HardRooster

I managed to put a light wrinkle in my driver quarter panel when I rubbed the stock untrimmed flare on a rock. It's not very noticeable. It actually took me a few days to notice but it's there. Not sure there's a way to guarantee a light fender rub won't wrinkle your sheet metal, no mater which route you choose.

Only idea I have so far that doesn't add tons of weight is to lay up some carbon fiber skins over the exterior sheet metal (very involved process involving making a mold, vacuum bagging...etc) and then doing a color matched bed liner to the side. I would love to believe I have the ambition, time and money to pull that off, but I know me :/

In the mean time, I'm building my own tube fenders after I finish my front bumper project. My stock plastic flares are just too beat up and bent for my taste. Even if I trimmed them they'd look like crap.

Bubbacon

Check dealer boneyard (they always have some take-offs), local jeep club swap meet, or wrecked vehicle salvage yard. You can find them. All you may need to order are the plastic clips. Can get those off the interweb :-). Fun fact... The jeep liberty clips fit (almost identical) and are a fraction of the cost for some reason.