Trimming/Rolling wheel wells

ahetzel

Gold forum user
Messages
105
I am going to get new 15" LAT 70 wheels. I want to open up my wheel wells and run 195/205 tires or worst case 185/195. I am not going to do the work myself but want to guide the body shop to ensure things get done correctly as they are not experts on this cars so I have a few questions:

What is the preferred method, rolling the lips or cutting?
What is the best procedure? I understand that the front valence corners should be clipped and the upper arches have tack welds so there are some limitations.

Any help is appreciated.
 

cobrakidz

Gold forum user
Messages
2,289
I ran 195/50/15 and 205/50/15 with no rub issues at all, these were Panasports so I am not sure if the offset is the same.
 

VinceB

Bronze forum user
CAT Member
Messages
15
Rolling the lip

Going through the process now. It's PITA - luckily my car is on a rotisserie.

I marked the spot welds w/a sharpie, ground down the welds on the underside/inner fender well with a 1" dremmel tool then separated the inner/outer sheet metal with a chisel and putty knife. After the inner/out well were no long connected, I sliced off the inner portion that was previously spot welded to the outer, removing about a 1/2" wide strip. This will allow the outer to be rolled tighter over the inner. What fun!
Next step - using a hydraulic ram I moved the inner well closer to the outer well while insuring I wasn't distorting the outside of the fender. Closing this gap prior to rolling over the lip will allow more room once it's finalized.
Using a rubber mallet as a dolly and an a ball peen hammer, you slowly bend the outer lip back over the inner...
Make sense? I can try to post pictures but will need to take some...
I have one, can post others later if folks are interested...
 

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VinceB

Bronze forum user
CAT Member
Messages
15
Rolling the lip- continued

I took several more pictures -
1) shows the inner/outer separated
2) Ram pushing over inner closer to outer + some of lip pounded over. Hold a rubber mallet tight on the outside to act as a dolly and a ball peen to hammer on the lip - slowly...

Fronts are easy compared with Rear, no inner sheetmetal to worry about - pound away...
 

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