Advanced fender trimming... rear pinch seam Q's

Alright, I'm working on fitting some 36" Iroks under the rear of my cherokee (front is already punched out big enough with no issues).

Does anybody have any pics/writeups on what they did with the rear pinch seam on a 4 door to allow some larger meats to stuff in? I'm a little hesitant to start cutting on it... obviously, I would be welding things back together so there would be no holes and to regain some of the structure. I don't want to cut the whole fenderwell out and re-do it like I've seen some others do, but I need to make some room in the front and back of the opening so the tire can stuff all the way in there, and my fenders have already been trimmed and the pinch seam is cut and folded.

Show me what you did.

Oh yeah, I did search... but I can't come up with anything but a bunch of regular fender trimming write-ups... IE, what I've already done. I need to go further.

If you cut right before the pinch seams, bend the rest over w/ a hammer and bumpstop the rear you can clear without major modification...

Dude... did you read my post? I've already done that... I'm looking for more space. As it is now, the 36's rub on the front and rear bottom portions of the fender well before they meet the top part of the outer fender. My goal here is not to run a bunch of lift with crazy long bumpstops but to do a little bit of work on the fenders and fit the 36's in with less bumpstop (I will still need to extend them though).

Did you already trim your quarter panels like This?

That might help the rubbing in the rear if you haven't yet.

have you thought about taking off the lower rear corner, might give you what you need. plenty of write ups on here for it

and rocker beat me to it

air hammer the front part

I've pondered doing that... but I have not yet. Guess that would do the trick on the rear portion... but I would still be rubbing in the front at full stuff.

Well, you only have a couple of choices. Cut more, bend more, or add more bumpstop. You have to cut and hammer enough at the bottom of the wheel wells (front and back) to get the clearance you want.......no other way. When you made the decision to run the 36's you also made the decision to cut more on your body. If you're worried about the structure of the pinch seam, put in a cage. If you can't do the cage, run some boxed tubing down the side of the frame rails to add some rigidity to compensate for cutting through the pinch seam. Really, if you cut through the seam only at the bottom of the wheel wells it shouldn't effect anything. Or, just hammer the crap out of it to push it back enough to get the clearance you need......I've done both to run 37's.

I did finally cut through the pinch seam at the top, since I raised my bumpstops for more up travel. But, I have a full cage so I wasn't concerned about maintaining rigidity. Rather than weld the seam, I made new diamond plate for the sides and left enough material to bend the plate over to the inside of the wheel well, cutting slits in it so it could be conformed to the shape of the wheel well. It added plenty of stiffness to the panel, and looks clean.

Goatman: not that I don't want to cut stuff up, lol... I just want to know how to do it properly and safely...

I think I may just take the hammer to it for right now. I think I can get some more space in there by just heating it up a little bit and pushing the material back.

A cage and frame sleave is in this rig's future, just not before this weekend and I want to go wheeling and not cut up my tires. Don't worry, bumpstops are in the plan before this weekend as well.

Make sure to dig out any insulation before you start heating or welding anything up. I caught mine on fire just because I overlooked that.

NotMatt said:

I just want to know how to do it properly and safely...

I think I may just take the hammer to it for right now.

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Wear safety goggles and keep a good grip on the hammer.


Now you're talking........have fun.

xjj33p3r said:

Make sure to dig out any insulation before you start heating or welding anything up. I caught mine on fire just because I overlooked that.

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Where was the insulation? Behind the plastic trim panels in the back? I don't have carpet in the back of my rig, just some herculiner I laid down a while back...

Did you already trim your quarter panels like This?

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i did this to clear my 36" tsl's it was just what the doctor ordered.

use a bigger hammer and swing harder!

heatin' it w/ a torch helps too. you can "stretch" it a good half inch all the way around before you start having issues.

There was a GREAT write up, thought it was here but maybe linked over at Pirate on retubbing the rear wheel wells. Sounds like we're both looking to do the same thing (this thread was at the top of my search...) and if I can find that URL again I'll drop back to post it here.

The guy cut the entire wheel wells out level with the cargo area and the quarter panels. He then built new wells that were MORE than big enuff and tied the subframe back into the quarter panel for rigidity.

i cut the outer sheetmetal up to about a quarter inch below where the inner fender wheel meets up with the outer. Then bent the outer sheetmetal up and inside the fender well. then welded it all up. jeep hasn't been out of the garage yet since but i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. not the prettiest but probably more rigid than stock.

i'll try to get some pics and post them.

Let me know if this is close to what you need... This isn't the one I was looking for but Offroadman (on JU) passed this one along:

http://groups.msn.com/DavidOBoyle/creepers.msnw

It's a major rework & stretched the wheelwells for a longer wheelbase but shows how the guy chopped out all that pinch seam and rewelded the rebuilt wheelwells higher up & further back.

I talked to a local body shop guy today and it's not a project for the 'average' body shop. Guess it's 'buy the guy with a welder some beer' time...

Yep I am the one that helped out lunghd on JU. David Boyles (x cherokee, he no longer owns it) is my inspiration---------Kyle

Here is my XJ with 36" IROKS and 7" lift on full size axles. I didn't need to cut into the pinch seam on the back. Just did the typical cut and hammer routine.

I did however move the axle back 2" and removed the lower rear corner, that freed up a LOT of room.



Ya I know "nice spare", "nice flares" already been thru that thanx. It works.

dude whats up with that conveyor belt stuck on the side of your jeep? is that your spare, its so small like my... really man quit posting that picture so i can keep a meal day for once.

Ramsey said:

is that your spare, its so small like my...

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I thought you were 6'2" and 250 or thereabouts? I'd imagine there is nothing small about you.