Anyone here rolled their rear wheel lips some???

[SeanMatteson]

I'm looking at running some slightly oversized tires on the rear in the upcoming season, and I'm told I need to roll the rear wheel lips slightly in order to provide enough clearance that the tire won't rub. Has anyone from our group tried this? ...And most importantly, does anyone here know of a way to do this without damaging the paint?! :D

...Apparently, Dave Dalke used a hammer and a bag of steel shot to do his XR7 in the past. This allowed him to run the 285-40-17's like I'd like to run.

Cheers,

Sean

[Turbo351]

Mine are rolled to clear the 275's. There is no way to roll them without damaging the paint. Use a razor to score the paint to control where it breaks. Then use a hammer, or wood, to roll it up. Another member used an angle grinder to grind the lip back instead of rolling it. In either case, you have to make sure you seal the lip/seam to prevent rust.

[Greg Coleman]

Dont even go there!!:D

[SeanMatteson]

Damn! I was hoping this could be done without causing too much damage to the nice new paint.

Oh well. I guess I need to make a decision regarding tires soon!

Cheers,

Sean

[Jason Wild]

I guess you not going to be running 275 on your car Sean.:p


I'm sure what ever you run will look sweet;)

[Greg Coleman]

Thats one reason I wont lower my car and some where down the road I plan on having 285's on the rear.

[SeanMatteson]

Jason,

I was hoping to accommodate 285's back there. Now it sounds like I might even have a problem accommodating 275's back there without modifying the lip of the wheel well somehow.

Damn!

It's never easy with these cars.

Sean

[Jason Wild]

I was hoping to accommodate 285's back there.



OH MY
Time to make use of the airbags.:D

[Ryan A Harris]

What about getting a wheel with a different offset?(deeper) Like making sit towards the middle of the car more? I'm not sure if that would work or not, just a thought. Heck you could some spacers made to work out something also.

[fast Ed]

Ryan, there really isn't any more room on the inside to go, without some bigger modifications. Take a look at the routing of your parking brake cables where they attach to the calipers. With the angle they come out on, anything wider than 9 or 9-1/2" wheel width that has 6-1/4" rearspacing (around +30 offset) would interfere with the cables. Of course, going with the larger Cobra sized brakes and pushing the calipers farther out aggravates the problem. Even my 8-1/2" wheels are pretty close to the cables.

Obviously, with some engineering and different parts, that interference could be minimized, but then you would probably start running into other pieces inside the fenderwell. Spacers are just going to push the wheels toward the outside of the car, so that's not a help either.

Now Sean's wishing he thought of this stuff when the car was at the body shop !! ;) :D



cheers
Ed N.

[SeanMatteson]

Originally posted by fast Ed N
Now Sean's wishing he thought of this stuff when the car was at the body shop !! ;) :D

You hit the nail on the head, Ed! :rolleyes:

Regards,

Sean

[johnny o]

If you have new paint rolling COULD be done without cracking it but it is a serious risk. For what it's worth most of the TA guys just cut them and I can't think of a good reason not to.

[Paddy]

Back in the old days the preferred method was to use a softball bat placed in between the tire and the wheel lip. You simply stuck the bat into the gap and VERY slowly moved the car forwards and backwards until the inner lip was rolled inward.

DISCLAIMER: This worked on old Mopars and Chevy's from the 70's, I have not seen this method used in recent years.

Paddy..

[Kevin]

I would discourage anybody from using the baseball method. It sounds like a good idea, but can you imagine what would happen to the fender if too much pressure was experted in the wrong spot?

I'll use the razor blade and hammer method when the time comes.

So what is the biggest tire that will fit then on a Tbird/Cougar? My 407 project is going to require a bit bigger than 255 wide.

[SeanMatteson]

Originally posted by Kevin
I would discourage anybody from using the baseball method. It sounds like a good idea, but can you imagine what would happen to the fender if too much pressure was experted in the wrong spot?

Kevin,

I had considered this, and so in spite of the fact that I have heard of this method working in the past, I think I'll refrain from chancing it. I'm contemplating having the body shop to did the rework to my car also handle modifying the wheel lips to accomodate the big tires. I really would like to run those 285's!!! :D

Cheers,

Sean