kurupt

The front tires on my 67 tend rub the fenders when I turn. Can fenders that have the moldings on them be rolled? I was thinking of just taking them off for good and have the fenders rolled but when I did, the paint underneith is scratched and chipped in a couple of locations.

The wheels are 17x8 wrapped in 225's.

Jonk67

How far into the wheel well do the moldings go? 1/4", 1/2"? I'm guessing not much except for where the tabs stick out to screw to the lip of the feder in ~4 or 5 spots? I would remove the moldings, then have the fenders rolled then bend the tabs on the molding to match and attach back to the fender if you can. I rolled my own but don't have moldings, I remember the tabs for the moldings were the hardest to bend/roll, I think it's a double layer of metal there. If you do this be sure to tell whomever you get to roll the fenders that you'll be reusing the tabs so the roll them flat (90* to fender) and not curl them over where you can't get a screw through them again.
Jon

suicide67

Jonk, how did you roll your fenders? I've been trying to do my rears with a baseball bat and it is a pain in the ****. Got any tips?

Jonk67

I borrowed one like this: http://www.eastwood.com/ew-fender-ro...struction.html, you can buy them or rent them. Even this made for product was not an easy fix, my car will be repainted so I wasn't worried about cracking the paint so I didn't have to heat the paint so it would flex.
They have a hand held one out now: http://www.eastwood.com/fender-finisher.html which would be slower but at least you have something on the backside to press against to keep it from flexing away from the tool. It may not take longer as you still have to keep adjusting the big tool in small increments to push the lip a little more each time you rotate it through it's arc, the small one would give more fold each time.

Even with this roller I had to hand bend (rubber/nylon mallet) the tabs in the wheel wells as they're 2ply metal and don't bend easy. When I rolled the fender a little at a time it still flexed badly outward since there is nothing to push against the outward force of it trying to bend the lip.

After a lot of work I was happy with having enough to clear my tires from scraping. I plan to have the body guy finish rolling them in a smooth arc when my body/paint gets done this year hopefully.
Jon

pootypeters

I put moldings on my 66 cause I thought they look good. After I did it and put on new wheels, they started rubbing. I rolled mine with the moldings mounted. I just thought it would have been way too hard to roll the fenders and then bend the molding to match the new shape of the sheet metal. I used this old piece of cylindrically shaped aluminum about 3 inches thick that I had sitting around the house. I wrapped it in a rag so that it wouldn't scuff the molding. I also had a friend help me because I needed an extra set of hands. They held the outside of the molding tight up against the side of the fender while I tapped/rolled the inner lip up. Be very careful cause the molding has a tendancy to crinkle if you bend it too much at once. There is no real exact science but just be patient. It's better to bend it a small amount over many passes than alot over just one pass.

Adrenolin

Interesting thread here as I have as issue with the drivers rear tire hitting slightly every now and then. Not so much on pot holes but rather on bumps on the road. Now and then an overpass.. the joints in the road, it'll hit. Car looks too damned good with the trim to take it off. I'll have to look at trying this sometime. Wasn't sure how it would work with the trim on.

Jonk67

I didn't know how far into the lip the molding went, good to know you can roll them on the fenders. I guess they're aluminum? or thin steel? I thought you'd just have to bend the tabs so I was just guessing the best way to do it.

Adrenolin, sounds like your issue is only on an upward initial movement of the tire, I guess it relocates the rearend slightly left, probably only takes a fraction of an inch if your tires are close to begin with. I'd be sure to use two people to roll a painted car as you'll need a hot hair dryer to keep the metal warm so the paint flexes while you roll.
Jon