An Idea I Had: Instead of lowering my car....

Well, before I get into my idea, here is why I want to do this. I am 6' 255lbs, and I really don't have any problems getting in and out of my Eclipse as it is. However, I want to lower it about 2.25" just to get rid of some of the wheel gap and I KNOW I would be crawling in and out of it then, and it would be uncomfortable and inconvinient as hell for me. I could really care less about how close to the ground it LOOKS.

Now heres my idea:
Since getting bigger rims without a really low profile tire will raise my car up a bit and more wheel gap....what if I just added some 'fender extensions'. I figure I could just add a 1.5" piece of sheet metal to the bottom of the fender sit closer to the wheel. Then I would be able to lower my car about 1.75" and I would almost be tucking the rim. Here, I doodled up a rough idea in photoshop to give you a better understanding of what im wanting to do:

http://img37.echo.cx/img37/6721/fenderextensions3jh.jpg


So what do you guys think?

Too much work, or a good idea?

I thought of that before, but im not sure its worth it. They actually have some kit to do that im not sure where ive seen them but thats where i got the idea. I mean for the price you buy those or modify your fenders and put some nice paint (not the shit ass fisher price paint) youll be sepnding more money on doing that than lowering your call.

dude look at my car... i lowered it 4" all round and im 6'2'' 210lbs. and i have no problem getting in and out. you shouldnt have any problems.

watch out for the ferrari doors!

watch out for the ferrari doors!


Yeah, also watch out for postwhores with no intelligence or useful information to contribute to a thread.

Well Hellah Fresh, your cars looks really good and all, but I don't want to be scraping every speed speed bump or steep hill I go over. Not to mention parking in front of a curb or even going to sonic for some food. I really just want to eliminate ALOT of wheel gap withought lowering it more than 2.5", the roads around here are pretty rough (Knoxville, TN, lots of roadwork right now) and I need a car that won't really have alot of scraping going on in a bumpy gravel driveway and things of that nature. See, I am trying to get some 235/45/18's and it will look really goofy if I don't do some sort of lowering, and I don't think the 2.25"(or maybe 2.5") drop will give me the look I want.

So if anyone has any ideas on how hard fender extensions would be to do (and how $expensive$), let me know please, or if you have any other ideas to get rid of wheel gap other than slamming my car to the ground, that would also be GREAT.

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate the feedback.

Well Hellah Fresh, your cars looks really good and all, but I don't want to be scraping every speed speed bump or steep hill I go over. Not to mention parking in front of a curb or even going to sonic for some food. I really just want to eliminate ALOT of wheel gap withought lowering it more than 2.5", the roads around here are pretty rough (Knoxville, TN, lots of roadwork right now) and I need a car that won't really have alot of scraping going on in a bumpy gravel driveway and things of that nature. See, I am trying to get some 235/45/18's and it will look really goofy if I don't do some sort of lowering, and I don't think the 2.25"(or maybe 2.5") drop will give me the look I want.

So if anyone has any ideas on how hard fender extensions would be to do (and how $expensive$), let me know please, or if you have any other ideas to get rid of wheel gap other than slamming my car to the ground, that would also be GREAT.

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate the feedback.


Hey man my car doesnt even scrape at all i never had that problem. I can go up sonics with out scraping anything. The parking at my house is a little bit steep but i can still pull in and out with no hassle. So far i never scraped my car and been running like a champ. Must be my good suspension work or my springs Lol.

wow,my car is not even lowered and i scrape every curb i pull up to,,so i find it hard to beleive that you lowered yours 4" and have no problems,maybe where you live they have strange low curbs,but here in boston mine is stock height and i scrape everywhere

Or it is how observent you are. I used to scrap everywhere when I first got it, then I got my bumper repainted and i have not scraped sence. I live with fucking shit ass roads. Dam montana roads.

. See, I am trying to get some 235/45/18's and it will look really goofy if I don't do some sort of lowering, and I don't think the 2.25"(or maybe 2.5") drop will give me the look I want.

if you're getting a 45 profile tire on an 18" rim, i don't think you'll have much of a fender gap anyways. i have a friend with 225/40/18's and his looks really nice. he didn't lower it either. i think you should get the tires on the rims and mount them on the car before you go about worrying about wheel gap, i don't think that you'll need to worry about it too much though.

and if you do end up with some, a 2.5" drop would be more than enough to get rid of it. shit, i'm willing to bet that it would almost be too much of a drop.

Do a 2 inch drop, that'll be perfect. Those fender extensions probably won't line up right.

I've been thinking of lowering my car recently also, and brainstorming on how to keep the height of the car as it is, but eliminate fender gap at the same time...all I concluded was, that I need to use thicker side-walled tires...I'm currently running 225/45/17. Thicker tires, and a 2" drop should get rid of my currently MASSIVE 3.5" fender gap. How thick can I go on my 17x7.5 rims?

I've been thinking of lowering my car recently also, and brainstorming on how to keep the height of the car as it is, but eliminate fender gap at the same time...all I concluded was, that I need to use thicker side-walled tires...I'm currently running 225/45/17. Thicker tires, and a 2" drop should get rid of my currently MASSIVE 3.5" fender gap. How thick can I go on my 17x7.5 rims?

235/45/17 is the max but you will still have the gap. The has to be lowered, our cars come stock with a massive gap. You could try 225/50/17 but it might rub...

I will need to end up lowering my car anyway, since I want to increase the sidewall...235/45/17 arent too different from the current 225/45/17s I am running at present...I want to go thicker if possible...but I'll probably be stepping on high profile tire territory at that level, no?

It's still considered pretty low. I have 215/40/17 right now and they are mad low, my gap is insane. Probably like 3 inches.

I was originally looking at getting 225/40/18 for 18/8 rims. Would that be the optimal size, and also, what could I go up to if I wanted a bigger tire to fill in more of the wheel gap?

I went to the shop and had my ride raised, and I can't go any thicker than 225/45/17. There is barely a millimeter gap between the control arms and the tires...I asked Kevin about wheel spacers, and he said he wouldnt go over 1/4"... so much for going any thicker, guess I'll have to hone the goin-over-bumps-in-a-slammed-car instincts, lol.