Whats involved in rolling a fender?

jusinbailey said:
Sorry for the newbie post,but I was just wondering what is involved in rolling a fender?

thanks

My personal favorite way to roll a fender is like this:

1. Using a razor blade strike a line in the paint on the part of the metal just past where it rolls into the fender. (transition from facing out to facing down)...this is done to help prevent the paint from cracking.

2. Depending on how tall your tires are you may need a jack to help with the part. INsert a wooden base ball bat with a towel wrapped around it for more girth between the tire and the fender.

3. This helps to have a friend. Put the car in nuetral and while your friend pushes the car forward and then backwards a couple of times....you push down hard on the bat while letting it spin in you hands as it rides along the tires pushing the inner fender metal up.

4. Repeat #3 until fenders are flat enough....this is alot easier to do on the fronts...but I did it on the rears on my car and it gets the fenders up there pretty good, but it will not got them completely flat, so I plan on finishing the job with channel locks, towels, and a 2x4 to squueze it flat flat.
 
allcarfan said:
I suggest cutting slits into the fender lips...then using the basbeall bat technique. I could NOT get mine to tuck and roll without cutting them a little

any of you ever get pics of this operation? how does the end result look? are there any 'ripples' ? id want it to look flawless
 
I tried the baseball bat thing and found that the bat simply sank into the tire, resulting in no change in the rear fender. What I ended up doing was making a simple tool, which is basically a piece of 3/8 inch by two inch steel about 8 inches long with a slot in it. Make the slot wide enough for the fender lip to slide into, then start at on end and slowly bend the fender lip up. You need to realize that you can't bend it all the way in one shot, so bend it a bit, then move down a couple inches and bend it again. The metal needs to be stretched to get it lay up against the fender, so you need to be patient and keep working at it, maybe even a coulple taps with a body hammer to get it right. But be careful not to whack it hard enough to make a reverse dent in the outer panel. Nothing looks worse than your quarter panel looking like a sack of walnuts...