A little tribute to my lost battle wagon

Late night finishing her up

When she was completely done and tidy 

Here she is

Cutting your fenders

Pro:

• No chance of paint chipping

Con:

• Structural integrity is compromised
• Fenders/Quater panels have a high chance of “splitting” if  your wheels rub during hard compression.
• Fenders/Quater panels have a higher chance of getting sucked in by the wheels if they catch on a jagged edge from the cut fender lip.
• Tire failure if there’s any jagged edges.

Rolling your fenders

Pro:

• Structural integrity is not compromised.
• Fenders/Quarter Panels chances of splitting is eliminated.
• Fenders/Quater Panels can not get sucked in by the wheel.
• No tire failure due to jagged edges.

Con:

• Paint chipping is possible.

There you have it. The pros and cons of both. I personally like rolling than cutting.

Hopefully in this post I will try and answer those questions to the best of my abilities. I’m here to help.

Let’s start…

It started out on a friends white Z32 with him trying to fit 17×10.5 +10(?) RPF1′s. I don’t remember the offset since it’s been a long time ago. His car was featured on Speedhunters, not once, but twice! And he has a pretty strong following online. [if you know what car I'm talking about, then you get a cookie ]

What method have I personally used?

• Metal pipe
• Newspaper
• Bare hands
• Fender Roller

Method 1

Metal pipe – In a nut shell you basically stuffed a metal pipe between the tire and the fender/quarter panel and slowly work your way to the other side. To get a better idea here is a super old school video on fender rolling. To minimize paint chipping use a heat gun to get the fender/quarter panel hot to the touch. (this is key, any hotter and you will burn the paint/bubble)

Method 2

Newspaper – Now this is somewhat a more technical procedure than stuffing a metal pipe between your tire and fender/quater panel. This will only work on a double wishbone equipped car, because we are unbolting the bottom of your coilovers/shocks, and stuffing a newspaper between the tire and fender/quater panel,  and lowering your car slowly on a low profile jack. As the car lowers, you will notice it still follows the camber curve, this is key.

Here is an awesome write up by my friend, and his new Z32
Source: http://forums.nicoclub.com/how-to-newspaper-pull-t541589.html
Author: ArticDragon192

Before I begin, let me make this very clear.
Your fenders must be rolled FLAT already
If they aren’t rolled, the pull isn’t going to work.
If the roll isn’t completely flat, the pull won’t come out evenly and flawless.

Now, with that said, here we go.

So, you all know, I have a new car. Meaning, new fenders to play with. Obviously my old wheel set up wasn’t going to work with the barely modded fenders the car came with. It worked before, but I was running more than -4* of camber. I recently got an alignment and opted to run -3* all around (driving style preference, I’m not trying to conserve tires here, lol)
Less camber meant my tires were going to rub, so I had to pull my fenders. As always, I turn for the newspaper method of pulling fenders for the clean, flat pull that is barely noticeable. Please note, I am NOT using newspaper, but a comparable paper. What is key is that the paper you pick can easily slide. A magazine or book will not work well since the bindings will prevent the pages from sliding freely. As always, newspaper is the best thing you can use.
I used the next best thing…. paper car mats, lol

First of all, you’re going to want to jack up the rear by the tow hook, and remove he rear wheel. The you’re going to want to disconnect the lower mount of the rear shock.

Remove the nut and bolt, and swing the lower mount out of the way.

Make sure the lower mount is clear of everything. You do not want it to catch on anything.

With the car in the air, and the wheel at full droop, this is what it looks like:

Not too bad, but remember it will camber in a bit, like so:

The fender just catches the tire, so rubbing will occur.

Next, you’re going to want to heat up the fender, from where I’m point at, and to the right. Use either a heat gun, or if you’re brave, a propane torch, lol

You want to hit the fender from the bottom and up, to heat up the lip of the fender on both sides.

Next, grab about less than a thumb’s width of newspaper for the initial treatment.

Again, I’m using mechanic’s paper floor mats. It works just as well.

With the fender heated, stuff the newspaper into the wheel arch, between the fender and tire. Make sure to have the newspaper span the whole area you heated up, or else you’ll pull one section more than the other.

Then you’re going to drop the car slowly, until the tire touches the floor, and the wheel begins to tuck itself inside the fender.

Now, it will make some noise, it is just the sound of the fender sliding over the newspaper. Let it sit for couple of minutes, to give the fender time to cool off and take shape. You’re going to want to then raise the car and remove the paper. Drop it back down to where you’re tucking tire, like so:

You’re going to want to check for rubbing issues. What I do is take some thin paper, and slide it between the tire and fender:

If the paper snags, then you still need to pull more. The tire was touching the fender in the area between where the paper is placers in the two pics.
Again, heat up the fender, and grab more paper.

Rinse and repeat as needed.

You can see the fender slowly taking a flat flared look

Just as a warning, the driver side fender will require more effort to pull, due to the gas cap there reinforcing the fender. So don’t freak out if you need significantly more newspaper on the driver side than on the passenger side.

Keep repeating the process by adding a slight amount more newspaper at every pass. My passenger side took 2 passes. Driver side took 4. Again, this is normal. And here are the results:

Hope this helps everyone.

So how do you know if you need a newspaper pull? Here is a prime example:

Just need a few millimeters to clear effectively.

Method 3, and the difference of fender rollers, and which one works best will be covered in Pt 2 of  Technical MumboJumbo! Fender Rolling/Pulling 101

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Back Story: My buddy Daniel hits me up about his homie and his black NA. When I got there his poor fenders were in pretty bad shape. I asked what happen, it turns out that the previous person tried to roll his fenders with the finishing tool. YIKES!

The finishing tool, is just that – a finishing tool.

Sometime this week I’ll do a write up on “proper” fender rolling tools. But for now you can check out my equipment in one of the pictures.

Sorry for the lack of updates, been pretty busy since the spring semester started. Here are some pictures of a NA when fender rolling did not go as planned…

(PBM Fender Roll (Modified), Body Hammer, Heat Gun, and Snap On cushion)

Car: Mazda Miata
Work: Rolled/Pulled Rear Fenders

Photos courtesy of Daniel Lim

Car: ’89 Nissan 240sx w/ sr swap.
Work: Rolled front fenders

Check out Minh’s Honda Fit. He had rubbing issues in the rear, but after we were done, that issue was long gone.

If you need a awesome photographer check out my buddy Raf Dancel! He’s a brillian aspiring photographer, and his pictures will blow you away!

Who doesn’t like free samples from CostCo? Mmm…

You can check out more on his site:
http://www.rafdancelphoto.com/