Looking at the engine-bay of Mad Mike's upgraded car, you can see he has actually cut out parts so it's open into the tires. I've seen this on other cars and been considering it for my own to improve steering lock.



Anyone else done this procedure? Instructions anywhere?

 

What are you talking about? Are you referring to the front of the wheel wells? If so, do you own an FD? go look, thats just the fender liner and he removed it.

 

lawls! i did that to my fd, good way to get your hood and engine bay dirty with all this crazy *** texas weather.

 

Actually I'm on my second FD :-) I will have a look next time I'm in the garage, and when I get a tie rod kit I'll see if I need to remove it or not.

 

If you are using the stock rack and knuckles plus extra lock inner tie rods you should be fine. Higher offset wheel will be the first to hit. I'm using the Seel Tuned / Eye Candy inner tie rods which give you the most travel out of an unmodified stock rack (any more spacers and the rack runs out of gear teeth) and my daily 17x9.5 +38 with a 255/40/17 doesn't rub at full lock (24" to fender ride height). My wheel hits the front of the liner sometimes, but thats more my suspension setup - I'm running near 6* of caster and -2* of camber.

Unless you get modded knuckles, super high offset rims, or tuck tire alot then you can most likely keep the fender liners.

Also, if you get rid of them then you should really look into moving or protecting the wiring hareness.