Cutting fenders on an 86.

[DevilDog]

When I bought my B2 it already bigger than stock tires, though they were in no way meant for off roading.

The last time I took it down to get inspected for the state inspection it didn't pass for emissions(which doesn't matter to me, I wish I could take all that crap off and use strait pipes with headers) and because the rear tires had "cuts and buldges" on them. They did have a few cuts, but only a mm or two deep, nothing that would leak or be of any danger. The buldges I don't believe, only because the place I took it too was a Michelin Dealer, though they didn't have Michelin in their store name they had Michelin products. So me and my dad figured they were just trying to make another sale. [-X

Well we weren't going to have any of that, so we swapped the tires off my '75 F100 because they were the same rim size and only a few inches wider, but they are atleast 4 inches taller. I'm not sure of the exact hight, but they hit and rub the top of the fender on the wheel well when I hit a bump going to fast. This can be a problem when getting on the highway and things like that. :glare:

So my dad the convenient thing at the time and bent out the lip that was hitting the tires. It stopped the rubbing, but now it looks aweful. I told him I wanted to just trim the fenders a few inches so I could keep those tires, but he said that is where the welds are for the wheel-well and undercarriage. <_<

My question is is it possible to cut the fenders a few inches and maybe but some flares without having to take the truck to a body shop and paying an arm and a leg?

 

[Justshootme84]

yes, it is possible to cut the wheel openings yourself and have it look good, maybe even hard to tell you did anything. You can look inside the fender lip to see if it's one layer of metal (the outside one) or two, which is part of the inner fenderwell. On some vehicles, the inner fender is plastic, and will be bolted to the outer metal lip. Usually, the rear fenders/ quarter panels have the two-layer thing going on and will be a bit harder to cut. I found that using a cut-off wheel is easier than a Sawz-All, but either will work. Cut the outer metal a bit longer than the inner one, then fold the exposed lip over the inner metal by making cross cuts. if you use fender flares, the edge will be covered up. I like to use rubber door molding, just glued to the new metal edge. You might get an idea from my thread in the 78/79 forum, and can look up more fender trimming links under "Miesk5 homepage' in the tech articles forum section, JSM84