so when this needs to be done (Im guessing I will need to when my wheels finally arrive) what is the preferred method? My guess would be that heating the metal would help it form better, but is it crucial that I do this?...if so can I get by with something like a propane torch? As for the hammering itself, which should I use...rubber mallet/hammer/sledgehamer....what works best. Searching only netted me results on how to tell if you're still rubbing etc. Lastly, is there any precautions I should take before I do this...i.e. structural/paint damage? Thanks experts

the only precausion i would take is to do this before you go the car painted. you wanna roll the fender lips to allow bigger tires/rims right? ur gonna hurt the paint like you wouldnt believe. ive done it a few times at work and the paint most likely wont hold up. adding the amount of heat needed and then changing the contor of the metal will cause the paint to chip and bubble. however if you still wanna do it ive heard you can do it with a baseball bat(not sure how well it works) at work we use a torch, hammer, and dolly. let me kno how you make out im interested to see the look.
matt

man this is horrible , i hope you dont chip your paint when you do this . What size are the rims and tires and whats the backspacing on the riims . Are you for sure that they will rub .

damn, not the answer I was looking for ...Im running 18x10's on the rear with 6" bs....tires are gonna be 285/35/18.....Ive heard that its pretty borderline....for some the rub, and others they wont


and to be honest I thought my problem wouldnt be the fender lips, but the inner fender, as Im tucking 10 inches under there....I figured that wouldnt be near the paint

if your car isnt lowered to much you should be all right. if i were u id look into heating and hammering the inner wheel wells. but i can garuntee that any heat near or over 200 degrees will melt and bubble your paint and then hammering on it will only make it chip away. you shoulda done this before you had it painted. sorry
matt

unfortunatly the paint had to come first

There is a tool you can buy to roll the lip, but its kinda expensive. I've never used it, but I've been told it can be done without messing up the paint. I've seen guys do it ghetto style with the handle of a floorjack, but ended up cracking the paint. I think the correct way to do it (cheap style) is to cut the inside lip into like 20 smaller portions. Then with a thick towel you protect the edge of the fender lip and lightly use a hammer hitting upwards to roll each portion of the inner lip in towards the body. If you divide it all up then it'll roll better. Smaller portions the better (but longer it takes). You're gonna want to be carefull not to hit it to hard once it gets close to the body, you dont want to dent the fender from the inside.

baseball bat is a myth i looks like crap yes u must cut pie shapes into it. maybe you can screw up your paint and say that it was their fault if it has a warranty they should fix it for free

with the heat, especially if you've never done this before, be careful. Too much might warp the panel and those quarters aren't exactly the easiest thing on the planet to replace.

If you have to use a hammer, try to find the ones specifically for auto body work, not the ones you find in local hardware store. When you look for a hammer make sure the head doesn't have sharp corners. Dolly would also be useful.

You might want to try this place. www.autobodystore.com. There is a message board on there. The board is crappy, but the guys there know exactly how stuff like this is supposed to be done

I thought I had seen a tool somewhere, like it bolts onto the hub, and has wheels that apply force to evenly form the fender to give the clearance....I cant remember for the life of me where I saw it though, high price or not...it's gonna be cheaper than getting new wheels or new paint

well I found it, the thing looks cool as hell and like it will actually do the trick, but 300 bucks and it'll be the only time Ill prolly ever use it


Fender roller


Ill hold off til I get the wheels to know for sure

I want one.

well lets go half on it, so neither of us feel like we're paying too much

If you lived in a 200mile radius I would

and if you guys where closer to NY, I'd go in with you. that is one cool tool.

lol isnt ontario almost direclty between NY and MN

you need a body hammer, a dolly, and don't use heat unless you need to shrink the metal.

i must have read this wrong , your not gonna hit on the outside like i thought for some reason , i have 275 35 18 with a 9.5 rim and 5.5 bs , your rims are going to be closer to the car , so worst case is you have to take a hammer to the inside of the wheel well.

Thats what I was thinking too. According to Skulte the max rear backspace is 5.85, so 6 might cause issues to the inner portion, not the lip.

yes! thats exactly what I was talking about....but you guys had me scared and thinking that it would have nothing to do with the inside. So if I need to pound the crap out of the inner fender wall, am I pretty safe?

just sut some slits in the inner fender lip if you have to, if not and you need to beat the inner fenderwell in, heat that sucker up and pound away witha 10 lb sledge, but dont go crazy with that heat

I just used a small 16oz hammer to beat the hell out of my fenderwells last week or so. I was just test-mounting the wheels I'm putting on and have no idea if there is enough room yet. I just had a little bit to beat in, but may have more once I put the new springs in. If I have to, I'll go back with a sledgehammer. Only thing I did was knock off some of the undercoating and show me that there is more rust on my car. Nothing that can't be fixed easily though.

A body shop buddy of mine once told me this could be done with a wooden baseball bat.

why not just get 17's it would be cheaper.????and less work

because he bought 18's.

with 5.75 bs i hit, luckily the car had only a rear pro-kit spring so it wasn't an issue. 6" will be that much better, just don't plan on running air ride soon unless you cut the lip off the rear quarter. your still tight but better shape then 5.75. with 6.5 and especially 6.75 like i had you'll have to massage the inner quarter and cut the bumpstops for sure. you'll probably get by with the 6" under normal driving.

i'd definately wait until you get them and if it were me i would have the rear rims rehooped before taking a tool to the fender. you have candy paint which can not be touched up. you chip that paint your fender will rust in a year and you'll have to repaint the whole car when you could have spent another 3-400 to rehoop the rims.

wait until you get the rims, luckily you went with the right tire so you "might" be ok. if you value your paint you will not try to roll the fender in any way. hope it works out for you.

It is actually possible to touch up candy paint. I have done it to a spot in my engine bay using my airbrush. It is not easy... but I promise you if you look at my engine bay you will never be able to point out the spot I repaired.

I also have 10" wide rears with 5.75" Backspacing and nothing is hitting... I'm going to trim the bumpstops to be on the safe side anyways though.

For rolling the fenders... can I just cut off the inner lip with a cutoff wheel on my die grinder? Will this work for the front fenders? Will there still be enough structural support in the front with the lip gone?

i'd bet you my car if i had it that i could point it out.. you can't touch it up to look the way it should. not like you could with a standard color.. it's not possible, however airbrush would be much better then most allowing you to work with a tighter space but i still say it's impossible to touch up and look right and my reference is not to a chip or hairline scratch but to a larger area at least the size of a dime or bigger. the light will not transfer correctly unless your layers are perfect and even then you'll notice it with the break in the clear, this is why blending a candy is hard to near impossible.

10" with 5.75 is pushing it, but it depends on your lowering too. depending on your tire and of course several other things you could hit. my 285's weren't bad unless i had a passenger and then it was only on really hard accelerations that it would rub. basically cut into the very edge of the tire with the quarters. with the 295/35/18's though with hard accelerations or turns would cause good rub on the quarters and chew the tire.

as far as the fenders and quarters.. honestly there isn't that much support with them. it will help on a side collision to keep them from really buckling. just choose the right tire and leave them alone. not having severe lowering you should be fine. if your going to attempt rolling the fenders i would bad them and do it with severe caution little bits at a time. i was able to roll mine 1/8" with out hurting the paint but i did it with a rolling pin and a 3" foam pad wrapped around it. very slowly and time consuming but it worked.

i'd bet you my car if i had it that i could point it out, but i'm that picky.. you can't touch it up to look the way it should. not like you could with a standard color.. it's not possible, however airbrush would be much better then most allowing you to work with a tighter space but i still say it's impossible to touch up and look right and my reference is not to a chip or hairline scratch but to a larger area at least the size of a dime or bigger. the light will not transfer correctly unless your layers are perfect and even then you'll notice it with the break in the clear, this is why blending a candy is hard to near impossible.

10" with 5.75 is pushing it, but it depends on your lowering too. depending on your tire and of course several other things you could hit. my 285's weren't bad unless i had a passenger and then it was only on really hard accelerations that it would rub. basically cut into the very edge of the tire with the quarters. with the 295/35/18's though with hard accelerations or turns would cause good rub on the quarters and chew the tire.

as far as the fenders and quarters.. honestly there isn't that much support with them. it will help on a side collision to keep them from really buckling. just choose the right tire and leave them alone. not having severe lowering you should be fine. if your going to attempt rolling the fenders i would pad them and do it with severe caution little bits at a time. i was able to roll mine 1/8" with out hurting the paint but i did it with a rolling pin and a 3" foam pad wrapped around it. very slowly and time consuming but it worked.

so wouldnt the versatility of airride help me out more in this situation than harm? Or would I run into problems with the quarter, while lowering extreme incriments? If that's the case, I think both that, and sportlines will be out of the question, and I might just go with the prokit, at least for this year (my bilsteins just came in on monday)

I do have severe lowering... with the carerra racing springs and weight jacks on 4 corners I can go past the bump stops.

I guess I will attempt to roll the fender some before we paint it... and when I retouched the candy it was before we put the clear on... all of the areas are bigger than a dime and no one has been able to point it out yet... but I understand it would show alot more on a flat panel than in the engine bay (the repairs are in plain sight... not behind the engine or something).

well then that's pretty good, i would have paid for you to hop on a flight and bring your air brush to touch up my car as i've seen some neat techniques but once you break the clear i've never seen it fixed.

all air ride would do is help to keep your fender off the wheels.

lol all of this stuff wont leave the lip as nice as a "chicane jimmy" will, which i purchased to roll my fender lips. It looks great

would using an air hammer hurt anything? I need to make clearances and roll my fender lips (before paint) when i put my 17X11 ZR1's in the back. I have a small sledge i was gonna use in conjunction with a butane torch (that coating is gonna STINK if i cang get it all scraped off), but i also have an air hammer... Would that be a bad idea?

jesus... do not touch your car with an air hammer man...

hehe
let me specify better, just to make sure, im talking inner fenders, not the lips (gonna have a body shop do that). Still a bad idea? i need to make more backspacing room.