TO begin this is my daily driver.  I commute 35 miles a day with most of it being I-95 at rush hr speed.  I have grown tired of driving the stocker and would like to drive a lifted Kick with good street manners.  Also Uwharrie and Paragon are about 5 hrs from me.  I'd like to build this truck with the ability to drive to the trail and wheel the difficult runs and drive back home.  All with returning to commuting duties the following Monday still in mind. 

I began the build with adding coil spacers 1.5" up front and 2" in the rear.  This gave me about 2" of lift all the way around.

Next I trimmed the front fenders.  I took 2 5/8" off all the way to the center of the wheel arch, at that point I cut straight to the grill using the body flare and hood line as a guide.   

For those that don't want to cut that much, I believe that taking 2" off all the way around would do well for clearance.  My fenders were not straight, as I bought the truck crunched.  I also have a set of 34"LTBs that might get swapped on to the truck for trail rides so more clearance less sheetmetal seem best for me.

***  If you are concerned about how your trim design would look, then go to a yard and cut soe fenders on some dead kick first.  That is probally what I'll do with the rear before I cut my own.   Ofcourse you should always ask first and not cut up their good sell-able invintory. 

I am posting pictures of my work so far, due to the fact that I might not get to work on the rear until next week.

Until then.  Here it is on 33x9.50 BFG At's















2" Cal Mini Body lift, Rear locker, and 5.125:1 gears are also in the plan. 
Trail tires will be 34" LTB's   Current gear ratio is 4.30:1.

whit ...

looks good on the big tires 

If you haven't already, use some pliers and "roll" a 1/4" lip on the fenders up front. Simply grab 1/8" of metal, bend it a bit (say 10* at a time), and work a nice lip in (and then primer the lip like you've already done your cut). To make it really nice lookin, some flares from jcwhitney will finish that up.

In the rear, you need some cuttin! Biggest PITA back there is the fuel filler area. To clear the 33's, your going to have to lose the fuel door, and getting the 2" cut means the area around the fuel door will need to be "massaged". I took 1" all around the back without banging on the filler area, but I have 1" more of "virtual body lift" todo back there and it will require some hammer work ...

You might as well ditch that "plastic body cladding" now ... (aka rust enhancing plastic).

I was looking closer at the fuel fill door today.  The mounting of the door will be above where I'm cutting.  but the cut will get into the fill well by about 1/2" or so.  I am considering just removing the door making the cut then maybe rolling the door to fit. 

I was considering doing somthing with the raw fender edge.  At the shop where I worked we had an air powered crimping gun tool that would stamp 1/16" crimp about 1/2" deep (into the edge) so you could overlap sheet metal.  I might head over their and play with that. 

For now the front will wait until I get the rear clearance and alignment.  Once those are in play I might go back and clean up.   I'm not a big fan of the lipstick red color.  So for now I'm just trying to preserve the sheetmetal from rust.

I was looking closer at the fuel fill door today.  The mounting of the door will be above where I'm cutting.  but the cut will get into the fill well by about 1/2" or so.  I am considering just removing the door making the cut then maybe rolling the door to fit. 

yup that's the deal ... I ditched the fuel door, and will just bash the metal up to work (I'm past a "pretty" body).

I was considering doing somthing with the raw fender edge.  At the shop where I worked we had an air powered crimping gun tool that would stamp 1/16" crimp about 1/2" deep (into the edge) so you could overlap sheet metal.  I might head over their and play with that. 

For now the front will wait until I get the rear clearance and alignment.  Once those are in play I might go back and clean up.   I'm not a big fan of the lipstick red color.  So for now I'm just trying to preserve the sheetmetal from rust.

I have the same lipstick red ... I'm getting more and more primer gray so I'll soon be covering the red too