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Tips for Rolling Fenders? / Rubbing would be an understatement!

8K views 61 replies 17 participants last post by  tx65coupe 
#1 · (Edited)
Over the weekend I had a bit of unexpected fender rubbing when turning through a sharp dip and rise in a parking lot. Needless to say a few expletives were flying out of my mouth. Fender = screwed up and brand new tire = wasted.

I am partly blaming this on the older Golden Legion, at least that's what I believe it is, repro fender from the 1990's, which I have never liked for more than one reason. The fender lip does not have the very slight curl up to it like the OEM and it is actually 1/10" wider.

I've had 215 60 15 tires on 15x7 4.25 Magnum 500s for over a decade, and this has never been a problem until now. The ride height seems to be the same as it has been for the last several years after I did the Arning upper control arm relocation. The 1 inch lowering coils are 10 years old but don't seem to have sagged other than the settling like they did at first.

I picked up a roller on eBay for 20 bucks, so I'm looking for tips on rolling the fenders with 20+ year old but still fairly nice paint that I prefer to at least try to keep from damaging. I would appreciate any tips or suggestions, like things that may not be mentioned in tutorials or maybe choosing beginning and ending points.

Heavy Duty Roll Fender Reforming Extending Tool Wheel Arch Roller Flaring Former | eBay

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#4 ·
Tip #1 • Use heat from a hair dryer or heat gun, to soften paint.. hot enough to be able to only hold fingers on paint for 3 seconds.(a friend to help is handy, as the heat dissipates rapidly.) Having panel facing the sun helps to slow the heat loss.

Tip #2 • Take your time, don't get greedy and try to fold too quickly, you need to work the whole fender arch a little at a time.

Tip #3 • Don't overheat the paint, and scortch it.


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#9 ·
Tip #1 • Use heat from a hair dryer or heat gun, to soften paint.. hot enough to be able to only hold fingers on paint for 3 seconds.(a friend to help is handy, as the heat dissipates rapidly.) Having panel facing the sun helps to slow the heat loss.

Tip #2 • Take your time, don't get greedy and try to fold too quickly, you need to work the whole fender arch a little at a time.

Tip #3 • Don't overheat the paint, and scortch it.


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I can imagine that wanting to go to far too fast yields a bad outcome. I'll keep that all in mind when I start to tackle this.
 
#7 ·
IMO your experience is pretty common, it can take years to encounter the perfect worst-case combination of steering angle and suspension load to cause a problem. Years ago I broke a swaybar link on my 65 turning in to a really sharp drive that racked the car hard, causing a bind.
 
#8 ·
Sounds like a lot of work. Glad I used my die grinder and the same carbide bit I ported my heads with to trim the fender lips down to 1/4" many moons ago. Took about 15 minutes a side and cost me zero.
 
#13 ·
Its funny, I had 225x50-16s installed on new 8" rims on a bone stock body fastback. Drive around the block and pulled back in saying something in my rim/tire combo was screwed. Old Mexican owner turns to his 19 year old kid and he comes out of the office wth a baseball bat. If this old Mexican hadn't taken good care of me for many years, I might have been concerned. His kid rolled the bat over the tire a few times each time leaning a little more on it and that was it, its been fine for 22 years or so... It aint that hard, just do baby steps. In my experience on projects like this, it starts out fine as you are worried about screwing it up. By the third one your getting bored and impatient and either a) get greedy and take too big of a bite or heat the paint too fast b) you finish the job and decide it needs; "one more time"...
 
#17 · (Edited)
Yeah I saw that but thought it was worth the risk for the price. It says it shipped. I paid with PayPal. If it doesn't come I found some for under $50. Its interesting that it says 286 sold but he only has 8 feedback scores with the good ones being buyer and the negative ones being seller. Also it says item location is South Dakota, but the sellers name says based in Poland. I've never seen a feedback score that bad. Probably should have paid closer attention to it. That's what happens when you order things on the phone instead of the laptop. Lol...
 
#16 ·
So everybody says everything but the Eastwood fender roller sucks. I went to town on the double walled rear quarters on my 65 this week with the Eastwood roller and won big time. I know its all commie regardless but the Eastwood roller did not break and I was trying. More negative camber would help as it moves the top of the tire in, I'm at -3º but I don't drive on the street much. You can't achieve much negative camber on a 65-66 without this.Lower arm camber kit 65-66 Mustang - Falcon Comet - Opentracker Racing Products Good luck!
 
#19 ·
I have heard that before about the Eastwood roller. Many of them look identical and could have come from the same factory. Who knows for sure though. Since my car is a street car, I'm not sure excessive camber is a good idea.
 
#40 ·
Supporting pictures? You sound like my lawyer! I started the process with modified channel locks to start the bend, then moved to the roller, with some super hard plastic faced hammer action along the way. Best I could do for now without a repaint. When and if I paint I'll get some heat in there a pretty things up.

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Even if it rubs in an extreme situation it shouldn't take chunks out of the tire.
 
#26 ·
The biggest tip I can give is to lock your steering. It took me a little while to figure that out when I was rolling mine.

Other tips are to grease the adjustment screw on the roller and peen the threads or but on the main adjustment screw. I found that any pressure allows the nylok but to back off. Not a catastrophe, but very annoying.

Otherwise is is a very easy and straight forward process once you get the hang of it.
 
#27 · (Edited)
The feedback reviews keep getting worse every day. It is beginning to look like the purchase from seller nsrkoag86 was a poor choice on my part. The comments are even getting vulgar now. That may be the worst Ebay feeback I've ever seen. Apparently the guy is a real stouche. Lmao!
 
#31 ·
Lol. Your welcome to come over when I get around to doing this. Might be nice to hang out again anyway and talk about other car projects etc. I can probably get Dad to hold the wheel or find a way to lock it from turning.
 
#32 ·
That would be great. Too bad your not located a little closer. I'd hate to have it get lost in transit. I will probably try to buy another one I found for about 45 bucks or maybe luck out and find someone local to borrow one from.
 
#34 ·
For the steering, I just rigged up a fixture to hold the pitman arm from moving.

The offer stands if you wind up having bad luck with your purchase. I was thinking that shipping it back and forth might cost as much as a new one.

If I was closer, I'd come give you and hand with drinking a few cold ones. Oh, I guess we would get the fenders rolled too... LOL
 
#38 ·
I’m confused as to why you don’t just buy the Eastwood roller that everybody says works?
 
#41 ·
Is that the rear? I need to get on mine...

I was given some TTDs in 15x8 from a buddy with a falcon that had the wrong offset but worked for me. Threw on some Mickey T ET streets in 235/60/15.. I rub on the drivers side over big bumps..

Just need to get the balls to use my eastwood tool on the back and not muck up the paint!!
 
#43 ·
Is that the rear? I need to get on mine...

I was given some TTDs in 15x8 from a buddy with a falcon that had the wrong offset but worked for me. Threw on some Mickey T ET streets in 235/60/15.. I rub on the drivers side over big bumps..

Just need to get the balls to use my eastwood tool on the back and not muck up the paint!!
I didn't necessarily say that I didn't hurt the paint or that the outer portion of the fenders looks as good as when I started because it doesn't. I was working with very soft original paint and absolutely no bodywork/bondo ever on the car. I did the drivers side first and it turned out a little lumpy but the passenger side looks 95% good. I don't really care about the paint as I just added more patina. What I was after was getting every bit of rubber I could under the car.
 
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#42 ·
Over the weekend I had a bit of unexpected fender rubbing when turning through a sharp dip and rise in a parking lot. Needless to say a few expletives were flying out of my mouth. Fender = screwed up and brand new tire = wasted.

I am partly blaming this on the older Golden Legion, at least that's what I believe it is, repro fender from the 1990's, which I have never liked for more than one reason. The fender lip does not have the very slight curl up to it like the OEM and it is actually 1/10" wider.

I've had 215 60 15 tires on 15x7 4.25 Magnum 500s for over a decade, and this has never been a problem until now. The ride height seems to be the same as it has been for the last several years after I did the Arning upper control arm relocation. The 1 inch lowering coils are 10 years old but don't seem to have sagged other than the settling like they did at first.

I picked up a roller on eBay for 20 bucks, so I'm looking for tips on rolling the fenders with 20+ year old but still fairly nice paint that I prefer to at least try to keep from damaging. I would appreciate any tips or suggestions, like things that may not be mentioned in tutorials or maybe choosing beginning and ending points.
Maybe not what you're asking for but.......back in '93 when we wanted to put some serious rubber under our '93 Mustang drag car I was faced with rolling the fenders also. Perfect paint that I did not want to chance cracking. I believe I needed to get close to 1/2" more clearance. I masked it and marked a cut line. I used an angle grinder and took little cuts with lots of stops to apply a cold towel to stop the paint from blistering. Worked perfect and looks factory to this day. I know there are rollers out there and they work but I just did not trust myself to not clack the paint.
 
#44 ·
Not reason what wouldn't work as long as your cutting off excess behind the spot welds, or at least most of them. That super sharp edge would scare me though!
 
#54 ·
Buy it, use it on your car and then bring it to me, I’ll buy off you for $50. Let me know...
 
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#55 ·
I bought mine on sale from Eastwood a while back. Works great. I just heated the lip with a Harbor Freight Heat gun then went at it. Worked great.

I really don't care where stuff is made anymore. If you are really in some kind of industry. You are the one who tells the factory in China or Taiwan how you want it made. They make it to your specs. So do not blame the people oversea's blame the company who has it made for them. Just ask Rick from NPD. You can have two identical items made in Taiwan at the same factory. Two different companies call Taiwan to have it made. One company may want to cut costs so they ask the factory to use cheaper plastic or thinner metal, etc...
 
#58 ·
I bought mine on sale from Eastwood a while back. Works great. I just heated the lip with a Harbor Freight Heat gun then went at it. Worked great.

I really don't care where stuff is made anymore. If you are really in some kind of industry. You are the one who tells the factory in China or Taiwan how you want it made. They make it to your specs. So do not blame the people oversea's blame the company who has it made for them. Just ask Rick from NPD. You can have two identical items made in Taiwan at the same factory. Two different companies call Taiwan to have it made. One company may want to cut costs so they ask the factory to use cheaper plastic or thinner metal, etc...
This is true.
 
#56 ·
I'm done with my Eastwood roller. Maybe we should have a sticky in the for sale section? Eastwood roller Swap-O-Rama! Shipping is the biggest issue.
 
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