arch rolling

[ravinloonatic 0]

has anyone had their arches rolled on their rado??

as im looking to do it cos i want pretty wide wheels as i got plans for a lot of power so the more rubber i can get down the better take off i get

i was looking the other day at the arch and if i get it done do i need to cut away part of the arch liner as it comes across quite flat and even if the arch is rolled the liner will still foul the tyre.

unless anyone knows of any desent wide arch kits about as all the ones i seen so far ar pap!!

any advice much appreciated,

cheers

[Ramsay 0]

Hi there

I have completed this task with my corrado vr6. I found that the rolling machine inst that great. I used the machine to roll the front arch lips, but that buckled the arch slightly. Its best to use a hammer and dolly. In the end we welded a small tempory brace bar at the botom of the wing to get some extra support and to stop some flexing. I then had the arch flared but beating it with the hammer and dolly, started off using two hammers against one another and then used the curved dolly to get the shape. Frons are not to bad at all. once in their position they only require a small covering of filler to take out the hammer dents. Happy days!

The rears are the tricky ones. Its tricky as you have to seperate the inner and outer arch, be careful not to cut through both otherwise, you have to weld the outsdie cut like mine then grind it off etc, theres a load of mastic/sealant that you need to remove first and when you start grinding it back, it will smoke and for a moment or 2 you think your car is on fire! Once all the sealant is out, there are about 6 welds holding the inner and outer together, the rest of the support is with the sealant vw use. Once the inner is cut all the way round, fold it back out of the way, then hammer the inner lip back, then hammer the folded lip back down and weld strips back if you have any larger gaps where the metal break when moving it forwards or backwards. With the hammer and dolly you get a tighter roll on the lip and once you start reforming or shaping the arch to flare it, just go to the curve on the arch. Once its all done, rub it down, etch prime and grind any raised bits of metal inside and bond seal it all so its nice and smooth and water tight. You can then waxoil / further protect what was the exposed area.

There are some fiddly bit with flareing as the part where it gets close to the rear pumper might need a bit welding up as I had mine cut to get the shape and to make sure it lines up with the bumper. Generally, if you know a welder, its quite straight forward, just your head is under the arch, grinding and welding and raking out the mastic is just a messy time consuming job but well worth it.

You then get to the point where you need to decide what spacer size and stance you want. I can send you some pics if you want? My arches are all pulled and flared, just the rear nearside needs a bit more grinding back and some sealing. But tried a 30 mm spacer and have bags of room. I am putting Porsche d90's on and ordered 40 mm spacers as 1 set to try them out incase I can go bigger at the rear or if I need to vice versa.

In some cases, you can always put little nicks in the arch at where there bend points are if you find the arch buckles but as mine were being flared and pulled you cant notice it. They are just in etch primer at present and in a few weeks they will be fillers along with the car being preped for a full re spray.

If you have any questions, happy to assist. I had a fair bit of rust on my car before I started but once you get into the arches, is a good time to make sure everything is sealed and protected and should be good for a while to come. You will also know how much filler there was on your arches. I forgot to mention, grind off the paint and filler to expose the metal before you start with the pulling etc as its harder to rub the paint down with small little dents that you cant get into.

Personally, rolling and pulling these arches makes the car imo, I have never been a wide arch kit fan but using whats is there makes the car look beefy and like you say, you can get some wide wheels with no school boy rubbing!

Just be careful when welding as the fuel tank is close, plus some of the mastic caught fire a few times. I had someone do the welding for me as its not my skill. Ive only just joined this forum and use the Corrado forum where there are a few write ups on there if that helps. Ramstorm