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Kumho 275/40-17s on ASA 17x9s (now sold on tirerack.com as Shuk rims) on left, Stock S02s on Stock '02 Rims (right):
Even though the ASA rims have a 62mm offset it was very clear that the fenders were not going to accomodate the extra width of the 275s. So I picked up a Louisville Slugger from Big 5 ($14.99) and a heat gun from Sears and went to work. I jacked up the car a couple of inches, heated the fenders with the gun on the highest setting and began rolling away, starting parallel to the "L" bend in the fenders:
Every 3-4 pass from one side of the fender to the other I'd make 5-6 passes with the heat gun to make the paint on the fender cooperated:
Even though I was pretty cautious, the paint on the underside of the fender did crack, but fortunately the cracking was minimal and completely limited to the inside of the fenderwell. I'll be tagging the exposed metal tomorrow with Rustoleum (brush, not spray).
With some persistence and a lot of patience you can see that the metal does, in fact, bend as the bat-angle slowly increases:
And the finished product (suspension hasn't compressed after being jacked up):
Because the tires are fresh I didn't push them too hard, but with Tein RAs set at roughly stock ride height there was no rubbing over bumps or on freeway on/offramps. Grip, as you would expect, is not inadequate. I trimmed some plastic off the rear bumper with a dremel as needed, too.
Going from 225s in the front to 235s will happen in the next couple of days.
i used an adjustable wrench and a hammer...... i tigheted the adjustable wrench to just fit the lip, then bent it up......finished bending it upward with the metal hammer.
also, the reason your paint cracked was prolly because the paint wasn't heated enough, Billman250 has a super duper, radar heat sensor to gauge the paint temp before each section of the fender was rolled. no chips or cracks.
I bolted the 235/45-17s on the fronts on yesterday (not sure what the ASA front offset is). They don't rub under normal driving, but when pushed hard they rub into the fender well pretty good (my 225s cut a nice hole in the fenderwell, too, though). I raised the front end up about 10mm which helped, but they still rub under hard cornering (especially downhill cornering). The metal lip on the fender is a lot smaller than the rears, so bending it out should be pretty easy. I'm hoping to get some time this evening to finish the job.
03-06-2004, 10:43 PM
How to fit 275s
