some of us are running aggressive offsets so i think it'd be useful to have a thread about fender mod so people can exchange information about what to do and what are the challenges

i took some pics about what i have done to my fenders (not the greatest coz' car is low and wheels are blocking the view)

also i think would be useful to post wheel spec so people know if their intended setups are more or less aggressive and what to expect

my wheels are
20x9 +34
20x10 +37

tires are
toyo t1r (on the stretchy side)
245/30/20
265/30/20

modding fenders on the 3gs is similar to other lexus i have had. in general, i prefer rolling in the front and shaving in the rear and i will give my 2 cents about why

also on all my pics and desciptions before, i am using the passenger side as reference (assume you facing the wheel well / fenders on passenger side). so you can mirror to reflect driver side

FRONT

from factory, the front fender lip is already rolled up pretty well in stock form. this becomes a good basis for rolling. a lot of times rubbing occurs in the following scenarios
1) overall diameter too big and it's rubbing the top of the wheel well lining
2) overall diameter too big and when steering wheel at far right/left turn, the tires rub the fonrt and back of the wheel well
3) wheel offsets are aggressive and when suspension compressed, tire rub the edge of the fender lip
4) car very low, and when making turns and suspension compresses, the tire rub and possible "catch" on the fender lip

for #1, it's all about heat gun. use heat gun to heat up any part of the fender lining and then push them up. for #2 it's actually not a very big deal, coz' when you are at hard lock turns, you aren't going fast, and rubbing the front and rear of lining won't create any problems.

the fix for #3 and #4 is similar. first of all, alone the fender there is this black plastic (inside there is metal) trim that are held by 4-5 screws. removing that will immediately gain you a few mm of clearanace. see if that helps eliminate the rubbing problems. next, when facing the wheel well, at roughly the 10 and 2 o'clock position of the fender, feel / look at the inside, and you will see two metal tabs that are part of the fender metal. on top of it you will see the fender lining overlapping, and there are two clips holding the lining to the metal tabs. a lot of times the wheels are rubbing on these clips, or maybe evening the lining. so some relocation will help.

start by popping out the two clips. you will then notice the fender lining falls off a bit (coz' of the absense of the clips). now you need to use some force and find your want to flip the fender lining to be BEHIND the metal tab, so it's "at the back". this way the lining won't be "hanging anymore. then you use baseball bat or craw bar or so and completely bend up those metal tabs as much as possible. this will create A LOT OF space and at the same time the lining is basically pinched between the tabs and the fenders. this should help with most of the rubbing. following are some pics i took trying to illustrate the result (i don't have before pics anymore)


the tab at 10 o'clock



the tab at 2 o'clock

if you want a bit more fender rolling on the lip, you can use a baseball bat and roll from the top of the fender. that part is already rolled from factory so it gives you a better starting point.


the part where it's almost like how it is from factory, but i rolled a bit more

KEEP IN MIND, when you bend the tabs or roll the fenders, it's highly recommended to use a heat gun and heat up the paint first so they get soft and you reduce the chances of paint cracking

on my car, when i put on the wheels they rubbed right the way. took out the plastic trim helped but didn't remove all. i bent the tabs and rolled the fenders a little bit more and i pretty much don't rub anymore unless i hit some ridiculous dips

 

rear

for the rear fenders, imho rolling is NOT recommended AT ALL. a few reasons to this:
1) the rear fender lip is quite a bit thicker
2) the rear fender design, which is pretty straight
3) location where bumper meets the quarter panel, a popular location of rubbing and rolling won't help

the thick lip makes rolling harder and a lot easier to crack the paint. it also doesn't create as much clerance for wheels as a result. also, because of the fender design, if rolling is not done correctly, one can easily create stress points along the fender, and create "uneven" look on the outside fender. once done, it's uncorrectable unless body work done.

instead of rolling, shaving the rear fender lip is much preferred (and also what i did). a lot of times people are rubbing
1) rubbing on the top of fender lip against tires -- very very bad idea
2) tires rubbing against lining at the top
3) biggest problem, wheel rubbing against where the quarter panel meets with the bumper

from my experience #2 doesn't happen all that often and if it does, as usual heat gun is the answer. for #1 and #2, first try by removing the black plastic trim. that will again give you a few mm of clearance and see if that's enough. if that doesn't do the trick, then shaving the fenders will be the next big step. the metal fender lip is pretty thick, probably close to a good 1/2", so that would be quite a lot of room.

you can use a cutter or in my case i used a belt sander and just gradually grind down the fender, starting from the top and work my way down. just make sure you take precaution on the outside fender so you don't scratch or damage it.


top of fender, no more lip. the "gray" part is actually black primer that i used to touch up the area after shaving. it's a MUST otherwise rusting will occur




showing toward the front of the car


showing toward the rear. as pointed that big gray part is fender lining and it doesn't affect me on rubbing

now the biggest problem is where the panel meets the bumper. not too far behind the fender lining, it's where the bumper is screwed/clipped to the quarter panel. so you have to be ultra careful on sanding and cutting to get as much room as possible without damaging the screw, otherwise your bumper can fall off. as you can see in the following picture, i cut a little hole in the lining to gain access to the connection and cut more in that area. my bumper i haven't finished so that's why the trimming is sort of uneven


the part that needs attention

all the pictures here, the fender lip are all pretty much all shaved away already to gain as much clearance as possible.

on my car, with the wheels on i couldn't even drive without rubbing, so i had to trim off almost everything before putting the wheels on

if you have more information feel free to share. with the 3gs slowly getting tracking, i guess more people will start putting aggressive setup on the car

 

Excellent write up Henry.
I also had to roll the fenders in the front and shave them in the rear on my car.
Good job.

 

thx for the info..
need some opinion.. i attached the pic of my front tire, and you can see the line where it's rubbing, but not really sure from where..
do you think diy will suffice or i need to shave or roll the fender?

 

thanks man i just hope this can be helpful for more members when they try to get a better stance on their wheel setup. and maybe more will have some cool tips to share!

that's the rear setup i suppose? seems like it's rubbing marginally. try take out of the plastic trim and see if that helps. maybe that's all you need to do. if not, try to see if it's the corner right where bumper meets quarter panel causing the rub. not hard to find out. put masking tape along the whole fender edge, include that bumper/panel connection, then drive around, take some hard turns, cause the rub, or even open your trunk and bounce on it.

then take a look at the masking tape again and see which part got rubbed away. those are the locations you need to "fix"

 

I shaved my rears and did nothing to the fronts. I will post more info and pics later.

Great thread!!!

 

it's actually the front.. judging from where the line is, seems pretty well inside of the tread.. i'll try to take out the plastic piece.. don't really want to roll the fender, worried about paint chipping, cracks, etc.. don't really want to raise my car either

 

You can use my thread for how not to roll fenders lol

 

Henry how bad where you rubbing in the rear? I wouldn't think you would need to shave the fenders in the rear with the negative camber and your offset. I was just barely rubbing and it was mainly the clip area where the fender bumper meet. My offset is close to yours with a 10.5" rim? and I have room to play. Wish I had pushed mine about 5mm more.

 

oh it's the front? do you usually rub when going straight or on turns? my guess is once you deal with those two tabs (on each side) you should be good to go

lol don't be negative. put it this way, if you get yours repaired, then you can ask the body shop to get rid of the fender lip once and for all before they paint them!

i was rubbing pretty bad at that clip area and i had to shave almost everything so now it's ok. in fact, when i got my job design bumper, the bumper part went back to "no shaving" (my stock bumper was all shaved too) and immediately i got a lot of rubbing again. got my dremel and shaved the bumper again and now i am back to old form

 

First here is some good reading for those that are torn between Rolling and Shaving. The posts are directly from a Certified Body Tech.

LINK

Found a pic of mine being worked on...(Only the rears on my car)


I can run my fingers with no problems. No sharp edges anywhere and you would never be able to tell. I also had to shave the rear tab as Henry mentioned on mine. I also had to have them shaved on my last Lexus so that must be a common spot to rub on these cars. I will try to get some up close pics when I install the F sways this weekend. I didnt need to roll or touch my front fenders. I did remove the trim piece on the front only.

 

I shaved mine, rolling is too risky for me

 

yup mike, that picture totally brings up my memory of how much work i did on my cars, sigh...

yes that spot is a very common rubbing spot on lexus. my gs400, sc430, ls460l, and gs350 all have trouble at that spot rubbing.

 

Very nice write up! Props to you, this will help a lot for those who have never done it as well as people who have. I should have taken pictures of it stock and post but when I took off my wheels... I saw a bent wheel and got depressed. lol, gotta repair it and then try to sell them for a more aggressive set up.

 

sure! before you work on your rear fender maybe you can take some pics so people can compare what stock is like