Can anyone help roll fenders on a thunderbird? Any help would be appreciated
Like with a tool or old school w/ a baseball bat???
I believe automotive has a fender roller.
Affirmative - there is a fender roller on the metal shelves - it is red(mostly)
With the tool they shouldn’t need much help, fairly easy and straight forward.
Heat gun(doesn’t always work), elbow grease, patience, and some touch up paint are needed.
P.S. when do you plan to get it done?
For others who are wondering about fender rolling (as I was), I’ll save you the Google search:
TLDR version: Rolling a fender involves folding up the lower rim of the fender to increase clearance so that lowered cars and/or wider tires don’t get cut by the fender when turning.
You’ll want to add that, while a solution, the best way to avoid having to roll your fenders/cut up tire shoulders/sidewalls is to use properly offset wheels & correctly sized tires.
Also while a lifestyle choice, stance isn’t always the best thing to do since the extreme compromises vehicle control.
what is the reason you are looking to roll your fenders ?
I assume your Thunderbird is 10 plus years old… paint will not be that flexible. good chance even if you are only looking for a small inner roll that the paint with crack rather than flex.
Just as a note: Not all fender rolling is for ‘stance’. Often times, simply wider wheels or tires are fitted for additional traction.
Yup, for the guys who do track or actually have the use/need for such.
Most of the other times, I’ve encountered far too many who do it for the cosmetic improvements and then make it someone else’s problem to fix after the wheel and tire seller sold them something they shouldn’t have.
The problem with this theory comes into play with my car. When my car rolled off the line, it had 155hp at the crankshaft and 195mm tires that were almost sufficient to hold that kind of power. I’ve performed significant powertrain modifications and now the car is looking at the 350hp range at the wheels. I need quite a bit more rubber in the rear to put that power down safely. And I can only go so far into the wheel well- maybe an extra 20mm. 215s won’t keep 350hp tame. I need at least 245s for my goals, but adding 50mm of tire width will invariably interfere with the stock fenders no matter what I do with my offset.
To that end, rolling the fender lip provides enough clearance for a 245mm tire. If I decide I need even wider tires in the future, I’ll need to push the fenders out a little bit more in what’s known as pulling the fenders. Same tools, similar process.
The point being, there is a very valid use for this technique in terms of building a car that performs well, is safe, and doesn’t induce undue tire wear.
I worked on an S14 with a S15 body and engine conversion some time ago that ouputted about that much. Owner chose to go with a wide body after we decided it would be in his best interest to get his shell seam welded as he got the facelift.
He bought the black topped SR20DE for the extra factory 50 hp rating over standard, 6 speed and rear end. He ended up with a built motor and a Tomei standalone ecu(only thing available for his build 13-14 years ago).
The ecu was the game changer, if somewhat tedious to use; it would be wiped of the programming clean when you disconnected the power.
The car eventually became a garage queen(too low for road conditions, but he didn’t want it any other way) before he sold it and went with an R34 some years back,
It was fun though, if a little loud.
As another note, I’m all for proper fitment. I was able to upsize from stock 225 to 255 with the right rims without rolling the fenders (at stock ride height).
Nice ride.
How much did the wing change the handling of the car?
Had friend who regularly tracked his, he could kept complaining on how he couldn’t get it to corner as fast as he wanted. It would plow on entry and tail would come out at the wrong moment was his description.
The wing cut the tail’s tendency to swing out on exit a good amount, but since i’m already at lower speeds on exit, it’s not as crucial as you might think. Cut laptimes by a second or two. I keep meaning to make some larger end plates for the thing. I hear that it helps a lot also.
Swapping the staggered fronts to a wider footprint made a HUGE difference. I was experiencing the same push on entry, quite badly that was very much mitigated by a lot of extra meat up front. I’m not very fast to start with, and am still running stock suspension with a lot of miles on it, so I kind of follow the advice of the guys who are a lot faster and more experienced than I am.
Now that you mention it, that would explain the pushing. The narrower tire would ensure someone that’s all out gung-ho on the track could keep things in check when the driver realizes that they’re coming in too hot, too late.
Honda does like to play around with tire setup to get some of their car to handle the way they do.
I don’t recall what tire sizes he used, but I do recall he kept it staggered when he up-sized his wheels.
He eventually let go of it for an Evo 7 which he still has ( and could drive faster with).
The car had Bilstein PSS9’s that I put on for the original owner(did not track car but wanted coil overs for some other reason; that was what available back in 2001), and he(friend who tracked it) eventually swapped it out for another brand which offered more adjustments.
It was a fun car(whatever the suspension) that was more comfy at speed than being slow.