Inner Fender Dilema

[Lated]

I just did a 3.5/4 drop on my truck and if I'm not careful when I go over bumps the front tires hit the inner fender. I've considered removing them but didn't know if there were any downsides to removing them. What are the pros and cons? Will the front sheetmetal still have enough rigidity without them? I know more road crap like snow, rain and, dirt will make it into the engine compartment. What should I do? Keep in mind that this is my daily driver.

[whatnow123]

For one, you will dent the hood as the tires will catch rocks and such and toss them that way.

If it wasn't a DD, no big deal, but i'm thinking you might want to seek alternatives since it is.

[Shane]

If it were mine and I used it as a daily driver then i would keep them in.

[454_72_4X4]

The front sheet metal will be rigid enough but you will get alot of road grime. I haven't had one in my 72 for a couple years now. Removed it to work on the clutch linkage and it never got put back in.
Rocks in the radiator worries me the most but it hasn't happened yet.

[Ol'Rover]

its nice that your brought this up, I will be doing the same thing, and i didnt even know this would happen. Theres probably a way to raise the inner fender up enough that wheels wont touch. you should definatly keep them tho, You dont want dirt in your engine compartment. Nasty things could happen.

[GREASEMONKEY72]

you can pull them and take some sheet metal and make some new ones to protect the hood

something like this

[70c10]

I'm suprised because mine is lowered almost 5" in the front and I don't hit. How old are your shocks?. How tall are your tires?

[wibilly]

thats what i was thinking, put on tires that fit your wheel wells

[72BlckButy]

I was thinking it might have to do with the height of your tires. What size tire are you running. I know that lolife99 dropped his Blazer 4.5/6 and hasn't had any real issues, except on the occassional pot hole. If it were me I would leave them in...

Great pics greasemonkey!

[Mondo]

that shouldn't be a problem, I assume you got the front re-aligned or the camber may cause the rubbing. I have a 5 1/2 drop on front and can't quite get the camber back, but it doesn't rub (255/60/15s)

[Frizzle Fry]

Plus, unless you have serious backspacing and/or negative camber your tires will rub the arches on the inside of the actual fenders pretty quick (ie. the inners don't buy you much). You have to mod the inside fender arches too.

[greasy68]

Keep them or fab something else up but on a DD it will be pretty messy and there is a lot of potential for damage under the hood.

[matthufham]

i have a 4.5/6 drop, with 20X8.5 rims with 5.107.." backspace. 245/35/20 tires, stock inner fenders and they never hit. you need different tires and rims for this problem to be solved. don't remove the inner fenders

[Mordachai]

I don't have much to say other than inner fenders are important!! keep all the crap outta your engine bay.
Even though my truck isn't a DD(right now it's in pieces) when I'd take it out even a few miles of driving will really get your engine bay dirty. I got a tilt forward front, and all kinds of crap gets tossed up in there.

When I put it back together, I'm gonna fab up some inners, probably vette style, ie mounted to the frame, so when the front comes down, it does a reasonable job of sealing up the space.

I'd do like the other guys here are suggesting, take a good look at your wheel/tire combo and your alignment!

|M|

[matthufham]

another thing, my dad claims the inner fenders are an essential part of the cooling system. the fan has needs its shroud and inner fenders to work properly. sounds stupid to me. on my last truck he made me buy a set of inner fenders, which i didn't have, for that reason.

[crazy longhorn]

Originally Posted by matthufham

another thing, my dad claims the inner fenders are an essential part of the cooling system. the fan has needs its shroud and inner fenders to work properly. sounds stupid to me. on my last truck he made me buy a set of inner fenders, which i didn't have, for that reason.

No sir I have been running a steel tilt clip, with no inners for about 10,000 miles.....& she runs nice & cool. I will say shes he!! on air filters tho.... crazyL

[Lated]

Forgive me if what follows doesn't make much sense but I've been hittin' the sauce tonight. If I remember correctly the tires are 235/70/15 and I did have an allingment done. The shop couldn't quite get the camber to spec, they said it's at 0.9 and should be 0.8, but it should be close enough. I put new shocks on when I lowered it. Would some sort of adjustable shock let me raise the front just a little? The shocks were a pain in the ass to get on due to the angle of the lower mount on my new control arms (I'll try to post a pic tomorrow) and I wonder if they might be too short and it might sit higher with different shocks. The tires only hit when I hit a pot hole too hard. As far as new wheels and tires go the tires are brand new and the wheels are just what I had from my parts truck. Later this year when I've saved up a little cash I was planning on buying shorter tires for the front and wider tires for the rear (and possibly new wheels front and back) and just using what I have now for snow tires. It looks like the general consensus is to keep the innerfenders on.

[Riveted1]

Originally Posted by Lated

The tires only hit when I hit a pot hole too hard.

A.) You just answered your own question....
B.) You could go to a lower profile tire and probably not have that problem (as bad)

Like the others said, you shouldn't have to do anything w/the fenders w/the drop that you have.