Front air-dam gone...nipping the fenders flush question

It seems to be one of those times right now where I'm in the mood to work on my XJ and have some spare time to do it. I installed my custom rock rails last month, I have some hood vents from a 96 GTP half installed, my Gibson cat-back rusted off so I have stainless headers, cat, and cat-back on their way to permenantly fix the problem, and while I am at it I figure I should do something about the front fenders which look a little funny without the air-dam that I removed last year. I know I read a long while back that some people just simply cut them off flsuh to the bottom of the quarter panel with a utility knife or fine toothed saw blade, but I am curious about the fender structurally. There is a mount that held the air-dam on and also holds the front of the fender. Once this is removed do the fenders become loose and sloppy, or does it even matter. Just wanted to check before I go hacking away (putting the holes in the hood for the vents made me squeemish enough and they are getting covered up).

Thanks in advance for the info.

Are you talking about the flare, or the fender? The flares provide no structural(sp?) support. On the fenders, there is a bracket thing in the top of the wheel well that holds the fender. On my '89 I have just folded this back and out of the way. Is that what your talking about?

the bracket at the top behind the fender gives it some structure, i just cut a bunch and where it mounted i just relocated it by bending the bracket and drilling a new hole. The air dam i relocated with my trusty friends the zip ties and i cut off those brackets which do make the fenders more whimsical. But if u cut off enough than there will be too little fender too worry about.

It doesn't matter........at all.

Just do it.

Cut even with the bottom of the light bezel.

Ok, here is a pic of what I did. I used a sawzall for this part. If I had my grinder then, I would have cut up to the light.
Cut Fender
Another