Fender roller tool...

[popskull]

Hey all, has anyone ever made their own? The Eastwood one is ridiculously expensive for something I am only going to use once. Just wondering if anyone has made one and if they have suggestions.

Eastwood one is like this.

What I was thinking is I could go to Grainger and find a caster wheel that would work for the wheel, and that I could most likely find the scrap in my garage to weld up the rest of the tool. The only thing I am not sure of is how to get all of the adjustability of the Eastwood one, without ever having looked at one in real life.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
Matt K

 

[Crusty Nut]

a baseball bat works good too. Not hitting it, but just rolling if firmly like a rolling pin on the inside fender lip.

 

[metaleltr]

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/4018FenderMender.pdf
The pictures here may help

 

[blind]

I made a modified version of this and it works great.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2435165

 

[refried]

these work great

 

[popskull]

a baseball bat works good too. Not hitting it, but just rolling if firmly like a rolling pin on the inside fender lip.

Yeah, I have heard this, but the only wood bat I have is my grandpas and I would like something I could either rent out, sell, or use again on my friend's cars.

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/4018FenderMender.pdf
The pictures here may help

Those do help!

I made a modified version of this and it works great.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2435165

Very awesome! I will have to look into that style more. Do you have more pictures of it?

 

[Zeke]

You can get a cheap aluminum bat at the thrift store, etc. Just remember that you only need to roll about 12" at the top of any fender. The Eastwood kind only works on perfectly round arches.

Using the bat method you lever off the tire. Go real slow with this. It doesn't take much to put a crease in the arch.

 

[popskull]

You can get a cheap aluminum bat at the thrift store, etc. Just remember that you only need to roll about 12" at the top of any fender. The Eastwood kind only works on perfectly round arches.

Using the bat method you lever off the tire. Go real slow with this. It doesn't take much to put a crease in the arch.

True, I never thought of it not being a full arch. The car in question right now is a 92 Fox Mustang. I want to flare the quarters to fit the 10.5" wheels and 315s better. I know its a body work job and not simply a finder rolling job, but the fender roller, I think, would get me in the ball park. A bat might actually get me there better though...

 

[blind]

The one I made is almost the same as the link I posted. I slightly modified the way the roller mounts. Instead of having to bend the flat plate, I used c channel instead. I'll try to remember to get a pic when I get home.

Your fender arches are pretty flat, so a bat will probably work better.

 

[wornoutoldman]

... Or buy the tool use it once and re-sell it after your done or rent it out for a fifty or so per day. After getting your two hundred dollar deposit of course.

 

[popskull]

Your fender arches are pretty flat, so a bat will probably work better.

That's what I am starting to think. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner...

I am also not worried about ruining the paint, as the car will undergo some other body work and a repaint.

 

[DanCo]

A $2 bat from the flea market.

Dan

 

[bluebolt]

Toolz Unlimited sells the roller for $19.95. They used to sell the Dragway Tools fender roller (copy of Eastwoods) but that one has disappeared from the marketplace just like the Harbor Freight one a few years back (patent infringement?). I have the Dragway tools one and used it on a 93 Mustang Hatch 5.0.

 

[grego]

Or you could ask a member here if you could borrow/rent their's. I have one sitting up in the attic. If we knew where you were at, someone locally might be able to help. Eastwood sold quite a few and the copies that have been sold or made is probably equal or greater than the Eastwood number. I bet there are a lot sitting in the rafters waiting for another chance to dimple a quarter fender and chip off some paint.

 

[popskull]

Toolz Unlimited sells the roller for $19.95. They used to sell the Dragway Tools fender roller (copy of Eastwoods) but that one has disappeared from the marketplace just like the Harbor Freight one a few years back (patent infringement?). I have the Dragway tools one and used it on a 93 Mustang Hatch 5.0.

I only see the wheel on their site. I think the bat might just work the best, and I have a few aluminum ones around that I may try to use.

 

[brawls43]

I made a modified version of this and it works great.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2435165

Nice, thanks for sharing that article. I'll probably build one like that, I've got all the scrap parts to do it.

 

[Gas Ax]

Another option is to just use a hammer to bump the lip over. Just take it easy and don't try to do it all in one shot.

 

[mad-ass]

This might be my first post, not a troll or a bot, just have an account here so I can "troll" on my subscribed threads.

Anyways, I have been rolling fenders as side jobs since 2008, have done 60+ cars since I've started. The tool paid for itself with in 3 jobs[that's including the cost of my temp adjustable heat gun], and it's been paying for enormous amounts of beers after those 3 jobs.

Using the correct tool on fender or not, if you don't know how to do it, you'll mess up the out-come of the fender regardless. I've learned how to do the fender job on my own cars using a "rented" fender roller with the deposit, then I thought...I know people are always scared of doing this them-selves, so why not buy the tool and make some money on the side. and also I needed to pull/flare my fenders a bit more for bigger tires later on.

If you need to roll your fenders to give you just slight amounts of clearance, I would just use the aluminum bat with a heatgun[if you don't have a heat gun, use hair-dryer], big phone book stuffed between the tire and fender and jump in the trunk.

But if you need the fenders lips to be flat, fender roller tool is almost a must. Search on your local craigs-list for fender roller, there are a lot of people renting those tools out nowadays, so you might just want to do that.

and here's a bit of what I do with my fender-roller.

2002 Honda S2000 Rear fenders.

^Before

^After

Any my POV, 1995 Nissan 240SX
https://sphotos-a.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/67614_171031089578462_5681297_n.jpg
Front fenders are rolled flat and pulled about 1/2 inch
Rear fenders are rolled flat and pulled 3/4 inch.

^This one is on a 1989 Nissan 240sx[also my previous POV/Track car], pulled and flared full 1 inch.

Hope this helps a bit.

edit: Here's the "phone book" method.

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...od-phone-book-fender-pull-plus-some-wood.html

 

[srmofo]

I tried asking here a year or so ago and got a bunch of ****** responses about using a bat as well. I ended up just buying one. For the cost of the car, the wheels, and the tires, $180 was a drop in the bucket.

Everything the guy above me said is pretty spot on.

I won't loan my tool out, but i can get you some pictures and measurements if you would like

 

[streetisneat]

Eastwood also sells this Eastwood Part Number 11537
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-Fende...876&pid=100009&prg=1088&rk=5&sd=360602888132&

 

[popskull]

Mad-***, that's some pretty awesome work. My question for you though is, if I have a more square wheel wells, will the eastwood style work? I do need to flare the fenders farther than what the bat would get me, I think.

 

[bigenos]

I've used a roller tool on a fox mustang and it works great. I'd buy the tool and rent it out/loan it out (depending on how much you like the person) like others have said. You try to build one you'll have days in it to get all the adjustments you need (angle, angle of attack, length, tension).

I used it on my 4th gen camaro and it also worked well, but one word of caution. I had some body work done on the car previous and forgot about it. I have small dimples in my paint from the welds or something that were right behind the lip. Just make sure everything is clean back there before you go folding it over.

 

[mayday0017]

What stops the paint from cracking and flaking off where you fold the metal lip on the inside straight up?

 

[srmofo]

What stops the paint from cracking and flaking off where you fold the metal lip on the inside straight up?

Heat

 

[mad-ass]

I would NOT use that fender finisher tool. I've seen way too many fenders dented up with that tool because people were trying to use it like a fender roller. I think for that tool to be actually useful, the contact patch pad needs to be x2 it's size so the pressure on the out side of the fender is more evenly dispersed for it to not make any dents. that's just my $0.02 on that particular tool.

Now, on more square fenders, I am going to assume you have a MB W120~140ish body style. The fender roller tool will allow you to roll/pull/flare those fenders as well.

Going back to what I said in previous post, doesn't really matter what you use[sort of], the out come of it entirely depends on how you use the tool.

So, on a square/flat top fenders, what I would do is first mount the tool to the wheel hub, extend the roller arm out and do a 90~120 degree sweep with out the roller touching the fender. This will allow you to figure out which sections of the fenders will fall with in the sweet spot of the roller depending on the length of the roller-arm extension.

Let's look at a fender for an example...

The position of that roller is at 12'o Clock at it's extended reach. it'll only be good from 11~1'o Clock position at it's current reach, so you work those areas out first, then move onto 9~11'o Clock/1~3'o Clock position at a different length of reach of the fender-roller-tool.

The only car that I've came across with fender shape that doesn't need me to change the height of the roller for the entire job is G35/G37/350Z/370Z's.

Make sure to use heat gun for this if you are interested in pulling the fenders a bit. the surface temp of the entire outter/inner fender needs to stay above 150F degrees the whole time you are working to pull them. It will be much easier on you, and more importantly, it'll be easier on the car.

Hope all that rambling made sense.

 

[popskull]

Mad-***, thank you so much for that. Its nice to hear advice from someone with experience. I will definitely have to give it a shot this summer, when I have time.

 

[srmofo]

Mad-***, thank you so much for that. Its nice to hear advice from someone with experience. I will definitely have to give it a shot this summer, when I have time.

Another tip i was giving was to use a torpedo heater positioned several feat away pointed at the well. Place some boards in the well behind the hub. This keeps the heat up while working and heats a broader area compared to a heat gun

 

[popskull]

Another tip i was giving was to use a torpedo heater positioned several feat away pointed at the well. Place some boards in the well behind the hub. This keeps the heat up while working and heats a broader area compared to a heat gun

Interesting tip... definitely makes sense!

 

[Rigmaster]

Bumping this back up, looks like Eastwood has their roller on clearance on Fleabay for $149.99 with free shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eastwood-Fe...Parts_Accessories&hash=item53fd9c863a&vxp=mtr