Cutting/folding rear fender flange

[Projectile Dart]

Good news bad news post. I got a set of new (to me) SBP wheels for the back of my dart which hasn't been been converted to LBP yet. I love the new centerlines but one one side the inner fender lip is about 1/8th of an inch from the tire sidewall. On the other side I have at least half an inch of space there. I am not worried about centered/not centered axle since I'm going to be swapping it out for an 8.75 anyway but what is the preferred method for modifying the fender lip. I don't want to remove it completely because I don't want to weaken the structural integrity it brings but I've seen both methods of either cutting it down to about half its width and leaving the rest un-touched. And I have also seen people make slit cuts perpendicular to the body panel and fold up the rest of the flange so that all the metal stays there but is completely out of the way of the wheel well.
I would appreciate any advice and pics.

PS After doing either one, I will eventually follow up with doing a little bit of fender rolling to hopefully gain another inch of clearance there for future rubber. I want to specifically deal with the flange right now.

 

[72bluNblu]

The flange is pretty stout because of its multiple layers and spot welds. On my Duster I rolled the flange flat, but, I did it in a multiple step process. I just cut it even with the spot welds the first time around, nothing on the tire side of the spot welds should really effect strength, it’s just extra as long as the spot welds are intact. That alone bought almost a 1/2” on my Duster, but that probably varies a bit.

When I committed to rolling them when I did my reverse tub the first thing I did was add a 3/16” diameter rod to end up with a round edge. Then I started the roll with a hammer and dolly, and some work with a flat jaw set of vice grips. Once I had the angle established I used a fender roller to finish it. I have pictures of the whole process in post #333 in my build thread, this should be the post
My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head