Fender trimming

[88pathoffroad]

I finally got really tired of hearing the tires rub the fenders when offroading and around corners, so today I trimmed my fenders again. This time I didn't waste any time, I just cut some nice large chunks off the fenders and inside the wheelwell up on the firewall. I also trimmed the fender flares and front lower radiator airdam fairly heavily.

 

Here, have some pics.

 

Before touching anything. Slight bit of trimming behind the tire at the rear of the fenderwell, but nothing really spectacular.

 

Removed fender flare. Note the bent fender sheetmetal at the rear due to the tire contacting it.

 

Cut off triangular pieces from fenders, also took off firewall lip inside fenderwell where the tire comes closest when the suspension is compressed.

 

Pic of the trimmed firewall lip: highlighted with yellow. I've also trimmed the plastic inner fenderwell liner where the tire was rubbing.

 

Fender flare reinstalled, cut to match fender in front, kinda screwed up at the rear in this pic, but I've since fixed it.

 

...and what was left over when I was done.

 

The things I gotta do to run 33's with no rubbing... Bring on the 35's!!

[Pathy]

man that was a pretty clean job u did there, i think ill stick with my 31's, lol.

Cheers

[ChromoTech]

Man ive been rubbing with my 32s and its been tearing the crap out of my Bfgoodrich all-terrains

[Mr. Pickles]

I've already had to trim the flares and a bit of the fender and remove the ends of the front airdam thing, and I'm only running 31 BFG MT's. There are worse things in life...

[Diesel Boy]

Very interesting guys.

How many of you have body lifts??

I thought i could get mine to stop rubbing by raising the body about 1.5 inches.

Maybe not by the sounds of it!!

My tires are 33.4".

I was tempted to do what 88 did as theres alot of scope to make the whole rear fender larger, but i stopped my self, as 88 found out, theres not a lot you can do at the front with out modifying the floor pan, which is ok on the pasengers side, but pedals and that get in the way on the drivers!

I have more probs with mine rubbing on the chassis at full lock under any circumstances than rubbing on the gaurds. pull the wheels off, get under the gaurd and just make sure you have all the sharp edges out of the way that you can find. That way you should minimise the risk of putting a serious cut in the tyre.

Pete.

[ChromoTech]

I wish I did as good as you did on the fenders!

i used a sawsall on mine

[Ramithepimp77]

Ya you did an AWESOME job on those.

[BigMike]

mmm 33s with NO RUBBING. so nice

[EvilLex03]

BigMike, Those are 33"s on your path ?

[88pathoffroad]

*bump for great justice*

[TrailChaser]

Talk about reviving an old thread. I remember reading this thread back in the day and thinking how bad I wanted 33's, but don't want a body lift.

 

Now I'm running 34's(285/75/16) with no bodylift and I have very little rubbing after removing a bit of sheetmetal. I hammered down the seam that you cut off. I'm planning to cut more off the front of the fender when I make the winch bumper.

[nige]

OK now that i have trimmed my fenders, I get no rubbing (well a tiny bit on the rear or the rear fender flare, but not damaging) I noticed that the weather seal on the front doors is exposed where the bottom of the fenders usually cover. No one here has had any problem with water getting in there?

 

I ended up using a grinder with a cut-off wheel attachment, a stone grinding disc for touch ups, tin snips for the flares, a drill for making new holes in the flares, and a big hammer to flatten down the pinch seam.

 

I ended up using some round headed metal screws to attach my rear flares with. Once you get rid of the stock hardware with the hex heads, the tires do not rub on anything when tucked up (without rancho rs5112 shocks). I will take a picture and show you what i've done. it was very simple and cheap with minimal drilling.

 

I am running 33x12.5 pro comp mt's on 15x8 wheels with 3.75" of backspacing.

Edited April 27, 2008 by skrillaguerilla