33 Inch Tires and Lift - Part III

And finally, you can see the results of the metal cutting. The whole area was sprayed with undercoating to avoid rust. One thing to notice is the soft vertical meterial behind the cut area. This is some type of insulation which is well protected when the wheel well is not modified. Therefore to try and recover some of that protection, I cut some mud flaps to shape and attached them to the remaining wheel well material. The rear is wedged on a angle into the space. I did this on the front as well to protect the fog light area where I installed some PIAA lights.

So here is what the whole thing looks like now. I am VERY pleased with the outcome. I have had no vertical rubbing yet, even with some offroad (albeit fairly tame) testing. I do get rubbing in two areas still (refer to the yellow circles), usually in parking lots when doing sharper turns. The front is plastic but so far nothing has prompted me to do any more cutting. The rear is metal and visible, so I wouldn't be doing any work on it myself. I have some other body work to fix in the spring so I may ask the body shop what they could do at the corners to get rid of some material.