Fender Rolling?

Just finished replacing my Miata's front fenders and got my shiny new Maxxis VR-1 tires mounted - and they're a bit wider than the tires they replaced. Rubbing is now an issue.

I've never rolled fenders before - how hard is it and how much time should I expect it to take? What method is GRM-approved? I've seen the roller tools which look pretty slick to me, but not something I want to buy for this one thing.

If anyone is close by and wants to give me a tutorial (preferably this weekend), I'd be happy to provide refreshments!

I used the Eastwood fender roller, because I too had rubbing issues with my Miata. IT was on sale and was a decent price and I've lent it out a few times to different people. It takes a strange combination of brute force and patience, but the end result is nice

Lots and lots of heat to soften the paint or it will crack. Mine cracked, but only when I really forced things farther than they wanted to go. Eventually I wasn't getting things pulled and rolled enough with the Eastwood roller and resorted to a heavy plastic mallet.

I borrowed the roller from a guy locally. Put out a request on your local FB car groups, someone is sure to have one they can let you use.

I've done probably 2 dozen sets of fenders. I used to own a roller, but it mysteriously disappeared out of the back of my car right after my wife asked for a divorce. Anyhow, yeah, Eastwood. Depending on how much you care about your paint, if you've got a heat gun (you need one. ) I could probably do a car in 30min with a second set of hands. Alone? Hour, hour and a half. A lot of the work is removing and reinstalling the rolling stock, and tool setting.

I bought an Eastwood roller and successfully rolled the rear fenders on an E46. If it works on super thick BMW rear fenders it has to be good.

Do the rollers just bend the fender lip or are you actually shifting the entire quarter panel outboard?

^ It is supposed to just bend the inner lip, bending the entire fender is a horrible destructive thing called a "pull".

You can also get some panel distortion from just a fender roll on certain cars. If you care about the car and you have to roll the fenders, it's recommended to have a body shop do it with a body hammer.

I don't care about the fronts so much, since they're already the wrong color and easily replaced. I really don't want to screw up the rear quarters. I'll try MassMiata.

I'm a little surprised that there is no talk of using a wood baseball bat.

...Not that I condone it or not, but that had truly been the only method I'd heard of using.

The baseball bat was the go-to method until the Eastwood roller (and the legion of identical devices with different branding) showed up. It's not as easy to control.

You can pull fenders with the roller - done that. Or you can stop at simply folding the lip up. All depends on what you need to do. About the only thing you can screw up is crack the paint at the sharpest point of the lip.

I think I should be OK with just rolling. I do need to raise my ride height some as well, and possibly see about some more camber. I was caught off guard by how much wider the 205/50-15 VR1 is than Direzza ZIIs in the same size.

Tried the Eastwood fender roller...I'll stick to my plastic mallet. I find that a good soft hammer gives faster/better results. YMMV

fanfoy wrote: Tried the Eastwood fender roller...I'll stick to my plastic mallet. I find that a good soft hammer gives faster/better results. YMMV

My body guy told me the same thing. I loaned him my roller, he did it with a mallet and some wood. Different strokes I guess.

In reply to cmcgregor:

One bit of advice not mentioned above - whichever method you choose, make sure you have good lighting. When I did mine(with a bat, because it's what I had) I thought everything went well...then I rolled it out of the garage.

I got one of the cheap knock off fender roller for about $60. Now $44 on amazon. It kept coming unbolted. I assume the Eastwood one does not. They work well. I would not consider hammer and dolly, that's way way too much work. And it's easy to mess things up. (The GRM rotary MX-5 for example.)

cmcgregor wrote: I think I should be OK with just rolling. I do need to raise my ride height some as well, and possibly see about some more camber. I was caught off guard by how much wider the 205/50-15 VR1 is than Direzza ZIIs in the same size.

Ride height won't solve a rub. You need to either change the range of motion of the tire or move stuff out of the way. Ride height changes only move the starting point to a different place, but the tire will still get to where it hits.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Right. I do understand that - sorry if that wasn't clear. It will solve it rubbing on every single bump I go over. The ultimate solution will probably end up a combination of moving stuff out of the way (fender roll) and changing range of motion (adding camber). I have some VMaxx extremes that I got used and have not yet dialed in the ride height - I had it pretty well set, but then I switched out the late NB springs that it came with for the shorter NA springs with tenders.

We discuss fender rolling in this GRM Live. It might help some.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https://www.facebook.com/grassrootsmotorsports/videos/10155377395328140/&show_text=0&width=560

I have a Powered by Max roller for low cars and an Eastwood roller for stock height cars. I sometimes still use a bat or a mallet...

In reply to David S. Wallens:

This was perfect! The relevant section starts around 22 minutes in, if anyone else is looking for a tutorial. I'm borrowing one Saturday.

cmcgregor wrote: In reply to David S. Wallens: This was perfect! The relevant section starts around 22 minutes in, if anyone else is looking for a tutorial. I'm borrowing one Saturday.

Cool, glad it helped. Look for more videos like that on our YouTube page.

Eastwood fender rollers go on sale for about $65. There's no excuse not to have one anymore. They work awesome (except of Corvettes).

JG Pasterjak wrote: Eastwood fender rollers go on sale for about $65. There's no excuse not to have one anymore. They work awesome (except of Corvettes).

Elise? :)

JG Pasterjak wrote: Eastwood fender rollers go on sale for about $65. There's no excuse not to have one anymore. They work awesome (except of Corvettes).

That's aboit 1/4 what I paid for mine.

In reply to mndsm:

If the first thing she grabbed was the Eastwood roller you might have let a good one get away. If the first thing you grabbed was the roller that must have been a tough divorce.