Roll for larger diameter front rims?

[Bilulan]

I got into a discussion with a fellow co-worker who owns an S2000 and just put 19" wheels all the way around.

He said they had to "roll" his front wheel wells so the 19's would fit on the fronts. He attempted to explain it to me but I'm still a bit unclear. He stated that they did it with a bat and that the purpose is to alter the inside area of the wheel well.

Anyone heard/done this?

Please elaborate....

 

[ANYTIME]

Yeah, I know what doing a "roll" is. You lay a bat on the outer edge of your tire(at an angle so it goes under the fender when you move the car) and drive the car slowly forward and it "rolls" the inner lip of your wheelwell. So, the tire doesn't rub when your springs compress. I remember doing this on an older nova when I put to wide a tire on it, and it distorted the quarter panel. I would save this butchery for some other car.

 

[NSXaholic]

...I would save this butchery for some other car.

Sound advice if I ever heard it. Not that you indicated you were planning to...but just in case. . Not only does the procedure sound like it is can damage the delicate frame of the X, but as you will note from doing a quick search, 19" tires are very ill suited to the NSX because of the havoc the larger wheel size plays with the Traction Control System (TCS).

Regards.

 

[Bilulan]

No way! I would never. It sounded like some home-made modification technique, and it was described to me very similar to the way ANYTIME posted.

I was just curious if this practice was more widely known or one persons rig.

Thanks for the info...

 

[ChrisK]

No way! I would never. It sounded like some home-made modification technique, and it was described to me very similar to the way ANYTIME posted.

I was just curious if this practice was more widely known or one persons rig.

Thanks for the info...

It's a lot more common than you think. I would not do it to my NSX, but I have rolled rear fender lips on my 95 325i to accept 18" rims with 235/40/18 tires. In my BMWs case you can't tell anything was done to the fender lip unless you tuck your head under and look. It looks perfectly normal otherwise and no paint cracking. The is no deformation of the fender at all. The baseball bat technique was what people did long ago. Some shops actually have a special tool for this job. I've never used it but you take your tire off and mount this tool to the hub. An arm with a roller extend to meet the fender lip, and I think you just slowly roll the lip flat mm by mm. The better shops also use a heat gun to soften the paint so it wont chip or crack. I've seen some very good jobs and some really crappy jobs as well.

All in all, I agree with everyone above and would not do it to the NSX since there are many rims with offsets that will work on the NSX so there is little point in rolling the fenders. Nobody will ever put 19" rims on the front of the NSX (At least I don't think they will) and many have used 18" rims on the front with correct offsets so no rolling is needed.

 

[cojones]

pretty common practice

I was just curious if this practice was more widely known or one persons rig.

Most of the wheel/tire shops do this for those fitting +2 and larger "bling-bling" wheel setups, particularly on lowered cars. I see it quite a lot on custom Benz, Lexus and BMW sedans.

Racers do this too, to fit larger (wider) track rubber under their wheel wells... while retaining "stock bodywork" [modification of which might cost them points or up-classing]