Rolling Fenders on A Painted Car
Since the beginning Eastwood has been offering fender rolling solutions that exceed the crude use of a pipe or baseball bat to roll the lips of the fenders on a car where aftermarket tires and wheels may contact the fender lip. Because of that we’ve seen everything as far as use of our original Fender Roller. The biggest questions we get about fender rolling is “How far can I roll My Fenders” and “Will Fender Rolling Crack My Paint?”.
The answer isn’t an easy one as there are many factors to how well your paint will hold up when you roll your fenders. Lets first think about the expectations and limitations of your paint on your vehicle. Paint and liquid coatings can flex some but they can’t completely do a 180 and WILL crack if flexed past their breaking point. This can be especially bad right on the fender lip edge where the paint wraps around a “sharp” edge. For this reason you need to do a few things to assure your paint isn’t damaged when rolling your fenders.
- Use a dedicated Fender Roller– A fender roller allows you to evenly put pressure on the fender lip and attaches to wheel hub to rotate the roller in a controlled fashion. When using crude methods like a baseball bat or a piece of pipe you aren’t able to put even pressure on the object as you roll and the uneven pressure can cause the paint to crack if you push too hard.
- Use a Heat Gun- A heat gun will allow you to regulate the temperature of the paint. Paint that is warmed up will flex more than cold paint and will allow it to bend as you roll your fenders. We suggest checking and reheating the fender edge in between each pass with the fender roller. Be careful to not burn your paint when heating, you just want an even heat into the paint.
- Less is More- As strong as the fender roller may be you do not want to try and roll your fender lips flat in one pass. Take multiple passes with low pressure to flatten the fender lip slowly. As you go you may need to adjust the height or angle of the roller as well due to the change in radius as you flatten the fender lip. Carefully watch the lip and where the fender lip wraps under the wheel well; you only want to roll the fender enough to clear your tires. Not all applications require a fully flattened fender lip.
Hopefully those tips will help you successfully roll your fenders on a painted car without causing paint damage. To see all of our Fender Rolling supplies and kits Click HERE.