Melting wheel wells vs trimming

I recently put new wheels and tires on my taco, the wheels are 17x9 with -12 backspace and 4.5 offset. The tires are 32s with the same width as our stock tires. I believe it's 10.5? Anyhow, the only thing I've removed so far was that little mud flap ifo the tire. It rubs just slightly at full lock behind the tire still. It's not a big deal to me, I was just curious if anyone has ever heated up that plastic and re shaped it to where it wasn't rubbing anymore vs just trimming it. I think I might try it without catching my truck on fire lol

 

Is it rubbing the wheel well or the bump on your mud flaps?

 

Yes, please do.


Will have to get a few more people to watch, this could be the thread of the year in a flash.

 

Yup a place in town here melts and pushes in some areas that have tire rub. Iv seen it on an 09 infront of the tire was heated up and pushed in. Didn't need to do much at all with my 2012.

 

Quote of the year.

 

Word.

 

Ooooooo.....

 

I won't say I melted my front fender liner. But I did heat it up with a heat gun until it was plyable enough to manipulate. Just used a heat gun with a spray bottle full if water. Worked like a charm and kept me from rubbing. Rear of it just cut nothing back there that you can safely heat up.

 

I did a combination of cutting/heating on my mud flap on my base model after putting on 32s and rubbing in the rear. Took the flaps off for starters, cut a little, then used a harbor freight heat gun and heavy gloves to mold them by hand. Reinstalled the mud flaps and did a little touch up with the heat gun to finish off shaping them just right. Worked great...just be careful.

 

This is what I was imagining after reading the OP. Not sure why folks are throwing shade.

Unless OP was going to use a torch... Then all bets are off and I also want a recording.

 

I did this with my mudflaps and it worked well

 

I was having a hard time bringing myself to start hacking away at my wheel wells, never thought of heating them up when does make all the sense in the world. I will be trying it as soon as our Oregon weather lets up a bit.

 

@23Skidoo won this round

 

Thanks for everyone's reply, glad to see I'm not the only one who thought of this. To be more specific, it's the bump on the mud flap that the tire will rub on. Not the wheel well itself. And I guess melting was a bad word to use, just couldn't think of the right word to say in the title that I was going to heat it up with a heat gun and mold it lol.

 

Bump on the mud flap. Bad use of wording

 

Thread got cleaned up quick! Lol

 

I tried a heat gun on the mudflaps, but it did not work. It does work on the fender liner though.

I ended up cutting the mudflap bump out completely, which left a hole, then I used some Gorilla tape over the holes. It worked and doesn't look as bad as it sounds pics over here

Eventually I plan to make my own custom mudflaps