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Wheel Clearance — Turn Radius

While I'm waiting on the parking brake cable to get in, I focused on checking the front wheel/tire clearance on the front fenders and making sure the turn radius was not impeded. I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 4 cheap small pizza pans. I placed 2 of them together and put some grease between them and then put them under the front wheels to act as sort of a turn plate.

I also put a notch in the top one and angular markings on the bottom one so I could see what angular movement that I was getting when I turned the steering wheel. That didn't work perfectly since it was difficult to get the pans centered exactly on the tire rotation point but it did give some limited visual feedback.

After a few left/right turns with the truck at ride height it was very obvious that the wheels were gonna hit the front fenders with a very small turn of the steering wheel. If I remember correctly, to get the front suspension to the drop that I wanted I had to raise the whole IFS about 1-3/4” on the frame so it made sense that I have to raise the wheel arches approx the same amount to get the proper clearance.

I took some measurements and laid-out the necessary changes on the left wheel arch area so I could check and see what the final trims might look like. After tweaking it a few times I then copied it and transferred the trim to the right side fender. Then I had to remove the fender and start cutting away.

I cut out the wheel arch area about a 1/4” above the lip all the way around until each end converged on the arch and then I pie-cut the two ends to hammer them into the new curvature. I then cut out the bulk of the fender clearance needed and re-formed the lip area to match this contour. Then I tacked it all into place and did a quick test fit. It all looked good so I then worked around welding it all in making sure to not overheat it.

Once the welding was complete, I ground down the weld, also making sure to keep it cool, and then put a little primer on the area. After it dried then I loosely re-fit the fender and checked the wheel/tire clearance. It all looked good. I might have to be careful on a hard turn while hitting a bump but such is the life of driving a lowered truck.

Next up on this part of the project, I need to do the right fender and then figure out what modifications need to be made to the forward inner brace that ties into the the fender lip. I left it blank for now. I will probably need to get the front sheet metal gaps all dialed in before making those mods so that may be a ways off.