How to: Fender rolling

[RT Hunter]

My rear tire sidewalls were rubbing against the rear quarter panel's lip:

Quarter panel's lip before rolling:

(the tire actually caught on the lip, and yanked it downwards slightly)

Have the car up on jack stands, and remove the wheel.

Mounting the fender roller tool:

Adding the lug nut washers:

Lug nuts on, and slightly tightened:

What the tool looks like fully mounted:

Since I'm working on the rear, the e-brakes will need to be released.

Tool is positioned with slight pressure on the panel lips.

Red knob tightened to lock the tool length in place.

Head roller angle is also tightened and locked into place:

With slight pressure already on the panel lip, rotate the tool left and right several times. Lip starts to slightly curl:

Use the lever to add more pressure on to the panel lip, and rotate the tool left and right several times again. Repeat this step until the panel lip is folded enough to clear the tire:

Some paint cracking depending how much the lip is folded:

(Paint cracking maybe reduced if a heat gun was used prior to rolling)

Edited August 14, 2010 by RT Hunter

[RT Hunter]

Fender rolling completed:

(The dimple shown is a factory spot weld, but is not visible on the outside)

Finished:

*** For more photos of this car: LINK

Edited August 16, 2010 by RT Hunter

[cbudvet]

Awesome thread! I never knew what exactly rolling a fender meant and certainly not how to do it. It seems a fairly straight forward procedure. Where do you get rolling tools? Can you rent them? Good job.

carl

[RT Hunter]

Awesome thread! I never knew what exactly rolling a fender meant and certainly not how to do it. It seems a fairly straight forward procedure. Where do you get rolling tools? Can you rent them? Good job.

carl

Thanks!! The Eastwood Fender Roller tool is roughly $250-270. But there are rental programs, which is about $60.

http://www.google.com/products?client=safari&rls=en&q=fender+roller+rental&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=B8lmTOHcHoT48Aalk9CyBA&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQrQQwAg

My cousin and I bought one because we use it quite frequently.

[tlorber]

Question-Does the quarter panel lose any strength or stiffness by not having the lip bent at 90*?

[RT Hunter]

Technically it does lose it's stiffness since the 90 degrees bend is gone. I believe the only way it would make a difference for me is if someone was to kick it.

[Walter Moore]

Heh, if you tried that on most rust-belt cars you would likely be injured by the flying fiberglass and bondo...