I’m not sure what wheel and tire combo that will end up on this car, but my thought is to make it as wide as possible now before paint. The stock narrow body fender shape is certainly strong enough to allow this mod without significantly reducing the fenders integrity. There are several ways to roll fender arches, but I chose the easiest for me:
Ordinary Hammer & Dolly Method
Since the fender was removed and only in epoxy primer no special tools were needed roll the edge. Only a towel, a hammer and a concrete chisel make this a simple task. As expected the paint did crack and the factory undercoating did chip off, but to be fair I rolled this edge pretty tight. The total fender thickness at this edge is only .175″. Compared to the the stock fender width of about .625″ this is an increased tire clearance of .450″.
Disadvantages
Every modifications seems to have drawbacks and this one is no exception. A taco shape is perfect for holding things in side. In this case its a dirt, debris, and moisture taco that needs to be cleaned out occasionally or it will rust. Today’s epoxy primer is really good and these cars aren’t subjected to daily driver demands, so I think everything is doing to be okay. If you plan to do this to your car just don’t forget to periodically check this area. Once a year should do it unless you drive on salty roads in the winter….don’t do that! Watch the video here: