i have seen where a guy welded a bent piece of 1/8 or 3/16 rod around the inside of the cut out, and it made it strong enough to bump trees without messing the fender up.

 

The slotted and fold idea is a great tip, mine are just plain cut and i hate it. Don't really want weather stripping (undecided) so tomorrow while i have the grinder out i'm going to slit and roll them.

 

I take it you lose your inner fender once you do this?

 

I just cut out my fenders and goin to make tube fenders attached to my bumper and slider. I also just made unibody stiffening, clearance gaining, rocker panel cutout air tank sliders. 2x6x3/8 came out sick

 

I'm sure with alittle bit of trimming and playing around you could keep the plastic inner fender, I just haven't looked into it yet. After moving my horns into the engine bay to keep away from the mud, there isn't much in the open other than the vacuum ball, the washer reservoir/pumps, and the door hinges, but I haven't had any problems so far all winter..

 

You'll lose the worthless plastic inner fender wells but the steel is still there. Some of those fenders look too square cut imo. I have always used the original flares as a guide on front, get your grinder out & cut right where flare & fender meet. Once its cut give it a good yank down n cut the lil braces, & its out. Then trim front in bumper area to taste. As far as horns. Lay underneath, brace your foot on it & push it up & forward. It'll tuck up in there, out of site & out of the way.

 

So i tried slotting my fenders and rolling them under. All that got me was an uneven edge (albeit only slightly) and a ton of chipped paint.

 

Not meaning to hijack, this just relates to fender trimming. I'm gonna trim mine when it's nicer here in michigan, but I removed mine last week along with that crappy plastic wheel well lining. Now mud fly's up into my inner fender and hits my door hinges. Everyone else just leave theirs open like that?

 

Once you remove the inner lining road debris will flu into your door just get a pool noodle cut it in half and stuff it in your fender i did it and it works great

 

I have thought about this too, my solution is going to be thin guage steel cut to suit, and tacked on to the fender & well seams. This is only thought though, as the fender is really thin, i don't want to blow through, I will tack on only a few un-noticeable spots first to see how much warping there is and if i blow through. if i do blow through, then off to the junkyard i go, get a new fender, and re-think the whole thing.........any thoughts on welding onto the fender? I know people have welding small tubing to fenders before, so it seems feasible.

 

how many slots did you make? on the rear i make cuts about 1/2-3/4" apart and it folds up pretty nicely

 

the paint tends to catch on fire, even with just small tack welds.

 

 

just did mine, 33's on 4.5 inches of lift.

 

good to know, could some sand paper and a rattle can fix it right up?