Trimming Fenders - 1975 GMC Jimmy 4x4

[Mike Phillips]

Trimming Fenders - 1975 GMC Jimmy 4x4

I know a few of you guys don't like huge tires on classic trucks and thus don't see the need to trim fenders, so I'll preface this by saying this is a Father/Son Hobby.  This is our "Weekend Toy" which doubles as my daily driver.  Some day I'll no longer be on earth so while I'm here with my son I want to have fun and for whatever reasons, I ended up in life enjoying Monster Trucks and Drag Boats.

So with that said, in the near future, we're going to install some 44" Super Swampers, when we do this we would need to trim the fenders for clearance.  Before we move up to 44" tall tires we're installing the 35" Boggers we already own and we didn't want to install a body lift, at least not at this time, and we're not ready to install a new suspension lift system, so in order to install the 35" Boggers we needed to trim the fenders for clearance.

I did some searching on this forum and another forum on 4-Wheel Drives and after reading and looking at the pictures of how other guys have done this I turned the computer off, grabbed my rotary buffer and placed an abrasive cutting disc on it.  I removed the front fend and then I sized up the fenders by looking at where the inner fender well sheetmetal meets the outer fender skin and then to the best of my ability fired-up the rotary buffer and cut the fenders free-hand.

Afterwards I applied some touch-up paint to all the bare steel to prevent rust and then re-installed the front bumper.  Did this on a Friday and then my son and I went 4-Wheeling on Saturday.

Here's some before and after pictures of the cuts just to maybe help someone else see where I made my cuts.  This is certainly no endorsement to cut yours where I cut mine, but I found it hard to find really good pictures by other guys showing where they made their cuts; so these are just to give anyone considering trimming their fenders a general idea of where I cut mine.

Before





After


I did a better job on the passenger's side



Rear Fenders - No cut at this time



We trimmed the fenders on a Friday and on Saturday we went on our first 4x4 Trek

Maiden Voyage - Took the Jimmy 4-Wheeling to Johnson Valley Dry Lake Beds

[VileZambonie]

Aww man, why didn't you just lift it another inch? I hate to see that nice rig cut up/

[Mike Phillips]

Aww man, why didn't you just lift it another inch? I hate to see that nice rig cut up/

It's getting 44" Super Swampers sooner or later and the California height laws limit a truck to 30" from the ground to the bottom of the frame, so an 8" suspension lift is about about the max you can go.

Don't think I'll ever get rid of this truck as my son want me to keep it for him but if I ever get another truck it will be a 1971 or 1972 3/4 ton long bed for a longer stance for better stability and because the fender lines of the 1972 and older trucks aren't squared up like the 1973 and newer body styles.

Like the one I had... I don't need to draw your attention to the rounded style fender lines but for all you young ones, take note of the shape of the  rounded fenderlines on the below 1971 Chevrolet as compared to the squared fenderlines of the above 1975 Jimmy.




At the time I wanted out of my 1974 260Z and found a guy selling the Jimmy looking for a classic car with an edge towards a classic Z as his wife just bought a brand new 350Z.  No worries, it's going to just get better and better....

[Mike Phillips]

One of the next modifications besides the big block Chevy will be H-Beam Bumpers both front and rear.  If you look close at the 1971 rear bumper you can see it has an H-Beam bumper, think it was 10" as 12" was just a little too big.  Worked out well as I had about a 3-4 foot 4" square stock beam that fit into a slot on the rear for a drop hitch.  A piece of 1/2" flat plate on the bottom and then a trailer ball for the Drag Boat mounted to the flat plate.  Had to add a 2" square stock support arm from the bottom of the drop hitch running back towards the middle bottom of the frame to keep the drop hitch to keep the very long drop hitch stable at cruising speeds.

[Irish_Alley]

theres a bigger pic of mine

[Stewart G Griffin]

You probably saw this:
http://www.coloradok5.com/fendertrim.shtml


But i have a question for you and anyone else that does body lifts/large tires:

How in the world do you get to the engine?

What i'd like to see is someone has done a tilt frontend while keeping everything stock/stock appearing.  In otherwords, no cuts in the fender.   This may be one of my next projects.

[Irish_Alley]

to get to the engine you just climb on the tire step on the bumper and climb inside now I'm 6' @ 260 lbs so I'm no small guy but i fit very nicely lol
the fenders were cut b4 the lift but will allow for much bigger tires now and with the body lift i can change plugs with out getting in the engine bay.