Wheel arch trimming

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Introduction

Тhis wiki article is an unfinished copy of the original old BigJimny PDF guide.
All the text has been copied with minimal adjustments, but all the pictures are missing.
Someone needs to add the original pictures to make it a complete copy.

When oversized tyres are used on a Jimny, there can be a relatively high risk of the collision between the tyres and the wheel arches.

The risk depends on the size of tyres, if the vehicle is lifted or not, if it has the roll bar removed or not, and how much its suspension is already sagged.

• One method to eliminate or lessen the risk is to lift the vehicle.
• The other (much cheaper method) is to trim the wheel arches.

Trimming the wheel arches is an irreversible procedure - the only way to restore vehicle's original look is to buy new arches and probably the front and rear bumper as well (or strip them from another dead Jimny).

The procedure

• Remove all the front wheel arch liners. They' re held on with mainly plastic clips which need prising out plus a couple of 10 mm nuts here and there. Pull gently at the wheel arch, making sure that you don’t break too many of the clips that hold them in place and remove from car. I’ll do the front ones first as they’re easier.

File:PICTURE 01

PICTURE 01

• This is the line where i want to trim my arches to. Steady hand needed for a decent edge.

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PICTURE 02

File:PICTURE 03

PICTURE 03

• The jigsaw normally leaves a rough edge, use a sharp knife to scrape this away.

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PICTURE 04

• Now loosely clip the plastic arch back on and you’ll see how much you need to trim from the steel front wing of the car. Mark out with a marker pen and trim an inch above this line with a jigsaw. The wing is very thin and your likely to break a few jigsaw blades as the wing vibrates.

• Trim the front bumper to match with the jigsaw, refit arch, sometimes need something to stick the arches on with as they now have less than half the clips to hold them than they used to, silicon sealer around some of the clips is my favourite.

• The front bumper sometimes needs trimming underneath as well, to shorten it to prevent the tyres rubbing on lock.

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PICTURE 05

• The rear arch is a lot harder work, there is an extra piece of steel to remove that sticks out a couple of inches. Ive trimmed this in the past but this time I’m going to remove it.

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PICTURE 06

• This piece is held on by Spot Welds which need grinding out. Dont grind through the metal completely, just thin it a little around the welds.

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PICTURE 07

• Now you can tear the whole thing away from the main bodywork, and tidy up lightly with the angle grinder. This leaves a nice edge but remember to paint it with something to stop the rust.

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PICTURE 08

• All gone. For those with massive tyres you can in fact trim this lip again, but it forms the join between the inner and outer wheel arch so would need trimming, then welding, painting etc. Trim the rear bumper up to match with the jigsaw.

File:PICTURE 09

PICTURE 09

• Big arch, just needs filling with a decent set of tyres. On some lifts/tyre sizes you can get away without trimming the rear arches.

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PICTURE 10

• All done, took me about 2 and a half hours.

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Page last edited on 21/02/2019 by user Bosanek