Project No Rub

[Dzel]

My 2002 WS6 is dropped 1.5 in the rear and 1.0 in the front. I'm also running 315 Mickey Thompson's. Even though the car looks awesome with this set up. Any bump you go over will cause the tires to rub.

The usual fix for this is to "roll" your fenders. Which will work fine. But using this process weakens the integrity of the fender, causing it over time to wrinkle.

This is my solution:

Using a cutting wheel and electric grinder we actually very carefully cut the excess inner lip of the fender. We would slowly cut into a piece of the fender. Skipping around if you will, so that we wouldn't heat up the paint to much. Once we removed the lip, we rounded of the sharp edges enough that you could run your finger over and not get cut.

After this was completed I took a can of Kraylon Clear Coat spayed it into a small container in a way to make a small pool of paint. With a small brush I would brush over the fresh cuts to seal and protect from rust.

[Dzel]

[pajeff02]

That is a bit intense going at your car with a cut off wheel like that. Did you run a tape line to act as a guide?

[Dzel]

Yes we measured where the inner lining met the outer fender. The excess medal was what was removed.

[Dzel]

Damage to the tire caused by rubbing.

[pajeff02]

Hard to tell from the pic, what was the width of the material removed at the greatest point... around 1/2"?

[Dzel]

It's a little than half an inch at its widest

[Dzel]

I took picture of before and after but they look almost identical. If I didn't pull the pieces off myself I would swear it wasn't even done.


The trick is to not let the fender heat up so much that it warps the paint

[SMWS6TA]

a couple of detail pics of the wheel well could help.

[tatertot91]

I've rolled the quarters on 3 of my cars and never had an issue with wrinkling. I've heard of people cutting as you did but seems much more troublesome and IMO makes the quarter weaker by removing that lip that is there to strengthen it in the first place.
if you are worried about dimples/wrinkles in your quarter panels I suggest you install a set of subframe connectors if you haven't already done so.

[Dzel]

Before





After






This method keeps the integrity of the fender. Also with the paint being 10 years old this is a much better way to ensure you do not crack your paint.

As a youth I worked in paint and body for about 6 years and we have rolled fenders before with no issues. That was until we repainted one and we had to bondo the whole fender due to slight wrinkles.

Cars are like woman. They might be really pretty shined up. But you don't really know what your working with until you strip her down.

[cammed goat]

Nice job.

Are you running drag bags as well?

[tatertot91]

When i rolled mine i used a heat gun on the paint to keep it from cracking. Guess everyone has their preference

[Dzel]

We also used heat guns. I would hate to see someone do it without one