Cut a hole in my front fender liner -- bad idea?

[rjfowler]

More background is below, but basically I just cut a hole in the front driver-side fender liner where the tire was rubbing at full lock. Does anyone think this is a bad idea? Only thing I can think of is that when it is raining the tire may throw a bunch of water in there, which is where the fog light housing is I believe. The hole is about 1.5" wide by 4" tall or thereabouts. Thanks in advance for your help.

Background: A while back I installed new wheels (18x9 -12mm) and tires (265/70/18) on my LTD and had some substantial rubbing. I just had installed a Toytec spacer lift (2.5" in front and 1.5" in back). It was still rubbing (but not as much) so I removed the plastic pieces at the back of the fender (see below). Then it was still rubbing a little bit, so I cut the hole in the front fender liner after moving it forward didn't do the trick.

Here is the truck with the lift installed:

These are the plastic pieces at the back of the wheel well that I removed (I had already tried cutting a hole in one of them where the tire rubbed):

 

[1engineer]

You know you could have heated and deformed that section out of the way.

 

[rjfowler]

You know you could have heated and deformed that section out of the way.

I tried that, as well as moving the fender liner forward per the sticky. For some reason the driver-side front fender still rubbed.

 

[rigtec]

I tried that, as well as moving the fender liner forward per the sticky. For some reason the driver-side front fender still rubbed.

Hi rj,

If you are concerned about that you could always go to Home depot and p/u a small piece of plastic or sheet metal and "JB weld" two part epoxy, and bond it to the outside of the liner to prevent water/debris from getting inside where your lighting is... just my 1.5 cents! :noidea:

 

[Intruder]

The OEM light housings are sealed pretty well. I submerged mine entirely on more than one occasion without any water ingress. You'll be fine.

 

[Jeremy556]

It's fine. Mine had similar cuts, even after pulling them as far forward as possible, using the heat gun, etc.

 

[cleveland48]

I tried using heat gun and moving liners forward on mine also. Still rubbed finally just got pissed off, and cut a bunch off. No problems so far.

 

[rjfowler]

I really appreciate the responses.