I have gone to 7 shops and called 11 more and nobody will roll my rear fenders. They see the car color and go "Oh, Tri coat huh? Nope dont wanna do it" :mad:

So I was gonna start a thread to see if anyone wants to go in with me on the purchase of a fender rolling tool. Fortunatly I found a place in Dallas that rents them so I can just do it myself this weekend.

Cant believe every shop is so much a pussy that they wont do it.

Guess you haven't tried to match-paint tri-coat before!

The risk/reward factor is just not there for anybody.

And now you're gonna hack it up yourself with NO experience.:eek:
Should be fun to watch.;)

Why not cut the fender lip off. It would be less risky than rolling.
I tried hammering the fender one time and stopped. I was hitting it fairly hard but no luck. I pussed out and stopped for fear of F@#@ing it up.

Maaco cut mine for $100 bucks, no need for painting. If I was better with an angle grinder I would've done it myself. I wouldn't roll it, those lips are 2 sheets thick.

Wait wait wait. I kept hearing people say "just roll the fender, no big deal" now you guys say I should cut it? *Le Sigh*
I was just about to send the guy money to rent the part. I would have to order it by tomorrow evening to make it here this weekend.

Crap. *bangs head*

Why not cut the fender lip off. It would be less risky than rolling.
I tried hammering the fender one time and stopped. I was hitting it fairly hard but no luck. I pussed out and stopped for fear of F@#@ing it up.

I don't know how much experience you have, but you can take a heat gun and WARM the paint up then roll the lip under with an aluminum bat(or similar round, smooth object) against the tire. You put pressure and roll in light passes-don't just force down or you'll make the lip and your 1/4 look choppy.

OR

order a fender roller like they sell out of easwood or similar body shop supply mags. steck makes a good one as well.

Check this out: http://www.rollyourfender.com/instruction.html

Thats what I am ordering and it comes with the heat gun too. I am gonna go buy a laser temp gun tomorrow if I can find one somewhere.
Its only gonna run me $80 to rent it for the weekend and shouldnt take but an hour or so.

My friend has that same one he used on his M3 show car, it works beautifully!

same principal as the easwood kit. be careful with the heat gun and patient with the roller and you will be ok. The general rule of thumb is that if its to hot for you to touch it's too hot for the paint. Make sure that you do a lot of small passes with the roller with light pressure instead of one pass with a lot and you will prob be ok. The worst you can do is crack the paint and have to have your 1/4's shot.

Hey Laser thanks for the web site ... might come in handy if my adjustment to my rear springs does not give me the clearance I want.

same principal as the easwood kit. be careful with the heat gun and patient with the roller and you will be ok. The general rule of thumb is that if its to hot for you to touch it's too hot for the paint. Make sure that you do a lot of small passes with the roller with light pressure instead of one pass with a lot and you will prob be ok. The worst you can do is crack the paint and have to have your 1/4's shot.

Thats baisically all the stuff I have read on how to do it. Heat the paint to 130-140*. They say about as hot as a dark color car is on a summer day but I think its worth spending $30 on a laser temp gun just to be sure. Also to only do a 3-4" section at a time and only bend back the metal in small incriments.

The tool is eaither the Eastwood one or the Tire Rack one. The Tire Rack one IS the Eastwood one but with a different name. So I am sure this is one of the two. The guy requires a $250 deposit and thats what they cost so thats why I figure its prolly the Tire Rack one cause its $30 cheaper then the Easwood. As long as I dont break the tool then I get the deposit back minus shipping. Shipping is only $15 each way and I would spend that much on gas to get it so may as well just have it sent.

Ill post pics as I go and give a report on it. It may come out really nice and if so then future members will know they can do the job themselves for under $100 depending on where they live. If its close then its under $80.

Hey Laser, :D bring it to my house and let me pull it in my garage. I have experience in rolling fenders, hoods and pretty much any part on the car, all within minutes. :)

Tommy taught me lol ;)

Hey Laser thanks for the web site ... might come in handy if my adjustment to my rear springs does not give me the clearance I want.

See I figured if there were like 4 or 5 of us then we could buy one for $250 and it would be like a community part. You would have to be staff/Gold Member/high post + long time regular member to use it and you just PP the person who has it the shipping charge.

Then we could use it for only $15-$25 any time we needed it for friends cars or our cars. Not saying loan it to a friend but do it yourself or stay with the tool.

Ive used the bat trick a few times and it looks good, but would be afraid on a nicer car like yours, I didnt even heat them up when I was doing it, Just stuck the bat in there and drove the thing forward and back a couple times until I liked it. That was a long time ago.
*DONT DO THE ABOVE* unless its an old crap pile and your not worried about results

Hey Laser, :D bring it to my house and let me pull it in my garage. I have experience in rolling fenders, hoods and pretty much any part on the car, all within minutes. :)

Tommy taught me lol ;)

Thanks but the burn marks are too hard to buff out. :lol:




Too soon? :D

You may find it doesn't rub in the top of the wheel well, but further back where the rear bumper cover meets the quarter...

I had thought that seeing how far that one screw mount sticks out but its perfectly white even on the edges. The rubber strip that covers the pinch weld is rubbed on the top inner part on both sides. Its covered in powdered rubber as the cars rubber is wearing quicker then the rubber off the tire. At my current ride height it does not rub much and only on bad dips at high speeds but I really want to lower it down cause it looks so much nicer when down. Plus I finnaly got ahold of the ASHAM8 guy and should have my kit in a few weeks. :D

You may find it doesn't rub in the top of the wheel well, but further back where the rear bumper cover meets the quarter...

^^^+100. My point with cutting is that they're gonna be more willing to do that as opposed to rolling them because (in skilled hands) there's less of a chance to damage the paint. They didn't wanna roll mine either but were totally willing to trim the lips.

Here you go. Leave it to the Ricers. Hope you can understand Japanese. :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDTK9IjKIYU

Very insightful. Domo irigato Mr. Roboto. Domo:rolleyes:

You don't want to cut the lip, it's a pinch weld where the inner well and outer quarter meet. While minimally structural, our cars flex too much as it is. Also, in time, can you imagine the crap that will work it's way in there? After a few rainy days.. yuck.

I had the luxury of knowing I was going to repaint anyways. I grabbed a 5 lb hammer and taped a towel up there and went to town. Took about a half hour per side. Paint cracked horrible, but still came out real smooth. I can't imagine using a roller, I was swinging pretty hard and if I wasn't ambitious I could've been there for awhile. I also had to roll so much as to roll it back onto itself though. So maybe a roller would be more agreeable going just a little bit. ..I sealed it before paint so crap didn't collect.

Good luck.

Ordered the roller today. I hope it shows up in time. Guy said they were all out on loan but he had one with a slight bend in it that would work fine as long as I wasnt doing a full size truck and that he would go install a new roller on it when he got home. So I guess we will see.

Video your efforts Laser ..

Ill take pics but nobody to shoot the video.

So I bought one of them laser temp guns today so I can make sure the paint is not over cooked when I roll the fenders. Been going around measuring temps on everything in the house since I opened it. :lol:

In case anyone was curious my balls are 6* warmer then the rest of my body. :D

Now thats sum funny sheet right there!:D

I wouldn't have even bothered with that tool. A wooden baseball bat and a heat gun work way better. We rolled the fenders on my friend's subaru WRX, and he had rented that tool. We tried that first, and after about 30 minutes of making no progress, I finally said forget this, walked in the back of the shop and grabbed the bat, put the wheel back on the car, and all 4 corners were done in an hour. The easiest way is to have the car on a lift, but if that isn't possible, get it nice and high up, with the wheel still on the car and the suspension unloaded, then use the heat gun to heat up a little section, starting at the top center, and let the lip dig into the wood of the baseball bat a bit, then push up on the lip while also prying out using the tire as the pivot point. Once you get it started, just slowly work your way around the wheel arch, making sure to heat up the paint so it doesn't flake. Also don't try to get it perfectly flat right away. First go over the whole thing and get the whole lip bent up. Once it is up, then you can take the wheel off and roll out the waves by using the bat like a rolling pin, with some pressure.

i wouldnt roll that fender id be scared of ruining it...why dont you just raise the suspension a tad so that the tires dont rub against the fender...thats what I would do.

Yeah... no. Not gonna use a bat on this. The tool will be here tomorrow and I have the right supporting tools so I am gonna do this how the tool was designed to be used. Hopefully it will work.

As for the lifting.... no. Its already lifted and still get the occasional rub. I dont want the car that high up anyway, looks dumb. I have an ASHAM8 on order and want to be able to drop her down without rubbing. Whats the point of an air ride if I cant play with it. :D

Whats the point of an air ride if I cant play with it.

call eddie and get a new compressor on the way.

if you play with the air ride like you did the heat gun, this is sound advice.

Ill just drive down and take one of yours. :p

Most of the time the ASHAM will be set at or one setting below normal with my 1" sensor drop. But on real bad roads I will want to lift it and if meeting friends or a show then I want to slam it. I wont be slamming it every time I park it and I wont ever peak it out except for maybe one time just for chits and giggles. :D

call eddie and get a new compressor on the way.

if you play with the air ride like you did the heat gun, this is sound advice.


So what... stock comps last what, 100-150k... so what if yur replace one every 50k...

so what if yur replace one every 50k...

that'd be about twice a year for me.. mmmmmmno thanks.

And that would be once a year for me too. I think I am gonna order one anyway cause the car worried me this morning. I came out and the nose was all the way down. Seemed fine for the whole trip in and I dont think the compressor turned on after it raised itself when I got in town and drove at 40 mph for 10 miles or so. Its been sitting for an hour now and the nose is at the normal park height.

I hope me messing with the easy entry is what caused it last night. I turned off and on the key a few times and opened the door a few times too. Maybe I just confused it and it vented twice. But seeing that made me think it would really suck if it was stuck like that at home without a spare comp laying around.

easy entry doesnt concern the air ride,

Only the steering wheel and drivers seat position are affected by "easy entry"

Maybe I just confused it and it vented twice. .

it wont "vent twice", it'll only vent down to parked height...

cycling the key, opening the door, several times wont make it "drop" lower than parked height.

easy entry doesnt concern the air ride,

Only the steering wheel and drivers seat position are affected by "easy entry"

I didnt mean the easy entry controlled the air ride. I never used the easy entry before and was curious how it worked. So I was seeing if the door open/close moved the seat and wheel or if it was just the key. But since I did it a few times (dont like it so turned it back off) I was just hoping that it may have caused the issue.

I figured the front vent solinoid must be sticking a little or something. I never read any air ride threads on here cause I never cared about it before but I will be spending today reading them cause the issue may come back and that worries me.
One air strut is new and the other is old but I thought the front operated independantly on each side so I thought if the old strut was leaking then the car would have only lowered on one side. Also before I sensor lowered it I had the air ride off for a couple days and the car never dropped a mm. :confused:

Maybe it was just a glitch, maybe its a sign of a bad compressor, IDK. I will read up on it today and try to edumacate myself.

If you have one bad/leaking strut in the front.. the other good strut doesnt have a snoballs chance in hell of holding the front of the car up by itself...so the whole front goes down.

DO this....
Next time the front goes down.. dont start the car, dont let the air ride power up.
Reach in the fender wheel and try to squeeze the bag.
If you have ONE that is deflated, it will be "not as hard" as the other bag.

One should be "rock solid" because it's holding the whole front end.

The other should be alot "less" solid, it might not be "completely soft"..but it will be softer than the one that didn't/isn't leaking

and.. good job turning OFF the easy entry.
it's a neat feature, but it completely overworks some expensive to replace and hard to find parts, like the drivers seat track AND the steering column.

I have mine turned off, and only adjust the wheel as needed.

I have my own fender roller that I used on the LS. As long as you do everything like you should you won't run into any problems.

If you have one bad/leaking strut in the front.. the other good strut doesnt have a snoballs chance in hell of holding the front of the car up by itself...so the whole front goes down.

DO this....
Next time the front goes down.. dont start the car, dont let the air ride power up.
Reach in the fender wheel and try to squeeze the bag.
If you have ONE that is deflated, it will be "not as hard" as the other bag.

One should be "rock solid" because it's holding the whole front end.

The other should be alot "less" solid, it might not be "completely soft"..but it will be softer than the one that didn't/isn't leaking

But wouldnt there be SOME height difference? Both sides were equally down.
I have it sitting out there with the air ride off right now to see if it drops at all.

This is why I was always leery of the air ride on these.

Just like we talked on the phone, do the cut. Easy, you can do it yourself and you get far more clearance then rolling.

call eddie and get a new compressor on the way.

if you play with the air ride like you did the heat gun, this is sound advice.

Whos Eddie?

But wouldnt there be SOME height difference? Both sides were equally down.
I have it sitting out there with the air ride off right now to see if it drops at all.

This is why I was always leery of the air ride on these.

No not really.. it slams the front.
Follow my advice....check the bags the next time.
ONE should be different than the other.

and if your "leary" of the air ride, the last thing you should be doing is jacking with any aftermarket air ride controller.

This system can die on it's own, without any help from aftermarket controllers that overwork the compressor.

If you doubt what I'm saying.
Turn off your air ride.

Jack up the drivers side of your car, remove the soleniod from the bag and let the air out of the drivers side bag, then put the soleniod back in..and let the jack down.

the front of the car should be or very close to be equally slammed on both sides.

Whos Eddie?

he's just the #1 source for replacement air ride parts and those damned coil conversion kits.

americanairsuspension.com

No not really.. it slams the front.
Follow my advice....check the bags the next time.
ONE should be different than the other.

and if your "leary" of the air ride, the last thing you should be doing is jacking with any aftermarket air ride controller.

This system can die on it's own, without any help from aftermarket controllers that overwork the compressor.

If you doubt what I'm saying.
Turn off your air ride.

Jack up the drivers side of your car, remove the soleniod from the bag and let the air out of the drivers side bag, then put the soleniod back in..and let the jack down.

the front of the car should be or very close to be equally slammed on both sides.

he's just the #1 source for replacement air ride parts and those damned coil conversion kits.

americanairsuspension.com

Tommy, I dont doubt you and as i said, I have a lot to learn about the air rides. I have been reading many threads in the last half hour and was just about to post that NM I now see who Eddie is. I guess all I can do now is wait to see if it drops down by morning again. Its been sitting out there for a couple hours now with the air ride off and I am not seeing any drop on it. But I still think an extra air strut is a good idea just in case. I see new phoenix ones for $180 and new comps from the same company (not Arnott) for about the same cost. Or I could get a rebuild one from Eddie and send him back my core. I forgot which strut was new but guess it will be easy enough to see when I do the brakes tomorrow.

Also I have something special to bring down with me next weekend. :D

Scratch that. I have been starring out my office window at the drivers side. I just went outside and the passenger front is down a good 1/2-3/4" :(
I can see that its the old bag too. Guess I will be ordering a new bag today before I kill my compressor. :mad:

Doesnt appear to be too bad of a job.

Gonna order a Phoenix right now unless someone says different.

Gonna get this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lincoln-Mark-VIII-New-Right-Front-Strut-93-98_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2c4ceb9292QQitemZ190 269067922QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAcces sories

OK, scratch that one too. :lol:

Car was sitting with thge passenger rear tire on the angled driveway. I spoke to Tommy and vented the system to park height after I moved it to a level spot. Turned off the switch and checked each front level. The passenger side is about 1/4" down but I think I just need to tweek the sensor a little cause I havent adjusted it at all since dropping it. Then I let it sit for an hour or so and then went to get lunch while it was still in the lowered position and the system off. Parked it back in the same spot and it still has not dropped any more on eaither side.

Now the drivers strut is new and OEM as are the rear bags. So I guess that meens I get to spend $400 on another OEM front bag for the passenger side. :(

The drop MAY have been a fluke but its not worth the risk so I may as well just buy a new one.