Modifying stock front mudguards to increase rock protection

[Pyral]

Been a while since I've posted here since I went back to school. Anyway, I take my 4runner down a lot of gravel roads and it is leaving a ton of rock chips on the whole lower half of my doors, and its probably not great for my paint undercoat.

I installed the OEM front mud guards last summer to fight this, but a lot is still getting past hitting the paint around the drivers door.

I want to keep the stock appearance as much as possible, but the rock protection needs to be addressed. My 4runner could probably do with wider fender flares, since the chrome strip ones dont stick out far enough to do much.

I was thinking of adding a strip of black rubber to the front mud flap to hang down a bit more, but not enough to look like one of those rally inspired Subaru.

Has anyone tried doing this?

 

[Kanoe]

I've added extensions to the rears to keep the bumper corners from getting pelted. Those bumper ends rust from the inside out due to rock damage and spray. I used a transport truck mud flap as material as the thickness is about right and its a nice soft fiber reinforced rubber. They turned out pretty nice for redneck mudflaps. I don't seem to have any pics on hand and the truck is in winter storage.

My fronts are entirely homemade to go along with the homemade running boards. I have experimented with length and you have to go surprisingly Subaru (low) to get much rocker protection. On a dirty day you can see from the spray lines where the zone of protection is. Might be lower than you want to get any real protection.

 

[brillo_76]

This is why I keep the running boards on my rigs if at all possible on them. They keep the rocks etc from coming up. Granted a few of mine no longer have the running boards or rockers for that matter either.. Its on the list.

I defiantly can see people wanting to extend their mud flaps to keep debris off your rig.

 

[Wedgy]

I got the $15 universal flaps at Oreilly's and trimmed them to fit using the stock holes. They help but I don't think anything is as good as the running boards. I'm looking in to some kind of a bottom plate for my sliders so the will act as the running board did but I don't want them to fill with mud and such. As they are now the get pelted with rocks and get rusty and a bit of gravel and mud gets up the side.

 

[phattyduck]

The flaps would have to go way down to protect the paint.

That is mine, with actual Subaru mud flaps (well, universal rally armor mud flaps). It only protects the front doors...

You'd need to drop a second set of flaps farther back on the rockers to cover the rest of the side.

-Charlie

 

[Javiersp1206]

mudflaps

try this company out.

Rally Mud Flaps by RokBlokz- Super Tough. Ultra Durable. FREE SHIPPING

a guy i follow on instagram has them and they look pretty good