Clear the Fender. – Project:Keira

When I installed the Level 8 Wheels and BF Goodrich KO2 tires I temporarily removed the front fender liners, mud guards, and valance parts because they rubbed – mainly on the rear lower edge of the fender. I didn’t want to run with no fender liners and mud guards, so it was time to do some modding to get them back on. The first thing I did was tackle the mud guards. After installing the mud guards and marking the contact area, I used a Dremel and masking tape (as a guide) to trim both front mud guards enough so that the tire would clear them when I turned the steering wheel.

Left front mud guard just after finishing the trim. Masking tape helped me make a straight cut.

I used some paper to transfer the new shape of the left mud guard to the right side so I can cut the right mud guard exactly the same.

Copying the shape over using paper; low tech is sometimes the best tech.

The bulk of the rubbing was in this section.

Here’s a good view of how much was trimmed on the inner mud guard area.

A little bit of edge sanding and both mud guards are trimmed identical.

Now to trim the lower front fender area. The Dremel and a reinforced cutting wheel made this a quick trim; I decided to trim a triangle shape from the inner fender measuring 2″ x 0.5″. This was more than enough to clear the tire with some extra room. I tried to show the trim as best as I can with the photos below – this mod was done at night in the garage so excuse the lighting:

Right front fender (rear edge) viewed from the front of the truck, trimmed with a Dremel and a reinforced cutting wheel.

Same fender viewed from a lower angle from the side.

Left front fender, taken from above, showing the trim much better.

With the mud guards and metal fender trimmed, it was time to deal with the fender liners. I know a lot of people use a heatgun to mold the fender liner back for more clearance; I had a different idea that I was going to try with mine that didn’t involve heating and melting. First I trimmed the lower portion of the rear edge of the fender liner (the part under the mud guard):

First I trimmed this portion from the bottom of the fender liner.

…and a little clean up of the edges:

That looks better, even if you won’t see it once installed.

The following photo is of the fender liner re-installed onto the truck. Note how there’s now a triangle-shaped gap between the metal fender (where I trimmed) and the plastic liner (which is currently in stock position). Trimming the fender liner gave me a large “tab” underneath the truck, where I drilled a new mounting hole:

Fender and fender liner trimmed, now to get it all together.

Underneath the body I drilled a small hole about 1 inch behind where the new screw will be, as shown in the photo below:

By attaching the “tab” screw to the new hole, this pulled the inner part of the fender liner back about an inch. The lower edge of the fender liner was now flush with the trimmed metal fender; more importantly, it pulled back the part of the fender liner that was making contact with the tire, so now I had a reshaped fender liner with clearance where it needed to be, without reshaping the plastic with a heat gun, and everything fit back together flush:

Fender liner secured in new position, sitting flush with metal fender for no gap.

…and here’s how everything looks after the mod – I now have ample tire clearance, the mud guard looks factory and not hacked up, the plastic fender liner sits flat against the trimmed metal fender (just like before), and if you didn’t know what you were looking at I’d bet that you couldn’t tell I modded anything:

Thanks, Pal