Was wondering who has successfully done this on a 993?

1. Any pictures to see what the end result looked like?

2. How does it affect the inner wheel liners?

3. How much additional outboard clearance did you get?

4. Any tips on doing this right?

Pros? Cons? Regrets?

Thanks - getting set for my E88 tire fitment fiasco!

Best,

Matt

 

All I know is what I've learned on this site. A baseball bat, gradually applied, does the trick, with little or no ramifications elsewhere. Big caveat: I have never done this myself and am not contemplating doing so.

 

I had mine done by the body shop that painted the car. They used a tool very similar to the one pictured, and IIRC, they charged me 2 or 3 hours labor. No affect on the fender liners, but unfortunately, I don't have any pics. It probably only added about 3/6" - 1/4", but sometimes that's enough. Mine was done before paint, but I understand that liberal use of a heat gun while they're being rolled, helps to keep the paint from cracking.

You can get the tool pictured HERE for $270. Not a bad deal, especially if you're doing more than one car.

 

Beware! You need an adapter for the Eastwood Fender Roller to work with Porsche's Bolt Pattern:
(25271 Truck, VW/Porsche adapter)

 

I've done mine by myself. Did it with PVC tubing (Home Depot, plumbing section...) and the results were great.

1. Any pictures to see what the end result looked like?
No pics but it looks great.

2. How does it affect the inner wheel liners?
No affection.

3. How much additional outboard clearance did you get?
Hard to say but I'd say about 1"

4. Any tips on doing this right?
Be patient, take your time and do little by little. I did it after a long drive so the rear wheel areas were warm. The just little by little I wedged the PVC pipe and used rear tire as an leverage point and rolled away. PVC is more gentle than Baseball bat so use that (I once did an "emergency" roll on an old 911 with a bat and it didn't come out as pretty as with PVC although that was a race car so looks wasn't the No. 1 priority).

Pros? Cons? Regrets?
Pros are more clearance, there aren't any cons as far as I'm concerned and I don't regret doing it at all (why would I?)

 

I've done the rears on a couple of 928's ... but not a 993: the tool of choice was a 32 oz Louisville Slugger - and a car parked in the sun on a warm day ( that leaves you SOL in Montreal right now ) , but a hot air blower to warm the paint will do.

If you resort to the bat, the trick is to first roll up the ~10mm wide horizontal lip for the ~30-35cm arc on top of the wheel well where the tire will make contact with the suspension in full squat. Often, correcting the lip will do the job; however, if not, actual rolling the fender outwards is next.

The deal is to get a trusted friend in the car who can tolerate a certain amount of verbal abuse - wives are not recommended! This Zen-like person is responsible for smoothly releasing the clutch whilst slowly driving the car back & forth on your precise command for a distance of ~1meter.

Insert the handle of the bat between the tire & lip, hold it at ~45 deg, and insert until the bat cannot be turned by hand. Then start having the car cycle back & forth on your direction as you hold increasing pressure on the bat - while allowing it to roll in your hands: do not grip the bat to stop its rotation.

Once the lip is rolled upwards, the fender can be rolled outwards if req'd - just do more of the same .... although the bat will advance to a more vertical angle, and eventually, switch ends to get the larger diameter end between tire & metal. A pair of leather gloves helps you control pressure while allowing free rotation.

Metal is quite ductile, and will nicely form into a graceful curve without cracking the paint, and looks as if it came off the assembly line that way .... if you take your time and do many passes: NEVER force the issue .... and never pi$$ off your driver!

 

PM "David in LA". He helped me when I rolled my fender a few years ago. Yes, it's nerve-wracking, but it proved to be far easier than I thought it would be. I used a tapered, maple rolling pin, and it was perfectly sized for the job.

 

I've done a couple cars, and the easiest & most effective & cheapest is: buy a $30 heat gun and a junior-sized baseball bat, or a $4 piece of PVC pipe from Home Depot (pre-cut in a perfect length). Just heat up a section until it's really warm, but you should be able to leave your hand on it for like 3 seconds. Then just roll around, and do about 3 passes; not just one big pass. Start to finish in maybe 30 minutes. It's seriously easy.

Truly, it doesn't matter how sloppy it is because you'll never see it. But I still make it nice and smooth anyway. I can't imagine wasting the time, effort, and money on using a "fender roller" apparatus. Seems just totally silly to me.

 

Thanks guys! You've given me courage!

M

 

David did mine. Tool was a wooden baseball bat with a portion of the handle cut off. We didn't heat the fender but I did drive around for a while, which heated up the fender pretty well. From the exterior you can't tell they are rolled at all.

 

993 fender lips are very strong and very hard to bend, despite others notions to the contrary the inner plastic liners are supported by the lips amd you will need to be careful to provide some support for them, otherwise i'd say just cut them off as is done w/ 911 lips.

What width and o/s did you end up ordering?

I've been in contact w/ BBS in Ga. about some E28 and E88 wheels. They have been very helpful, but some of their suggestions just don't seem right.

Here's my latest doodling to compare know fits w/ possible wider fits

 

My indie mechanic did mine while I was standing there. It was a 2 person job. One held the heat gun and the other rolled it with a baseball bat wrapped in duct tape. I can probably get a pic for you tonight.

 

Hi Bill - I've been working with Joel Reiser to spec the order.

You'll recall the discussion we had a month ago. Chosing to not be an "offset hero", I settled on 8.5 ET 56 and stock 10 ET 65.

The closest Joel came back with was 8108 centers yielding:

7.5+1.0 = 8.5 ET 57 front
8.5+1.5 = 10 ET 63 rear

When compared to stock 8ET52 and 10ET65:

The 8.5ET57 fronts would be 12.7mm wider total, sitting 1.35mm further outboard and 11.35mm further inboard.

The 10ET63 rears would sit 2mm further outboard.

My hope is that the 1-2mm of additional outboard width is doable as is, and certainly with some combination of more neg camber/rolled fenders/narrower tire choice. In fact, my plan is to start with 225/265 stock sizes to guarantee a fit, and see how much clearance I have from there.

Any comments? What options are you looking at?

M

 

I realize the conventional wisdom is to use a rod of some sort to "roll" the fender lips in. But I have watched two pros do it and the both used a plastic faced dead blow hammer. I’ve done it both ways, I’ve helped several friends roll theirs with a baseball bat, but when it came time to do mine I grabbed the hammer.... Hammer is much easier, faster, and is more precise than a rod, it just takes a little more courage to start beating on your prized car. The trick is to work the lip up slowly using gentle blows, took me 15 minutes per fender to get them right.

As far a paint cracking, heat will help but there is no guarantee, the sharper the edge you create the more likely cracking will occur. On my rears I wanted them rolled tight, so the edge is a actually a 180deg fold, there is no way paint will survive such a sharp bend.

 

I think that will work fine, the front is certainly w/i the parameters that I've used(the 9" ET50 in the above table) and the rear is close enough so as to not be an issue.

I'm pretty sure of 8.5ET 56, & 10.5 ET67. But am exploring others. BBS has a # of different centers, each of which has a different o/s. Currently exploring mag center E28s 9&11