I picked up the truck I recently bought for parts and now I have the set of like-new 38x12.50x16.5 Swamper TSL's. I put them onto my `84 3/4 ton with 4" lift and they do rub a little when turning. Even though I really don't want to trim sheet metal, the 38's look to good to get rid of!

I think that all I need to do is some minor trimming - hopefully only on the bottoms of both wheel wells. I would like to get some 'mild looking (don't stick out half a foot from the fender)' aftermarket fender flares to hide the scars. Any suggestions?

I run 36" swampers with a 4" lift and trimmed the fenders, then painted the botom edge with rust proof paint and covered the cut area with door edge trim and it looks great, infact last night I cut the rear quarters to match. Shawn just cut his extreme and should have pics soon, I plan on doing the same thing.

Steve Fox
90 3/4 ton K5
http://coloradok5.com

You could try some Wal-Mart lawn edging. It's black, flexible, looks decent, and is cheap. You can also adjust the width and bolt it into place, it comes 20' x 5" and is only $5. Just a suggestion over spending lots of $$$.

JEEPN
'81 CJ-8 Scrambled!
GM151/SM465/NP205 twinstick/7" Lift/33"Swampers/REP 8000/RS9000's/Scout II D44's w/4.10's & Lockrights

My Blazer had the stock chrome wheelwell trim. When I trimmed the lower corners of the front fenders I simply bent the trim to match, drilled a new hole towards the bottom and reattached it with a sheetmetal screw. You can't even tell the fenders were trimmed without looking real close.

6.2Blazer

I have a 6" lift and no sway bar attached. I did the same thing as 6.2 and it was hard to tell the fender had been trimmed. The fender was trimmed back to the fenderwell BUT my 36x14.5 Swampers still hit the fender and the fenderwell. If I had BFG's (35x12.5), it would probably be ok but the Swampers didn't have enough room. This was chewing up my tires pretty bad and now I have several cuts on the lugs and the top sidewall. The sound is horrible when this happens and a couple times, it actually stopped my K5 like I hit the brakes or something. After looking how Steve Watson of ORD cut his, I decided to do the same. I cut about a foot off the rear portion of the fender well and also cut out some of the inner fender. This allowed me to make a gradual cut on the outer fender to allow plenty of tire room. With the fender cut even more, I can't use the stock trim. They do make some "L" shape vinyl molding that matches the newer Blazer/Sub wheel trim so I may get that someday to hide the cut on the fender. It actually looks pretty good the way I did it and I'll try to take some pics to show you. I think, 38's might even fit! I don't like fender flares since it's tight enough for the K5 on the trail and I'm sure I'd probably break them off. Even the Bushwacker cut-out flares don't seem to make enough room for big tires on GM's and the last set I saw were cracked and had large holes from the trail and rocks.

Shawn
87 K5
few mods

So what's the best way to perform a decent trim job while minimizing scars? A die grinder and lots of disks?

If you could post some pictures of how your rigs turned out I'd really appreciate it!

I used a Sawzall and a fine metal blade. A cut-off disk should work also. Lots of tape on the painted part helps against scratching. I used duct tape. Draw a line before you cut. Here's a picture with the fenders cut. It's not a good one but you get the idea. Notice I chopped the front part of the front fender and the rear portion of the rear fender. The rear was optional since I had a few trail dings there. I'll try to take some better pics that shows more detail.

Shawn
87 K5
few mods

Attached Images

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The best would be a plasma cutter, but a cut-off wheel works pretty well, like Shawn said mark where you want to cut with duct tape and it helps if some one holds the part being cut off to keep the vibration down. It was scary the first time I cut the fenders, but it turned out great, I just cut my rear quarters for better departure angle and am going to put my exahaust pipe up higher. After Shawn "sawzall" Spickler came over this weekend to show me his fenders, I think I am going to cut my front fenders like he did, tons of room for big meats, now I will have to get 38's [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Here is a link to the minor trimming I did. http://coloradok5.com/fendertrim.shtml

Steve Fox
90 3/4 ton K5
http://coloradok5.com

Hey Shawn, I made basically the same cut in my front fenders as you. 38s do fit- kind of. They rub a little bit under major flex, and when you land hard after jumping a sand dune[img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/blush.gif[/img]. I don't run an anti-swaybar either.

Here's a clear pic of the cut on the rear of the front fenders (the front edge isn't trimmed yet in this pic, it's from my truck's inaugural run)


Here's one of flex that caused rubbing...


And a landing that caused rubbing...


<font color=green>Evan</font color=green>[img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

<font color=red>- Contagious Off-Road -</font color=red>

Mine looks almost the same as Shaggy's. I think Shaggy hacked off a little more for the 38's.



There's more pics here:
http://www.off-road.com/chevy/rodent/fenders/

It's difficult to see the cuts with the dirt. Hopefully this helps.


Shawn
87 K5