eniac

I was about to roll my fenders then I thought, well why not just cut the inner lip completely off and smooth it out with a grinder...so why not?

btw I'm doing a MASSIVE weight reduction on my car which includes cutting out any unused brackets such as the spare tire mounts(actually the entire spare tire hump will be gone).

Ian Carr

well nice thing about rolling it is that it can flex/push the finder out as well so you can fit even more tire.

V2Rocket

let us know how much weight the tire bin saves

m73m95

I think you will lost rigidity in the fender by cutting off the lip. I think the wheel arch would get wavy...

Just a thought, as I have never cut a lip off.

Dougs951

Are you trying to maintain a stock look?


If not why not add fender flares?

M758

I have the same thought. That and you will have a sharp edge there unless you are really careful. Changing tires can cut your hands.

The other issue could be paint problems due to the heat of the grinder. I had paint over heat due a 2 second tire rub (rub on ourside).

Cory9584

Thats what I've been doing, I cut off a bunch of brackets like the dead pedal and spare/jack mounts. I wanted to cut the spare tire well out but the gas tank mounts to it if i remember right. I might just cut it down enough to make it into a battery tray.

eniac

I'd round out any sharp edges with the grinder. Rigidy is the only concern I have however the metal on stock fenders is pretty thick compared to other cars.

I am repainting the entire car inside and out so paint damage is not an issue.

shiners780

I had to grind down the lip on my rear quarter panels due to tire rub. No big deal. They wouldn't roll because they are so thick, 3 layers of sheet metal IIRC. They will bend easier now, but....so what?

tconn

I might be mistaken, but I think the outer and inner body shell
are bonded at the lip. Cutting the lip off would allow the panels to seperate.

gt37vgt

I'm interested to hear if anyone has addressed the inner rear guard I gues they all run more veg camber but i dont want to do that ..

samluke

As tconn says, the fender lip is a seam at the back which is a spot weld betrween the panels. You can't cut off the lip unless you don't care about the weld. It will also lose its structural ridgity. You could get some strength back by seam welding, the panels, but that would be a lot of effort to make it nice.

The front is only a sinle panel so it could be cut off but you will still lose rdgidity.

Rolling is the way to go.

shiners780

Keep in mind tires typically only rub in a very short section of the fender so you only need to grind or roll the lip in that trouble area. Doing the whole arch isn't necessary, at least on any of the fixes I've seen.

drift a 944

I cut the edge off from my rear fenders, about a 12 inch section on either side, and I have had no problems for 3 or more years. Literally NO problems, no cutting hands when changing tires, no separation of the outer and inner panels, no issues with losing rigidity (as far as I can tell).

Granted, my tires still rubbed on HARD bumps and heavy acceleration when it was stock rear suspension, but after 3 years there was never any concerning damage to anything including the tires, and now the car has more narrow tires and is the lowest 944 on planet earth probably, and I never get any rubbing.

The only negative aspect is that tire smoke will seep between the two panels and start to fill the car while drifting or doing burnouts or whatever, but most people here don't do that type of stuff anyway. Remember to put a little bit of primer on the clean metal so you don't get rust.

potent951turbo

+1

Why potentially risk the panels seperating or having any other issues when you will achieve the same result with rolling them and it will be cleaner. There can't possibly be enough material there to have any real measurable weight savings anyways.