Fender rolling..tips, tricks, comments, concerns?

[Khanhfucious]

I put a deposit on a set of wheels..theyre 8-10 weeks out.

Im not saying much about the wheels/tires/offset since Im positive Ill be the first doing this fitment on the BE, but I will say modifications to the fender are absolutely necessary.

Any comments, tips or tricks?

[Sarra]

Rent a fender roller.

[decke48]

eastwood got a video on basic fender rolling
http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?item ... pe=PRODUCT (http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=6159&itemType=PRODUCT)

[deadlydave]

Keep the fender warm with a heat gun, even a strong blowdryer.

Don't die.

These are my 2 contributions.

[Khanhfucious]

Don't die.

I read this while at a restaurant on my lunch break and the entire restaurant stared at me while I laughed out loud (and nearly choked)

I found a local shop that does it for $50 a corner..

And I found a guy 4 hours away who has a roller..

Im not sure who's going to be the better deal (depending on the gas prices at the time)

[2.5GT]

yeah...a heat gun is a must..and go slowly with the roller!!! :lol:

[sybir]

If that teaser is what I thought, you're going to have some serious work to do. That width and offset is going to require more than just fender rolling; you're going to need some camber too, and will end up pulling the fenders.

If you haven't done it before, the $50 a corner for the rears may be the better way to go. Rolling the fronts won't get you much, and you'll lose your fender liners.

[Khanhfucious]

If that teaser is what I thought, you're going to have some serious work to do. That width and offset is going to require more than just fender rolling; you're going to need some camber too, and will end up pulling the fenders.

If you haven't done it before, the $50 a corner for the rears may be the better way to go. Rolling the fronts won't get you much, and you'll lose your fender liners.
I did some calculations and I should be fine. Ill be staying with a 225 tire, which Im currently running. If need be, I can add camber in if needed. Playing around I got 2.5* of camber maxed out, and Im only running 1.3* of camber. The offset will give me clearance at the spring perch to run the camber without rubbing it.

Losing the fender liners is something I wouldnt mind too much. Ill throw them back in for the winter. Or I can fabricate brackets to move them further up.

What exactly is "pulling" a fender? Im going to do whats needed to run these wheels. In the end, if I have to cut the fenders and run flares, then so be it.

[sybir]

Rolling is taking the fender lip that looks like this _| and making it look like this \|or like this ||.

(yay, ascii diagrams)

Pulling the fender is once you have it looking like || and you're still rubbing, puulling the fender opening outward. It's very delicate, and if you do it wrong you'll buckle the quarterpanel, or mess with your fender/bumper alignment.

An extreme example is mranlets drift car, where it's "pulled" out a few inches in a very tight radius; my rears are rolled flat and pulled about 1/4-3/8" in a softer radius that makes the bottom 2 inches of the quarter flow out smoothly. Note that I *still* don't rub in the front, on stock fenders and fender liners, but I'm on stiff coilovers. These are a 245 on a 17x8. I own an Estwood tool, and made use of it a few times to get it right; it's definitely an art, and I've lent it to people who swore they knew what they were doing who royally fucked up their cars (I'm talking separating the unibody to where you can see the tires from the trunk.) It's a powerful tool and sheetmetal is fragile,especially when you're trying to preserve thin factory paint on it, so be careful Take your time, keep it warm, check your progress, and did I mention take your time? Also note that most rubbing is going to be addressed by rolling from about 10:30 to 1:30 (if your'e looking at the driver's side), and you dont need to go down farther or it'll get really ugly.

You can see it here, in the way the fender reflects differently becuase it's profiled out -

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2008/05/IMG_3868JPG-1.jpg

And here, where you can really see where the metal distorts to the new shape. This distortion is why you have to be so careful. Screw it up and you're looking at a new quarterpanel.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2008/05/IMG_3949JPG-1.jpg