Front Wheel Arch Modifications to Stop Rubbing

[CREGAN]

Hey all. I have had some front wheel rubbing on my van since owning it and am finally trying to do something about it. The tire is rubbing on the front corner of the arches and the back on the seam that sticks out. I can fix the front corners I think with some creative shaving down but the back has me a bit puzzled as to what to do. I have been reading up about wheel arch mods on the aussie site and they say to bend the seam over (to the outside of the van) to create some more clearance. I am thinking that I am going to put a notch in the seam about 15cm up with my grinder and then bend the lower portion to the outside. Does that sound reasonable? Another thing I was thinking about was just grinding the whole 15cm off. Once it is bent over or removed I would spray it with a few coats of rust paint and some undercoating to stop it from rusting. It will be behind my new mud-flaps so it will be protected from direct hits from debris but water will still be able to get in behind I am sure.

I am not really sure though of what would happen if that seam were weakened or removed. Will my whole van crumble into a thousand pieces? Anyways- what do you think?

Craig

[Luna-Sea]

Hey,
Just peen and whack and smack it flush(ish)
Then coat it with some rubbery tenacious product.
I would not cut it a little or a lot,
Partly for structure and partly for water tightness.

You will feel wrong hammering on it at first,
Then you will see you did a decent job after
Which you will wonder why you did not do it
Sooner.That was my experience anyway...

Good Luck

[doodah]

It the peen hammer for me as the rubbing is driving me crazy. 31" tires and a 2" lift is not enough clearance. Scares the bejeezus out of everyone including me when I back out from a parking spot.

[CREGAN]

It the peen hammer for me as the rubbing is driving me crazy. 31" tires and a 2" lift is not enough clearance. Scares the bejeezus out of everyone including me when I back out from a parking spot.

That is exactly why I want to fix this! When I back out at CT it sounds like the whole arch is coming off! People stare at me an I am sure mumble "Look at that POS". Anyway I guess I will need to pick up a hammer.

Craig

[jessef]

I posted a ways back about trimming the front.

pull the mud flap
take an xacto knife and cut back the plastic trim
hammer back the vertical seam with a BFH
depending on the offset/tire you may need to trim the front as well (easy as plastic trimming goes)
once trimmed, test and check for clearances
when it's good, then paint to coat and exposed metal

I'm going to be doing it in a few days and will post some pics

[CREGAN]

Cool. Someone has already hacked the plastic inner mud guard but didn't do anything with the verticle seam. I think it is pretty straight forward. I bought a cheapy dremel to do some proper fitting of the front flares and I am going to take some off on the front and rear portions of the front set of flares. Taking the flares off exposed some pretty sweet crud! Much like removing the bull guard- years of Japanese polution. No giant dragonflies this time.

Craig

[jessef]

here you go Craig

Start to finish (note: I didn't have time to take picture of the finished job as the primer paint was still drying but you get the basic idea of the task at hand)

# (image). (tools required) - (task description)

- Front arch (opens up the front arch area for articulation and a better approach angle at the tire)

1-2. xacto knife - trim horizontally as per pic and make sure to leave the retaining nylon bolt that goes into the frame
3. remove lower bowl - 4 plastic retaining clips (philips nylon bolts) and 1 pressed in retaining clip
4-5. xacto knife - trim angle piece (this will allow wider tires/larger wheel offset to rotate wheel lock to lock without rubbing on this corner pc.)

[jessef]

- Rear arch / complete (img 6 - 10)

6-7. xacto knife - trim vertical plastic shroud about 1" from the vertical body seam.
8. BFH - hammer the vertical pinch seam inwards until it is flush with body
9. BFH - hammer and/or cut/trim bottom pinch weld and adjust to your wheel/tire
#. test - put wheels back on and test articulation/running.
#. sandpaper/paint/auto body seam filler - use these tools to complete the task

[CREGAN]

Thanks Jesse- that is exactly what I did, so that is good to know! The only thing I did differently is I bent the metal to the outside and flattened it as the Aussie forums said it will give you more clearence. I also trimmed a little off the very bottom of the fenders (angled it in more to give more space if needed) with my grinder. I also trimmed the plastic off the bumper in the front by holding my angle grinder up to if and shaving it off until I got the right amount off. Worked great, a little noisey though! I installed the mudflaps and have not had rubbing since so i think I was successful. Wow, it feels good to say that for a change!

Craig

[mararmeisto]

"Peen... whack... and smash it" - yes! Yes! Yes!

Always good modification advice.

[jessef]

without trimming on the rear wheel arch it's close, if not rubbing on the lower seam/nub.

This is with a 31x10.5x15 Goodyear Duratrac on Toyota 15x7" wheel with 4.75" backspacing so it's tucked in nicely.

Typical aftermarket wheels are between 3.75 and 4" backspacing pushing the tire out, which in turn would push the edge of the tire closer to the body causing the rubbing.