I have already cut out and strengthened the passenger (left) side front fender of my Tacoma and I'm in the process of doing the drivers (right) side. Why? Well to make more room under the hood. I had to do this to make room for a large intake on the left side and of course I have to make the right side match, plus the added room will allow me to shift the fuse assembly, the charcoal canister and the battery away from the engine a little bit.
I've also wanted to do this for a very long time. The Tacoma fenders are somewhat strong but if one structural portion of the whole fender wall or front support gets bent or dinged - the whole thing folds like a house of cards. So cutting all this weak stuff out and plating it with 1/8" steel and bracing it with tubing is what it really needs. After a little bit of that kind of work the left fender was SUPER strong and I haven't even braced it with tubing yet. I'm pretty excited about how strong the whole front end is becoming. I remember going over rough terrain and watching the front end jiggle around in front of my eyes... like the hood was bopping up and down and the fenders were flopping a little too much for my taste. Now it's going to be rock solid. Keep in mind that I've built onto the stock frame supports but I'm building in polyurathane supports for vibration/noise.
So check it out and I hope this gives some people some ideas! I've always wanted to do this and it's so easy I wish I did it a long time ago. All you have to do is have a 4" grinder or two, a stationary belt sander helps and a small MIG welder... that's basically it. Then you just need to go bum some steel from your buddies. I was able to collect steel from 3 friends to bring my whole thing together.
Thanks to them.
Here is my left side pretty much done. I'm just going to paint it when everything is bolted in and I'm completely done with the supports that I want to put on the corners. This is TOTALLY strong enough but the small corner supports I want to put in are so easy and will double the rigidity of the whole front end. The Lexus V8 in this Tacoma will really be stressing this body and chassis so I'm just playing it safe with more supports.
