Trimming Rear Wheel Wells

StuLax18 said:
Roll, don't cut, and all will be fine.

Well, ok, you can cut the plastic trim to give a little extra clearance but will lose some of the mounts. I have gorilla tape holding it on at the top, and it's been fine for years.
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Thanks. Keeping this in mind. The edge of the tire is showing fine shredding. Should I remove the spacers before I had the chance to roll the fenders or can I continue driving if I am extra careful to avoid potholes? And my tires are brand new:mad:

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Since you dropping it off next Monday, I would say take the spacers off for now. Its quick and easy, plus it saves the tires. The cuts are permanents while the looks and feels its so temporary :smile (2): I didn't do that when I had the problem. Now every time I looked at the cuts on the tires, I keep thinking why didn't I just take the spacers off instead of "carefully" driving it. :mad.:
 
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:hahaha: forgot about all the pics that were taken. Yep, all you needed is to roll the section between the top two screws. No problem with mounting the molding back on.
 
Thank you gentlemen. I will have the spacers removed today. Hopefully after the fender roll there would be no more rubbing. I like the flush look right now and it would be a shame if I have to go back w/o the spacers or raise the ride. I will post pics when completed.
 
For those of you that rolled your fenders, how far have you rolled them? I've trimmed the plastic and rolled the fenders a decent bit w/ a bat (so easy when it's all covered by the plastic trim). But it still hits when going over big dips at speed. I can still roll them more, I just wanted to know if there was a limit. I've trimmed the plastic enough that it's definitely hitting the metal. It's minor enough that it's not damaging the tire, I just don't like to hear it. Also, I'd like to drop the car a bit lower (it's at 1 finger right now) and space the rear wheels out another 10mm. On my old car, the shop rolled the lip totally flat. it doesn't quite look like that can be done on the FX, but I'd like to see how close i can get. And is the consensus still that we only have to roll the portion between the screw holes? It sort of looks like it the car is low enough and the suspension compresses enough, the tire could go it far enough to contact tht portion. I can't be sure though.
 
Rolled the rears all the way to the inside of the fender. No rubbing at all.

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I found a DIY on a WRX forum - I forget which one, but I googled it. The basic steps are to jack up the car and remove the fender trim. Then get the car to a height where you can fit a bat between the tire and fender, with just a little bit of gap. After that, heat up the paint and start using the bat to push the lip of the fender up a tiny bit at a time. You sort of wedge the bat between the tire and fender and use the tire as your leverage point. You want to only do it a little at at a time. Work your way down, then do it again. Don't try to roll one spot all the way at once. As you progress and roll the fender more, it will get harder to do. What I mean is on the first pass when you're moving the lip from horizontal to a little vertical, it's really easy. But as the fender lip gets more and more vertical, it gets harder to roll. So the more the fender lip bends, the more pressure you will have to use. The metal lip isn't too tough, and you don't have to worry about pinch welds or anything since you're only rolling one section. On previous cars, I never tried this because I was worried that I would roll the fender unevenly, or mess it up in some way. With the FX, I wasn't concerned because you're only rolling a portion of the fender lip, and even it I had messed it up, the plastic would cover it. As it turns out, it went easier than expected and I didn't mess any of the metal up.

I was more nervous trimming the plastic honestly. If I had slipped cutting that, it would have been a trip to the dealer.

easy_goer said:
Can you tell more on how you did it ?...THX
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---------- Post Merged at 10:59 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:43 AM ----------

Thanks, I guess that will be my project this weekend. My car is probably a tiny bit higher than yours right now, it looks like yours on uneven surfaces.

StuLax18 said:
Rolled the rears all the way to the inside of the fender. No rubbing at all.
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Yeah, I'm on uneven ground, so the rear wheel got crammed up there. Took the pic to show how much travel I can get and still not touch. I'm currently at about 1 finger gap all the way around.
 
As an update, I managed to knock off one of the screws holding the fender trim in. The tire was actually rubbing on the front top bolt and even with loctite, it's now gone. Also, if you roll the fenders flat enough, the top clips won't hold anymore. The tire can also rub on the rear bolt. All of this happened after I installed 305/35/22 tires to replace the 285/35's I had. The look is much more aggressive and the ride is better, but it started rubbing again. Since the front bolt is gone anyways, I'm just going to roll the fenders there as well and use adhesive to hold the trim on.

In a couple of days, I'm going into the shop to have new TPMS sensors installed. At the same time, they're going to align the car and I'll likely go w/ -2 camber up front and -3 in the back for a little more clearance. FWIW, my car is pretty low right now. It sits like Stu's car in the pic at all 4 corners. I've already just about maxed out the fender work that can be done without pulling (hammered down the bump where the rear door line is and everything). The FX is just not meant for anything too aggressive. My wheels aren't agressive and it looks like there's enough clearance, but it still rubs.
 
You hammered down the door line bump? How difficult was that? Metal is thick and on a compound curve, I started beating on it at one point and then walked away, saying I'd cut it off if need be......BTW Turbocad ended up gluing on his trim as well, I am close to doing the same in front. Did you keep both your fender liners in front?
 
yeah, I hammered mine completely flat with a hammer and dolly and even tilted/flared the edge of it out slightly too, not visible after the molding is reattached and yeah, the clips won't be any good at that point too, so a few dabs of silicone or epoxy or whatever will do the job... double sided tape can work too but you'll have to stack up 2-3 strips to make up for the thickness needed to fill the void of the molding and make good contact. I like silicone the best for this as it'll hold it well but also be easy to remove for servicing if need be... just clean the metal well and scuff up the inner part of the molding for best bite
 
I need to figure out something with the front. My tires wore out the clips, and now they just blow right into the lining. It's all loose now, so you can reach under with your hand and push up into the tire well plastic.

Honestly, I'll probably just leave it like that, but I'd like it to be secured. :sluggish:
 
the front clips are an issue, I've removed these clips completely and placed the liner behind the clip tabs and then compressed/rolled it a bit for a little more clearance but the front is a bitch. one car I did had huge 24's and was slammed, the only way to get that to work was to cut into the liner and make some more room, along with trimming the fender moldings a bit ... front is hard to do much with without a bit of butchering really
 
well in a sense that's what I winded up doing, moving the outer edge up... a few pie cuts and a heat gun, I sealed it to the inner fender with, of all things, a bit of aluminum layered dynamat... it adheres and it seals a bit but this was a semi temporary solution at the time... to really be nice I'd have to build complete new fender liners really... the biggest problem there is to try to keep it pretty much sealed so crud doesn't wind up embedding behind the fender and start to cause corrosion...
 
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