16" wheels have torn up my front wheelarch - help !

Christopher

Christopher

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spent the morning fitting 16"alpina wheels to my csi - they look fantastic and the ride home was regal. on turning into my garage the wheels went over a slightly higher piece of kerb and there was an almighty crunch. there's some damage to the front wheelarch.

should i have done something at the front to accomdate the bigger wheels ? - i was under the impression that it was just a bolt on - no troubles.

the car has just been painted and it's metallic so this ding is far from ideal - any one got any ideas what i can do to sort this out so it doesn't happen again ?

thanks guys
 
you might need to have your fender arches 'rolled/slightly flared'.
A good body guy can do this without repaint, but sounds like you need that anyway.

depending on the tires size, some 16" tires fit, some not so well.

HTH
-shanon
 
Or, you could trade them for the better looking and fitting 14" wheels the car was designed for. IMHO
 
Christopher-

Sorry about the rub. You will need to roll the fenders in order to clear the Alpinas. This is especially true if you have lowering springs or have removed the strut spacer that came on U.S. cars.

There are as many opinions on fender rolling. Some folks simply use a baseball bat or other dowel. Others use that with heat guns to keep from cracking the paint. Others rent/buy a fender rolling tool that attaches to the hub. In any event, it sounds like you're going to need to roll your fenders. You did not state the size tires you are running. That might play into the equation as well.

good luck,

Glenn in Encinitas
 
check your tire!

I did the same damn thing; on the way home, turned into a driveway with a little gutter. Check your tire carefully. Mine was cut. I used a little touchup paint by hand on the fender and kept it as a reminder that I'm not as smart as I think I am! One body shop wanted $1000 to roll the fenders. Another did it in 5 minutes with a plastic/rubber hammer for $20.
 
thanks for the advice guys - i'll spend my day trying to find someone to do it - in the meantime i'll swap back to the 14" wheels.

is it all 4 arches that need rolling or just the fronts ?
 
16's..

Just to clarify, "rolling the fenders" only refers to rolling the inside edge of the wheel well so it doesn't stick out toward the tire. After the wheel wells are rolled, the well will have a smooth radius in the area around the tires but won't flare the fender at all.

Dan
 
rolled fenders

Everyone that I know that has done this (mine are stock alloys), says the baseball bat is the way to go. Is that going to be a problem to find in London? Sorry about the crunch.

Dave V. in NC
 
I have 16" Alpinas on my Coupe and haven't had to do anything, check the size of the front tyres they should be 205/55/16 a lot of people make the mistake of fitting the same size as the rears 225/50/16.
 
May I ask if your coupe is stock or is it lowered?
Thanks Barry
Click to expand...

Not sure if you were asking me but I'll assume you were.
Yes my car is lowered.
The reason I made my previous suggestion was that my wheels had the wrong size tyres fitted to the fronts when I got them and they rubbed. It was only after doing a little checking up that I found out the fronts should be 205/55/16 and not 225/50/16 as were fitted.
 
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