blonde1boarder
New member
I just wanted to present my experience with trimming for 35’s. I decided that if I was going to do this I would go all the way including going through the firewall and welding in patch panels. I figure this is just another reference that people can use to decide if they want to go to 35’s. I'm not totally done with the process but I figure the bulk of it is here.
I’m going to start out with all of the stuff I learned along the way to help people decide if they think it’s worth it.
1) I have a plasma cutter and it made this whole process much easier. I would have been miserable trying to use a cutoff wheel or a jigsaw to cut up the car. Awesome purchase after a welding machine!
2) You really want to have a gas setup for your welding machine. I don’t know if CO2 would work but C25 would. I was welding with .035 fllux core and it was an awful experience. Constant blow through holes. If I had to change one thing about the project it would be having a good gas setup with thinner wire.
3) This whole process takes a lot of time! I had to tape plastic over the holes multiple times and drive around because I can only work on the weekends and I still had to be social then. Be prepared for a lot of time unless you are really good at welding and have done this kind of stuff before. The second side should go faster because you have a better idea of what needs to be cut.
Now for the whole process that I took in trimming for the passenger side tire.
Step 1: Remove front tire and place the front end of the 4runner on jackstands.
Step 2: Remove front shock to allow for full articulation
Step 3: Loosen upper control arm bolt so there is no tension in the bushings
Step 4: Remove plastic fender trim with the terrible plastic clips (Good Luck)
Step 4: Reinstall tire using a couple lug nuts
Step 5: Deciding where to clearance
I took my jack and placed it under the control arm to lift the tire and see where it interfered with the pinch weld and the firewall. This was a very iterative process because it’s still pretty scary cutting into your baby. Make sure the keys are in and the steering lock is off so you can manhandle the tire. I started by checking just around the pinch weld area and came up with this for an initial cutting region.
Here is the pinch weld area that has been cut out along with the bottom mounting tab that is used for attaching the plastic fender piece. You can see that we still aren’t close at all to fitting so more material needs to go. Here is another side view to show you the fender and my rock sliders. Both of these need to be trimmed because I’m not even close to full bump yet.
This is another midway step showing how I did some initial rough cuts on the fender along with grinding back the area just to the side of the pinch weld. There are two shells that can be seen and in the end both of these had to go for me. My slider also has the first cut made at this point.
More grinding and cutting to remove both shells and trim the pinch weld higher up into the wheel well.
Ah! Just moving into the firewall and seeing the wires and underside of the carpet. Time to move to the interior and get that stuff out of the way so it isn’t damaged. All it required was a Philips screwdriver and a 10 mm socket for the abs module.
I kept checking clearances moving the tire up and down until I got the weight of the vehicle sitting on the bumpstops. This is the final result for the trimming on the inside of the fender. It is a pretty big hole! The top left corner of the firewall hole ended up being a little unnecessary but other than that the hole seemed like it fit the bill pretty well.
Step 6: Welding in patch panels
Shaping the metal for me was a difficult task so I ended up using two panels for the firewall patch and then welded them in the middle. Probably more time consuming but it definitely made it easier for me. First panel in place and welded.
Welded the other panel on and then I wanted to seal everything up nice and tight. I sprayed a small amount of rust converter around all of the weld in case I missed any rust in the cracks. After that was done I hit all of the welds both interior and exterior with a watertight paintable caulk for metal. I wasn’t really sure if it was the right path but it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Hopefully it works out because I’m not diving back in until the panel has completely rusted out which hopefully won’t happen.
Finally step was painting the exterior and interior with Rustoleum rubberized undercoating. After putting the interior back together I found out that I couldn’t bolt the abs module how it was stock so I just drilled a new upper hole around a half inch from the previous and rotated the whole module. Everything still looks completely stock from the inside of the car so I’m a happy camper.
I’m going to start out with all of the stuff I learned along the way to help people decide if they think it’s worth it.
1) I have a plasma cutter and it made this whole process much easier. I would have been miserable trying to use a cutoff wheel or a jigsaw to cut up the car. Awesome purchase after a welding machine!
2) You really want to have a gas setup for your welding machine. I don’t know if CO2 would work but C25 would. I was welding with .035 fllux core and it was an awful experience. Constant blow through holes. If I had to change one thing about the project it would be having a good gas setup with thinner wire.
3) This whole process takes a lot of time! I had to tape plastic over the holes multiple times and drive around because I can only work on the weekends and I still had to be social then. Be prepared for a lot of time unless you are really good at welding and have done this kind of stuff before. The second side should go faster because you have a better idea of what needs to be cut.
Now for the whole process that I took in trimming for the passenger side tire.
Step 1: Remove front tire and place the front end of the 4runner on jackstands.
Step 2: Remove front shock to allow for full articulation
Step 3: Loosen upper control arm bolt so there is no tension in the bushings
Step 4: Remove plastic fender trim with the terrible plastic clips (Good Luck)
Step 4: Reinstall tire using a couple lug nuts
Step 5: Deciding where to clearance
I took my jack and placed it under the control arm to lift the tire and see where it interfered with the pinch weld and the firewall. This was a very iterative process because it’s still pretty scary cutting into your baby. Make sure the keys are in and the steering lock is off so you can manhandle the tire. I started by checking just around the pinch weld area and came up with this for an initial cutting region.
Here is the pinch weld area that has been cut out along with the bottom mounting tab that is used for attaching the plastic fender piece. You can see that we still aren’t close at all to fitting so more material needs to go. Here is another side view to show you the fender and my rock sliders. Both of these need to be trimmed because I’m not even close to full bump yet.
This is another midway step showing how I did some initial rough cuts on the fender along with grinding back the area just to the side of the pinch weld. There are two shells that can be seen and in the end both of these had to go for me. My slider also has the first cut made at this point.
More grinding and cutting to remove both shells and trim the pinch weld higher up into the wheel well.
Ah! Just moving into the firewall and seeing the wires and underside of the carpet. Time to move to the interior and get that stuff out of the way so it isn’t damaged. All it required was a Philips screwdriver and a 10 mm socket for the abs module.
I kept checking clearances moving the tire up and down until I got the weight of the vehicle sitting on the bumpstops. This is the final result for the trimming on the inside of the fender. It is a pretty big hole! The top left corner of the firewall hole ended up being a little unnecessary but other than that the hole seemed like it fit the bill pretty well.
Step 6: Welding in patch panels
Shaping the metal for me was a difficult task so I ended up using two panels for the firewall patch and then welded them in the middle. Probably more time consuming but it definitely made it easier for me. First panel in place and welded.
Welded the other panel on and then I wanted to seal everything up nice and tight. I sprayed a small amount of rust converter around all of the weld in case I missed any rust in the cracks. After that was done I hit all of the welds both interior and exterior with a watertight paintable caulk for metal. I wasn’t really sure if it was the right path but it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Hopefully it works out because I’m not diving back in until the panel has completely rusted out which hopefully won’t happen.
Finally step was painting the exterior and interior with Rustoleum rubberized undercoating. After putting the interior back together I found out that I couldn’t bolt the abs module how it was stock so I just drilled a new upper hole around a half inch from the previous and rotated the whole module. Everything still looks completely stock from the inside of the car so I’m a happy camper.
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