From a stock Jeep wrangler built for light trails and harsh winter conditions with its wonderful four wheel drive to a full blown Trail machine that will bring you into area's unseen by most of the world and then take you back home A jeep wrangler can be customized hundred's if not thousands of ways.

One of the first steps many owners take is putting a lift kit on to fit bigger tires without rubbing the fenders. While lift kits are great the price can range from $600 for a cheap kit to upwards of $5,000 for a top of the line kit. The negative of suspension lift's is it creates a much higher center of gravity ( CoG ). The higher the center of gravity, the higher chance the vehicle will tip and roll over. The popular choice and a smart one is to run the biggest tires on the jeep for under axle clearance while lifting the vehicle as little as possible. This maximizes clearance and performance off-road by increasing the overall stability of the vehicle on and off road. The modification I'm about to talk about isn't advised for anyone with very little mechanical ability or understanding. It re quire's cutting stock parts and relocating certain things under the hood. if you don't feel like trying this yourself, there is a kit made that does the same thing for around $2000 not including paint. Doing it yourself cost's about $30 in parts if you already have the tools.

ok so you've been warned. What you'll need : You'll need a die grinder with a few cut off wheel's, masking tape, self tapping screws, basic socket set, and drill bit, cone filter (you'll lose the stock air box). black door molding strips (2 packages walmart carries them)

this is what a normal jeep with 4" suspension lift looks like with 35" tires. note how the hood and fenders sit.

First step is to check out under your hood. Familiarize yourself with the components and how everything is mounted.

Start by removing the battery, air filter box, coolant reservoir bottle, washer fluid bottle, horns. Then unbolt everything connected to the fenders. I advise taking a pictures of everything that way if you need to see how it was you can look back at it.

Once you have everything removed next step is locating and removing the bolts that hold the fenders on. at the same time you can remove the battery tray and over tray on drivers side. be sure to disconnect the sensor below the battery and the vacuum box that sits below it. your jeep should look pretty dismantled by now and you should have a few hours time into it.

it's helpful to have a second person to help you with this, but you can just measure and mark the new holes by yourself. You'll have to take your fenders now and move them up to the body line that follows the cowl/windshield like shown below

mark on the fenders and then remove fender, drill some new holes so the stock fender mounting holes in the body can be reused. Be aware that since your moving the fender much higher up, you will have to bend the front a little or the fender will be all angled.You will also have to cut and modify the battery bracket to make it work. Look underneath the front fender near the turn signal. Theres a big flat metal brace. Cut this brace in halve. Once you have the fender mounted to the body, bend the front down to the fender sits flat on top again then use a few sheet metal screws to attach the front to the grille (front of jeep) you will have a slight gap still depending how you bend the front, but a little imperfection beats paying $2000 for the actual kit.

now comes the no turning back part, cutting the hood!. I used masking tape and taped a straight line on the hood using the hood's body line as a reference (refer to first pic and see the body line on the hood. Have a steady hand and start cutting with die grinder and cut off disc! you have a little bit of error allowing since you'll be covering the edge but try and keep it straight or you could end up buying a new hood. Clean up the freshly cut edges and then put some silicone inside the car door molding and push it on. Youll end up with a hood looking like this if you do it right.

The remaining part is remount the stuff under the hood. The washer fluid bottle can be remounted down under the brake booster, put a cone filter on stock air box tube for intake, battery will fit back in if you mount the bracket right. emissions stuff can be moved farther in near the brake/clutch reservoir.

The final result is about $1950 (+ paint cost) saved, 3" to 3.25" additional tire clearance without raising your center of gravity, and the enjoyment of people not noticing your hood is modified unless you tell them. The ability to run bigger tires which will improve your differential clearance is well worth it as well.

Here's a few finished pictures of my jeep

without the highline front shot. Note the top of tire to fender's edge clearance.

After highline, note the clearance gained.