure the fender and then move on to marking and drilling the other holes in the same fashion. Reinstall the stock hardware. Note that some of the holes may need to be drilled slightly oversized or slotted to allow for the fender to be shifted and positioned while installing. This is typical. Reinstall the front grill detail and the corner light. Finally, reinstall the front bumper.)
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The completed installation shows how well the fenders fit and look. They leave more than enough room for our upcoming suspension installation and judging by the quality of construction, they should hold up to hard use.
BEDSIDE OVERVIEW
In the rear, the steel bedsides do not even have adequate clearance for stock width axles with tires larger than 31”, making it impossible to use the extra compression travel that aftermarket leaf springs and long-travel shocks can provide. In order to use all of the 18” of suspension travel that our new rear suspension will cycle, we had to first make room for the tires. The Glassworks bedsides we installed feature a 4” flare and also have wheel-well opening raised 3” higher than stock, to match the front.
Installing fiberglass bedsides is much more involved than the front fender installation. Expect the complete installation to take the better part of an eight hour day, because the bed must be removed from the truck (to do it RIGHT), and pulling off the stock sheet metal is fairly time consuming. This is mainly due to the fact that the bedsides are spot-welded onto the bed instead of being bolted-on like the front fenders. Installing new bedsides should be considered a semi-permanent modification because the stock sheet metal cannot be easily reattached after it has been cut from the truck. The improved suspension performance that the bedsides accommodate was enough to convince us.
BEDSIDE INSTALLATION
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Start by removing the inner plastic splashguard, similarly to how the front was removed, unscrewing sheet metal screws and pulling out the snap-in fasteners. Discard the fasteners and plastic splashguards. At the same time, remove the bolt that attaches the bedside to the support bracket at the front of the wheel well, leaving the support bracket attached to the inner bed.
Remove the taillight via the four Philips head screws, disconnect the wiring at the light and remove the taillight assembly. Feed the electrical wires down through the taillight holes and remove the plastic fasteners from the bed so that the wiring harness is not attached to the bed of the truck at any point. Disconnect the electrical connections to the license plate lights.
Remove the tailgate and the tailgate hardware from the bed. The tailgate can be reused with the new bedsides if desired. Either way, the hardware can be reused to fasten the tailgate edge of the new fenders. Dont forget to open the gas filler door and remove the gas cap just as if you were going to fill the tank. The gas filler is not actually bolted to the bed, so no further disassembly is required.
Remove the four bolts and two nuts that secure the bed to the frame rails and then transfer the bed off of the truck onto a stable, elevated work surface (take care to lift it free of things like the gas filler). The bed is easily light enough for two able men to handle. The floor of the bed can be placed on anything like blocks of wood or used tires, etc. to create a work surface that will not require the low-hanging wheel openings of the sheet metal to support the weight of the bed.
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From this point you are committed to completing the project. Make sure that you can finish in the same day its started if you need to drive anywhere (to pick up parts, etc.) because this is what it will look like until its done. We did the installation over two half-days in one weekend, and made one trip to the hardware store to purchase eight 5/16” x 1” stainless bolts and lock nuts, sixteen 5/16” stainless washers, two 1/4” x 1” stainless bolts with locknuts and four 1/4” stainless washers.
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Each spot-weld must be drilled out along the edges where the bedside is fastened to the body (and there are a plenty of them). Spot-weld drill bits are available but we just used a center punch and hammer to mark all of the places that needed drilling, and then used a small bit to create a pilot hole. We started at the front edge of the bed and drilled out all of the spot-welds in that area, then removed the body-sealing glue from the seam with a putty knife. After we came back through and drilled the holes out to 1/4”, the majority of the spot-welds broke loose without any further prying.
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Working our way rearward, we drilled out all of the spot-welds in the bed rail in the same fashion. They are spaced at even intervals, but vary in the height at which they are placed on the inside of the rail. They are easy enough to locate though, because they create a dimple in the painted surface.
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There is a supporting bracket that braces the stock outer bedside at the top of the wheel-well opening and there are three spot-welds that need to be removed. They are easiest to drill from inside the bed, in the positions shown in the photo. On the drivers side (pictured) there is also a bracket that supports the gas filler that we chose to remove at the same time because we plan to change the location of the filler. The two extra holes from that bracket are visible in this picture.
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There are two spot-welds inside the taillight housing that are easy to miss. Remove these and all of the spot-welds along the tailgate edge. The bed must be stood on its front end or turned upside down in order to access the bottom three spot-welds at the rear of the bed, below the taillight.
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Separate the bedside skin from the inner bed sheet-metal, prying and persuading it with a stiff putty knife (or a flat blade screwdriver and hammer). At this point you will find any spot-welds that were missed or other places the bed is still fastened. Again, start at the front of the bed and work through the bed rail to the rear tailgate edge.
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After removing the bedside completely, work on removing the long vertical piece of sheet metal with a lip on it, at the tailgate edge. This is the piece that all of the tailgate hardware goes through, so make sure to only remove the outer piece and leave the inner metal, nuts, etc. attached to the bed.
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Trim the upper rear corner as shown in the image on the left and remove the lower rear brace by drilling out the spot-welds as shown in the image on the right.
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Now test-fit the bedside and note the areas along the tailgate edge that will need to be trimmed. Remove the bedside and grind down the areas of the tailgate edge as needed until the bedside fits without interference.
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There are three holes in the bed rail that are raised and provide a level surface to mount the fender. These holes are marked and shown in the next two images. There is also one existing hole in the front edge of the inner bedside. With the fiberglass installed, transfer these marks with a pen or paint to the fiberglass.
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Remove the bedside one last time and drill the mounting holes, using the inner bedside as a template, where the pen/paint marks were made. In both images you can see the pen marks where mounting holes will be drilled. Drill the pilot holes from the inside-out where the marks indicate. Then drill the 5/16” holes from the outside-in to avoid cracking the gel-coat. Note the quality of the mold and smooth pattern of the matte that is laid visible on the inside of this bedside.
Primer the drilled holes and cut edges of the inner sheet metal and body before permanently mounting the bedside. Cut sheet metal and drilled holes are quick to rust without protection from the elements. We just used a red-oxide primer because its durable and will not be visible on the completed vehicle.
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Install the bedsides for the last time (hopefully) and with the bedside in place, start fastening the hardware at the bed rail. Install the nut/bolt/washer assembly at mounting point on the front edge of the bed, and then move on to the tailgate hardware.
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Stock tailgate hardware can be used to secure the rear of the glass. Start by drilling pilot holes through the fiberglass from inside the taillight housing, using the existing hardware holes as reference. Drill out the holes to the required sizes from the tailgate sidein, using the appropriate drill bits. Be careful not to drill farther than through the fiberglass because it is easy to damage the threads on the nuts. On each side there is one tailgate hinge bolt, one support cable bolt, and two bolts that fasten the latching mechanism.
Drill one 1/4” hole through the bedside and the stock rivet hole in lower rear support bracket, just below the taillight. Install 1/4” hardware. Also drill the fiberglass bedside support flange at the front of wheel well opening and mount to stock support bracket reusing the stock bolt.
Reinstall the bed on truck, taking care not to damage the gas filler lines or pinch the wiring harness between the bed and frame. Secure the six nuts and bolts, after centering the bed on the frame mounts. Reconnect the wiring harness and reinstall the taillights, drilling pilot holes for the self-tapping screws to thread into (using the taillight assembly as a template).
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Glassworks offers a bolt-on gas filler that uses a universal mount and a billet aluminum boat/aircraft style filler that looks pretty slick. There is a fuel cell in this trucks future, so wed rather not cut the bedsides. Our hands will just get a little dirty filling up at gas stations for now, with the cap staying tucked inside the fiberglass skin.
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The completed installation shows how well the bedsides fit and cover the 33” x 10.5” tires. The rear bedsides look like they will cover any 33-35” tires up to 12.5” wide on 8” rims with no less than 3.5" backspacing on a stock width axle. The completed truck is looking kind of like a patchwork right now, but the lines are good and a paint job is coming soon. Until you do paint fiberglass, acetone is great to clean greasy handprints off of the gel-coat.
This Article was originally published on Off-Road.com July 2003
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