Flaring and rolling wheel arches, fenders.

Hi Everyone,
I recently bought some 18" wheels for my e36, 8"x18" front and 9"x18" rear. The front fitted and looked just great but the rear wheels scrubbed the arches (fenders) every time I took a corner too quickly or had some load in the car. I changed the rear shocks, but that made little difference, Sure the old ones were gone, but that didn't fix the problem. I will fit some stiffer rear springs at some point though.
So I bought a fender roller from the Tirerack in the US. Wow, what a bit of kit, it cost a small fortune getting it here, but it sorted out my fenders in 30 mins!
I have now rolled the inner of the arches and flared them about 2mm, you can't notice but what a difference when I drive it!!

Sorry the picture is a bit dark, it was late last night when I sorted my arches out.

So now I guess I have he only fender roller in Bahrain :)

Anyone need some flaring/rolling done ;)

[Wazif]

Great stuff Nick!

[eoudeh]

congrates nick...well done :clap:

[ahmad.alkhalil]

nice one... brilliant DIY

[Bruno]

can you kindly send me a link from where you got the device? :D

can you kindly send me a link from where you got the device? :D

Hi Bruno, sure
http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/detail.jsp?ID=52

It weighs just under 8kgs.

Here is a picture i just took of the modified rear arch. You can see how smooth it is and also the very slight flare.

Also a pic of the car after a good clean :) Well happy!!

[WS86]

Well Done .. :D
really very nice looking Ride :)

[Ayham]

I can tell by looking at your car pic straight away that you bought the wrong offset rims...I'm running 9" wide rims in the rear of my vert E36 with a SERIOUS DROP and no rubbing to speak off (except that from soft spring rates while extreme cornering). Do you know the rims offsets? The tool might not save you when you decide to drop the car.

However, something good almost always comes out from something bad, ey? ;) You've got THE rolling tool...

I can tell by looking at your car pic straight away that you bought the wrong offset rims...I'm running 9" wide rims in the rear of my vert E36 with a SERIOUS DROP and no rubbing to speak off (except that from soft spring rates while extreme cornering). Do you know the rims offsets? The tool might not save you when you decide to drop the car.

However, something good almost always comes out from something bad, ey? ;) You've got THE rolling tool...

Hi Ayham
have you got a picture of your e36 with the drop? Mine is already pretty low on the back, I believe convertibles have soft springs and are lower anyway.
The offset iirc was 35mm front and rear.
Yes i have the tool :)

[reak6ion]

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Nice job nick ;)

[Ayham]

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ET35 is too low for an E36 offset. To put it in perspective, the BBS RX 17" on the Club Car are of ET37, and the car cannot be dropped level becuase the rears would rub. Your rims are pushed even further out.

My vert is running ET45 in the rear, just right.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8520/4.6.1.272 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/212)

ET35 is too low for an E36 offset. To put it in perspective, the BBS RX 17" on the Club Car are of ET37, and the car cannot be dropped level becuase the rears would rub. Your rims are pushed even further out.

My vert is running ET45 in the rear, just right.

Oh dear, that is a shame. I guess I could drop the front a bit, but then again with the quality of the roads here and the mountain speed bumps, maybe best to leave as is!

The tool has given me total clearance now, so i can corner as hard as I like with no scrubing so I am happy with that. I will upgrade the rear springs when i can find some stock height but uprated stiffness replacements. All aftermarket springs seem to be for lowering. I believe e46 springs work well? But as this is a convertible and heavier at the back than a saloon I need to be careful.

There is so much i want to do to it. Upgrade the cornering ability, i would like to it to be flatter round corners (i miss the way my fezza takes corners!), quicker in a straight line (without going turbo), and slightly more aggressive in appearance without losing the stock look. I like the idea of a fast car that looks standard or a wolf in sheep's clothing :)

Regards

Nick

[Ayham]

You cannot upgrade your cornering abilities without lowering the car. That's a rule of thumb. Bring the CG and roll center of the car as low as possible, then aid it with stiffer springs/shocks/sway bars/hard-shoulder tires.

If it's possible, replace the rims before you dig deeper and open many cans of worms trying to sort your wishes out.

You cannot upgrade your cornering abilities without lowering the car. That's a rule of thumb. Bring the CG and roll center of the car as low as possible, then aid it with stiffer springs/shocks/sway bars/hard-shoulder tires.

If it's possible, replace the rims before you dig deeper and open many cans of worms trying to sort your wishes out.

Hi Ayham, I can't lose the rims :( They owe me too much plus a fender roller. I read somewhere on this site that convertibles are always a bit sloppy because they are cruisers not racers, so there must be mod or two i can do to stiffen it up. I do think I have a bad spring on the back because one side (the driver's side) sits 1 cm lower than the other.

having said that i now have plenty of clearance at the rear due to the rolled and slightly flared arch.
But I know what you mean about the CG.

Cheers
Nick