Fender cutting techniques?

[Blazin'4x4]

Anyone have any template ideas or rules of thumb befor I get buck wild?

 

[vtblazer]

 

[vtblazer]

I cut my fenders 4.5"s all the way round.

Which equates to making them 9"s wider in total.

If you wheel with the bigger tires, cut big cause you'll need it.

 

[Burt4x4]

I run 36" and I still need to trim the rear of the front a bit more and the front of the rear

VT ~ What size are your tires?

Oh and I used to get R Done

 

[Greg72]

Ideally, you should be finding a ramp to drive on (slowly) so that you can observe where the interferences are......mark them.....trim.......repeat.

A simple thing to remember is if your tire is 40" tall, the fender opening needs to also be 40" wide (at least across the bottom, measuring horizontally). It will actually need to be wider since the tire actually needs more room when the wheels are turned left or right.... but you get the idea.

At the top of the fender, you need less cutting because the tire is tucking into the wells at an angle.

No matter what, there will be enough cutting required to cause some heartbreak.

 

[vtblazer]

Ideally, you should be finding a ramp to drive on (slowly) so that you can observe where the interferences are......mark them.....trim.......repeat.

To add to this,

There's no 'real' way to duplicate actual trail flex, if it's close during the garage flex, you need to go bigger still.

 

[vtblazer]

VT ~ What size are your tires?

Those would be 42's.

 

[70jimmy]

I basically put my tire up to the fender then went like 3 or 4 inches all around then tapered front and rear, cut the tangs off and married the inner fender to the outer.

Might see if you need to tub the rear fenders and cut out more of the floor area so you dont rub on the inner wall of the inner fender.

I used masking tape to mark it off and put the new tires up near it and lifted the truck to the height I figured it would be at and went to cutting.

 

[MNorby]

here is mine

 

[vtblazer]

here is mine

Nice start on the first tube into the fender area, I like it.

You cut higher up by the grill than I have, like that too.

 

[Blazin'4x4]

Thanks for all the great pics, I like the idea of about 4" around but seems like the inner fenders are going to be a problem. I have it all marked off with tape, and am ready. Whats a good tool to use. Seen sawzall in action, dosnt look to good to me. Nice trucks by the way.

 

[Blazin'4x4]

Burt4x4 sure did a sweet job eliminating the rockers!

 

[vtblazer]

Whats a good tool to use.

Cut off wheel.

May as well give up on having inner fenders.

 

[70jimmy]

Angle grinder worked best for me. Easiest to operate just use an 1/8 inch thick one and dive in.

I wasn't too good with the plasma I had access to, but used it for cutting the patch pieces I used to patch the inner fenders.

 

[MNorby]

I used the plasma cutter on my first cuts and a sawzall the last time I cut more out.

 

[Blazin'4x4]

Bought a cool grinder, Gonna tick off the neighbors this week.