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How much of the fender well can be ct?


Guest KillerKlownRodz

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Guest KillerKlownRodz

I bought new tires. The dealer could not find the size I had and went to a little taller tire. Going over bumps every so often I get some rubbing on the top of the tire. The well has been cut because of rust, so about 1/2 inch has been cut.

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Where exactly are the tires rubbing (is it in the wheel well, or is it rubbing on the wheel opening lip), and what part of the wheel well has already been cut out. The fender has a simple plastic well (which won't rust), whereas the rear quarterpanel has a steel unibody well, but rusting usually takes place at the fender lip.

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Guest KillerKlownRodz

pic01%7E0.jpg

 

The tire hits where I cut rust from the lip. when I hit a bump, right on top of the tire. I need to trim off about 1/2 in more if I can

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A picture is worth a thousand words. To gain more room for my tires on the quarterpanel, I cut about 2.5" off the lip, actually, it was the same radius as the wheel opening, but with the center of the arc moved 2.5" upward, so that the sides remained uncut, but the amount of material removed was more and more the higher up the arch I went until it was about 2.5 inches at the crest. Then I took the wheel well material (which I did NOT cut, but instead separated it from the outer skin at the lip) and hammered it straight out from it's peak (as it normally curves around the tread toward the lip in the OEM configuration) so that it would meet up with the new, higher, outside lip. Then I re-welded it all back together again. It is important to re-connect the inner (well) and outer (quarter panel lip) steel back together again after any of the lip is removed so that the unibody integrity is maintained.

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It is important to re-connect the inner (well) and outer (quarter panel lip) steel back together again after any of the lip is removed so that the unibody integrity is maintained.

 

Its amazing floppy the Z gets when this isn't done.

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I don't have any good pictures that can show this, but here's a drawing I threw together that shows what I did. It's a cross-section of the wheel well/fender before and after I modified the opening to accept the wider tires on the lowered body and avoid any rubbing.

 

standard.jpg

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Terry when you hammered out the inner fenderwell did you pie cut it, or just hammer it? I figure if you didn't pie cut it you probably had to hammer it pretty good... but if you pie cut it then you would have had to weld in some wedges to make it whole again.

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Guest KillerKlownRodz

I went into (photo album) down loaded my pic to the album clicked to open to full pic then right clicked hit properties highlighted it's address right click hit coppy opened this window hit IMG right click paste then IMG

If this is confuseing look at the post New to the board.

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Terry when you hammered out the inner fenderwell did you pie cut it, or just hammer it?

 

Yep, I hammered it (with a dolly backing it up). It was not easy being this piece is comprised of compound curves, but it did hammer out. I wanted to eliminate as much welding as possible, but the cutting would work just as well, and be easier to do in the long run.

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