Cutting a fender to get it to fit?

[Painkiller]

Sorry John, Not much pic to work with. Take a look @ the picture. The pink dot on the dull piece. This is the socket that allows you to line up and pitch the brake. There are two per arm in two thicknesses. If you invert the setup in the picture, your "Thick" one should be behind the pad and the "thin" one should be behind the arm. This allows your pad to be closer,sooner and your arm spread wider which would make trimming less to none. The green dot area looks tight but hard to tell from the pics, this will be wider if you invert as I said. in your other pic of the front, most people cut cables to short. They should be cut long and tucked out of the way so later adjustments can be made without replacing and having some cable to work with. If your front needed inverted you would not have the cable to do it. If you feel like it look at this thread for cable cut/tuck and brake pitch
http://forums.bikeride.com/thread-4891.html