How much heat when rolling fender lips?

[thehackmechanic]

I'm not experiencing any contact yet with my staggered 16" Alpinas and my cut springs, but all these posts have scared the **** out of me. I've read every post regarding rolling the fender lips, and seen the reference to using a heat gun so the paint won't crack.

Can someone give me guidance on how much heat? Are we talking a hairdryer close-on for ten seconds across a six-inch area, then rolling that section and moving onto the next? In addition to a hairdryer and an electrical heat gun for heat-shrink tubing, I have one of those industrial heat guns for paint stripping, and I'm worried about causing more harm than good.

--Rob

 

[Erik]

Haven't used a heat gun during rolling or the fancy mechanized contraption to do it. Just a Louisville slugger I picked up cheap and applied gently. No cracking, crazing or deformation, but the paint on my cars, including the old verona, wasn't nice like yours. So, no warranties for this technique.

Maybe take it to someone who does body work for a living and has some experience? Probably worth a couple bucks even for a diy'er.

 

[pamp]

Fender Roll

Rob,
if you follow the thread I started on this subject, Bert provided a link for a fender roll tool. There is a demo video and shows a guy using the tool and a heat gun. He says 125 degrees of heat. I used an old Wagner power stripper heat gun and measured the temp. with a IR thermometer initially, then went by feel after I established what 125 felt like. I also used a heavy hammer wrapped in a couple of old socks. Took my time yet still had some paint cracking but just the inner edge portion that rolled up. Kind of unavoidable and took a small amount of touch up that is not really noticeable except to maybe the truly anal.
I used this technique for the rears only. The fronts had been thinned up by a PO with probably a grinder of some sort. I did post a pic after I finished the rears on the Fender roll thread, still on the first page of Projects and Restorations