Fender rolling
Difficulty level: 2
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Introduction
If your tires rub against the fender inner lip due to lowering or sagging suspension, larger wheels, or excessive wheel offset, you can try rolling out the fender lip to help reduce or eliminate tire rubbing. Keep in mind that larger wheels and tires normally result in reduced handling, comfort, and fuel economy! Especially for daily driver cars, you want to stay within a certain wheel size. See 1000q: wheel overview for more details.
Rolling your fender means to bend the inner lip of the fender to form a tighter angle than stock. This gives more clearance on the inside of the fender lip, it won't do anything to the outside of the fender. First make sure that you identify the spots where it is rubbing. Note that fender rolling only eliminates minor rubbing. If the tire is actually cut or the rubbing is against the suspension, you have a much bigger problem that cannot be fixed by rolling.Now, you may be asking yourself why the car maker didn't roll the fenders to begin with. That lip is there to add structural integrity. Which is stiffer when pressing on the top: a metal soda can or an equally thin piece of sheet metal. Try denting the soda can on it's side and you can crush it easily. The fender lip adds strength to the fender, so do this modification at your own risk!
Procedure
Some people have used a baseball bat, jacked up the car, lowered it so that the baseball bat pinches the bat, and roll/lever it against the tire to bend back the fender. This is dangerous and may produce uneven results. Since there are tools out there to roll the fender, available from the eastwood company, various rental places, etc, I would use the fender rolling tools. A professional body shop will also be able to roll the fenders. Here is a picture of what a fender roller looks like.
You just bolt the roller to the hub and move the roller slowly forward to bend the lip.
First, make sure the paint is heated. It may crack if it is not heated with a heat gun. A hair dryer will help, but a heat gun is better.
Remove the fender liners as necessary, etc.
Attach the fender roller to the hub and just roll in short back and forth motions. You don't want to make a big or fast motion since this can crack the paint. Again, make sure the paint stays heated as to reduce the chance of the paint cracking.
