IÆm fitting 33 x 12.50s on a 1989 3.0 liter 5 speed. This Raider has mud flaps on the front bumper. At first I thought these were aftermarket mud flaps.



My first thought was to drill out the bolts holding the mud flaps and their mounting hardware onto the bumper.



But the mudflap mounting brackets are an integral part of the bumper! In this photo you can see that the mudflaps are mounted on a heavy-duty bar (thickness 3/16th, breadth 1 3/4 inches) that is seamlessly integrated into the bumper. There are no bolts or even the seam of a weld between this bar and the bumper.



This is the only Monty IÆve ever seen with a bumper & mudflaps like this. Is this something worth saving?
I'll try to bend the bar out a couple of inches. If this doesn't work then I'll have to cut it back about 2 inches.
Thoughts or ideas?

I don't believe those are stock.. I've never seen that as an available part in CAPS anyway. Are they formed in a special shape or simply bent to match the curve of the body/bumper?

I would Do away with them, I have 33x12.50's With the stock rear flap and they fit good. May have to crank up the torsion bars a little to give you added room <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

I'm almost positive they aren't stock. I've never seen them before and they're pretty ugly for something that came factory. Wouldn't they have used a similar design as the rear flaps?
Looks to me like someone just bent a piece of flat bar and welded it to the bumper.

Either way there's no need for them so I'd just dump it.

Those flaps are not stock. The hardware is USS coarse thread. I think I see welding flash, or evidence of, in the first picture along the bottom side of the bumper. I'd just take them off, too.

When I had my first set of 33s and was test fitting, I snapped these photos:







I trimmed the bumper end and the splash guard inside the front wheel well. After my second set, I found a nice place to flex the chassis up and shot this photo:



The tires did not rub, no suspension tweaking, just the minor trimming. The first photos have 10 inch wide rims, the last has 8's in the front and 10's in the rear. The different rim width evened out the tire exposed beyond the fender.

R-

As said before, those are not stock. Mitsu would not have used crappy hardware like that...besides other things.

Just yank em! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It turned out to be easy to bend mudflap bracket outward, so I've done that first.

In addition to dealing with the mudflap bracket, the bumper guards needed trimming, and I had to push out the front of the wheel well to allow clearance of the tires when turned fully inward.

Here's the fit on the left side . . .



And the fit on the right side . . .
On the right side, the gap between the bumper and the mudflap is not as obvious as it looks in this photo.


Here's what the truck looks like wearing its new 33 x 12.50's . . .
This also provides a good look at the mudflaps . . .

Do you plan on mudding in reverse? Plus dont you think they will
get in the way wheeling?

just take those bolts out and remove those abomination flaps. I ended up buzz cutting all flaps from my Raider. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I can't figure out why someone put these on this truck in the first place!

Can you make any sense of this?

Do you think this intended to be functional or stylish?