How Do You Roll Your Fenders? Options

[ne14914]

Currently i have empi 8 spoke rims on my car with 165 SR 15 tires on them. I want to go to a wider tire but dont have much room. The empi rim has too much off set.

I have read about using a bat to "roll out" the fenders. Exactly how is this done, and will it resolve my problem. Does anyone else out there have empi 8 spokes on their car, and what is the widest tire you can put on them.

Thanks

Craig

[airsix]

Hi Craig,
When I was in college I ran 195/50-15's and Empi 8-spokes on my first 914. This required a little rolling of the rear quarters, but nothing extreme. I will tell you up front that you will damage the paint doing this, so don't try unless you are prepared to do some touch-up work. Best case scenario you will just lose the paint on the edge of the wheel opening. Worst case scenario you may crack the paint a few inches up from the edge.
Take an old bat or some appropriately sized pieces of plastic PVC pipe and insert between the tire and fender at the back of the tire. Roll the bat/pipe forward across the top of the tire. Use the friction between the tire and bat/pipe to your advantage - twist the bat/pipe to roll it forward across the tire. Start with a small diameter pipe or section of the bat - you don't want to do to much at once. Make several passes gradually using a larger diameter section of the bat or pipe until you have pulled out the fender sufficiently. Then sand and repaint the edge of the fender where all the paint chipped off. It's not that hard, but watch out for one thing - don't put downward pressure on the bat/pipe so much that the top edge of the bat/pipe presses outward against the inside of the fender up high above the fender lip - this can cause cracking of the paint up high above the wheel opening.
As an aside, I saw some pictures the other day of a machine being used in a tire shop to do this (they were doing a BMW M3 at the time). They remove the wheel and bolt it to the hub. It has an arm with a big rubber roller on the end of it. You adjust the angle and length of the arm, and then it is rolled back and forth against the inside of the fender to pull it out. Looked pretty slick. No paint damage either.

-Ben M.