Quote:
Originally posted by nolift911
John -
You seem to understand metal working far more than I but...door gaps changing? Expensive gimmick?
Surely you jest?
As an aside my M5 has rolled fender lips from the factory - front and rear. I would wager some German ducketts they rolled them with one of them there fancy tools.
I have a fender roller tool and never ran into the cataclysmic events you speak of...on any car and it has been borrowed with excellent results as well.
As for a bat with a little lube on it...Ron Jeremy comes to mind.
-Jeff
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Hi Jeff,
This is from my experience making fender flares. I have seen cars with all of the flaws I mentioned caused by fender rolling or using a porta-power. As I said, you may get away with it, but for every increment of movement in one spot there is a corresponding amount of change somewhere else. You may not notice it, but it is there. The further you go, the more noticeable the unintended change. To better see what I mean, take a piece of flat sheet metal that you know the dimensions of, and roll it over you leg just a tiny bit and you will see a change....the edges will have been drawn in.
A fender flare requires more surface area than a stock fender. You must stretch the sheet metal very slightly to create more surface area. All other methods are cheating (not necessarily a bad thing), and may or may not come back to haunt you. As for the fender roller, it is not too difficult to accomplish what it does with a padded body dolly... gradually bumping the flange up and out a little. The key is small incremental bumps, slowly back and forth over the area you want to move. Sometimes, gentle upward pressure with a floor jack on the lower rear quarter can help get a little movement outwards while bumping as well.
There is a member of this forum (sorry, forgot your name!) who used a porta power and then stretched up the low spots that appeared...turned out a real nice job too. An interesting method for a small amount of flare, because it is obvious where the stretching is needed. You still have to watch out for door gaps and wheel opening dimensions changing though. Some cars are more resistant to door gap change because of the way they are made. The change will happen elsewhere.
If using a fender roller works for you, by all means use it, I'm just mentioning a few things to look out for.
John
www.ghiaspecialties.com