Fender Rolling: Downsides?

[Jake Latham]

Hi all -

in the arena of fitting large tires on a car: why do folks often seek to avoid rolling their fenders? Seems to me you're just "adjusting" an unseen lip of metal anyway, correct?

What is the attendant downside?

-Jake

[LoCore]

I would guess it would be a concern of having the roll done correctly so that the outside appearance doesn't get damaged.

I've heard of paint damage, to deformation of the outside of the fender, to the occasional surprise encounter with bondo (hi Graeme!) where one thought metal should be.

[BobDixon]

Just my .02. The typical angle of the lip is around 90 degrees. Once you roll it in you lose a lot of the rigidity. Not an issue unless someone leans too hard against it or a door whacks it in parking lot.

-Bob

[Scott Napier]

A heat gun makes things go MUCH smoother, and greatly reduces the chances of paint issues. Are you planning on using an actual fender rolling tool or are you going with the baseball bat method?

[Van]

Tiresource rents their's out for like 10 bucks or so. Use that and a hair dryer and your set.

This is it right here...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/Vanimaniac/Other%20Car%20Pics/JordanFenderRoll2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/Vanimaniac/Other%20Car%20Pics/JordanFenderRoll1.jpg

Van

[00 SS]

For me it was simply a fear of screwing up the fenders on my then new car. But once I'd seen it done and done another car myself, the fears went away and I rolled the fender lips. The profile I ended up with is likely more rigid than stock. DO NOT try to get the flange folded al the way up flat against the inside of the fender. That will be weaker and will likely change the contour of the fender. I recommend only rolling as far as necessary to keep the sharp edge from contacting rubber. Mine ended up with more of a U profile.

[Jake Latham]

Cool, thanks for all the responses guys.

And yeah, I imagine I'd do it with the proper rolling tool rather than a baseball bat...if I'd even be stupid enough to attempt it myself. (I'm not very good at that kind of thing... :confused: )

Excellent!

-Jake

[MrPickles]

That fender roller looks familar! :) I rolled my fenders in the M, and it worked great. Doug Young helped out with the heat gun.

[Proxenus]

And yeah, I imagine I'd do it with the proper rolling tool rather than a baseball bat...if I'd even be stupid enough to attempt it myself.

I've tried the baseball bat technique, and the tire would always deform around the bat, and not bend the lip at all.

I think you probably have to run some crazy pressures in the tires to keep it from collapsing in, like 60psi or something.

[gordon0412]

For the noob car modders among us (like myself) what is fender rolling :o , and more importantly why would one do it? I'm kinda guessing to make clearance for bigger wheels/tires, especially for a car that's been lowered?

[Eric Pollock]

For the noob car modders among us (like myself) what is fender rolling :o , and more importantly why would one do it? I'm kinda guessing to make clearance for bigger wheels/tires, especially for a car that's been lowered?

Exactly. You would need to do this if you were going to a bigger wheel and tire setup.

[Proxenus]

If you took a cross section of your fender on the left side of the car, it would be an L shape. The vertical part would be the ouside part that you can see from the side of the car. The horizontal part points at the inside of the car. When you roll the fender, the horizontal part is bent upwards to make a U shape, so it won't touch the tire.

[Jake Latham]

For the noob car modders among us (like myself) what is fender rolling :o , and more importantly why would one do it? I'm kinda guessing to make clearance for bigger wheels/tires, especially for a car that's been lowered?

If you examine your car, you'll see that at the bottom of the fenders in the wheel wells, there is always a ~1/4" "lip" that extends inwards, at a roughly 90* angle to the outside fender surface. This lends extra strength to the fender.

Fender rolling is taking that lip and "rolling" it further upwards towards the 180* direction, i.e. folding it back upon itself further.

And, you guessed it - the reason is to help get that last eensy bit of clearance for large wheel/tire packages.

-Jake

[gordon0412]

Thanks all. My car is going to be ESP this year. I've already put lowering springs and cc plates on it. I know from other Mach owners I'm fine with my stock size wheels, but sounds like if in the future I want to go with lighter/bigger wheels/tires this might be required. Buy maybe not, the Mach's wheel wells are fairly 4x4ish :D

[Paul]

The rolled lip is a great place for "stuff" to park. For a daily driver in this weather you need to keep it clean or your worst enemy - rust will find a home.

Probably not a problem for you Jake since you never keep a car more than a year or two anyway.

Paul

[RogersWRX]

Does anyone know a place to rent a fender rolling tool in the South Denver / Highlands Ranch Area??:confused:

[mdahl]

hence,
http://eskimo.org/blog/rub.jpg
Roger and I chewed up a bit of tire today.

[Donnie]

Does anyone know a place to rent a fender rolling tool in the South Denver / Highlands Ranch Area??:confused:


tire source in boulder rents theres

[mdahl]

Large hammer in my garage was more rewarding.
MUCH.