04' Coupe - 265/35/18's (rears) dropped on PSS's
235/40/18's (front)
What would you do? :dunno:
235/40/18's (front)
What would you do? :dunno:
To roll or cut rear fenders, that is the question
Art Bimmer
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
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It's good to know there's trustworthy shop semi-close, Thanks again :thumbsup:
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4,093 Posts
You have no idea what I've done to my car...
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16 Posts
link him to your thread and let him read. are you still on track with your car or have you had any set backs lately?
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4,093 Posts
Thanks guys, but I try not to use my car to justify my statements. I believe that people's comments should be respected, or asked to be expanded on if there is some misunderstanding or doubt.
There is about 10mm more rear wheel clearance on an E46 coupe versus E46 sedan, and quite a bit more yet between the E46 M3 and E46 coupe. The practical limit seems to be as follows:
E46 Sedan - 255s
E46 Coupe - 265s
E46 M3 - 285s
To fit Toyo RA-1 275/35/18 tires, I tried a number of things before having serious fender work done. First, I had the undercoating removed and the fender lips rolled as much as my local body shop would dare. It wasn't enough, so I decided to do some fender rolling myself with a baseball bat. Basically, I jacked up the rear of the car and inserted a baseball bat between the fender and the tire, then lowered the car back down. Moving the car back and forth caused the baseball bat to roll across the fender lip, but it did very very little. So I decided to cut the inside of the fender lip off to make it easier to "roll".
Out came a 3" cut off wheel, and I started to cut through the bottom of the fender lip. With a clean cut across the bottom, I then discovered that there is actually no fender lip as you find on other vehicles. On the E46, the fender lip is where the inner and outer sheetmetal join. I had basically cut apart the fenderwell sheet metal from the exterior sheetmetal of the car. The result was a hole into the interior of the car.
![Image]()
![Image]()
I then proceeded to shape the contour of the fender lip (Via the baseball bat method) to achieve the best tire clearance. What I found, was that the inner fender well sheetmetal was the real "problem". It didn't seem to matter how much the outer fender was pushed out, it was the inner fender work that caused most of the rubbing. The real tire destroyer though, was a bolt used to attach the rear bumper cover support to the chassis. I had to basically grind this attachement point completely off. Then I found that the tire was rubbing against the bumper and pastic mudgard when cornering. My tire height was 26", stock is 25.4", so very little change.
Being that the car at that point was basically a weekend toy, I lived with the open rear fender wells until the fall of 2006 when I took it off the road. I then looked at every area of the car that I wanted to improve with a "blank sheet" approach; the rear fender wells were fairly high up on this list. I had the inner sheetmetal replaced to allow greater suspension travel without clearance issues, and the fender wells completely sealed. Ironically, I never had the outer sheetmetal fender lip touched at all. In the image below, you can see the result:
![Image]()
After cleaning and priming the chassis:
![Image]()
Wheel clearance check with no springs installed and the suspension completely bottomed out:
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
I don't believe it's possible to get this done properly for $20. It cost more than that in paint alone.
There is about 10mm more rear wheel clearance on an E46 coupe versus E46 sedan, and quite a bit more yet between the E46 M3 and E46 coupe. The practical limit seems to be as follows:
E46 Sedan - 255s
E46 Coupe - 265s
E46 M3 - 285s
To fit Toyo RA-1 275/35/18 tires, I tried a number of things before having serious fender work done. First, I had the undercoating removed and the fender lips rolled as much as my local body shop would dare. It wasn't enough, so I decided to do some fender rolling myself with a baseball bat. Basically, I jacked up the rear of the car and inserted a baseball bat between the fender and the tire, then lowered the car back down. Moving the car back and forth caused the baseball bat to roll across the fender lip, but it did very very little. So I decided to cut the inside of the fender lip off to make it easier to "roll".
Out came a 3" cut off wheel, and I started to cut through the bottom of the fender lip. With a clean cut across the bottom, I then discovered that there is actually no fender lip as you find on other vehicles. On the E46, the fender lip is where the inner and outer sheetmetal join. I had basically cut apart the fenderwell sheet metal from the exterior sheetmetal of the car. The result was a hole into the interior of the car.
I then proceeded to shape the contour of the fender lip (Via the baseball bat method) to achieve the best tire clearance. What I found, was that the inner fender well sheetmetal was the real "problem". It didn't seem to matter how much the outer fender was pushed out, it was the inner fender work that caused most of the rubbing. The real tire destroyer though, was a bolt used to attach the rear bumper cover support to the chassis. I had to basically grind this attachement point completely off. Then I found that the tire was rubbing against the bumper and pastic mudgard when cornering. My tire height was 26", stock is 25.4", so very little change.
Being that the car at that point was basically a weekend toy, I lived with the open rear fender wells until the fall of 2006 when I took it off the road. I then looked at every area of the car that I wanted to improve with a "blank sheet" approach; the rear fender wells were fairly high up on this list. I had the inner sheetmetal replaced to allow greater suspension travel without clearance issues, and the fender wells completely sealed. Ironically, I never had the outer sheetmetal fender lip touched at all. In the image below, you can see the result:
After cleaning and priming the chassis:
Wheel clearance check with no springs installed and the suspension completely bottomed out:
I don't believe it's possible to get this done properly for $20. It cost more than that in paint alone.
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4,093 Posts
Thanks Ken...but I still can't paint.
I've been making really good progress lately, I feel really good about how things are working out. Setbacks...I've had a lot of things take more time than expected, but I realize now that my expectations weren't realistic. Great learning experience...
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11,283 Posts
Hey hey guys. This has really been very informative. I have a 2003 330Xi and I just ordered 15mm spacers for rear and 10mm for front, and in the rear, I can tell with how low I have my KW's that I will need to roll the fenders. I have it at the body shop right now for a Type R bumper, r and i for the strasentech with new grille and re mount laser jammers, etc. so while it's in I said to go ahead and roll just the rear fenders 15mm out for clearance to not rub. I understand the problem is the mudguard etc. possible more so, so here is my question.
1. Should I cut the mud guard section away to make more room for one? or is that imperative if I drive in the rain and snow etc? it is Xi so AWD.
2. The body shop, which is a very experienced one doing custom work and such, is saying that my fender wells are sealed??? So without cutting or repainting and doing some crazy stuff etc. according to them it is not possible?? I have read some info on this, but it seems there is a way if you have the right tool, knowledge and technique. Any info here to shed some insight on this??
3. Even though I don't want to, would raising my coilovers up in the rear help much?? then that would defeat the peformance aspect it seems. What about doing 10MM in back and 15 in front? or is it always suppose to be higher and wider in back and narrower and lower in front??
Cheers and thanks guys,
Jason
1. Should I cut the mud guard section away to make more room for one? or is that imperative if I drive in the rain and snow etc? it is Xi so AWD.
2. The body shop, which is a very experienced one doing custom work and such, is saying that my fender wells are sealed??? So without cutting or repainting and doing some crazy stuff etc. according to them it is not possible?? I have read some info on this, but it seems there is a way if you have the right tool, knowledge and technique. Any info here to shed some insight on this??
3. Even though I don't want to, would raising my coilovers up in the rear help much?? then that would defeat the peformance aspect it seems. What about doing 10MM in back and 15 in front? or is it always suppose to be higher and wider in back and narrower and lower in front??
Cheers and thanks guys,
Jason
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