Anyone used an eBay fender roller?

Looking at the eBay ones because I'm cheap and don't want to buy something I'll use once. None used locally.

Does a baseball bat work, and would you use a baseball bat on a nice car?

I used a baseball bat once.  Then I bought an Eastwood roller.  I'll never use a baseball bat again.

The eBay ones look just like my Eastwood version, but I've never actually tried one.  The Eastwood one works great.

I have the comparable clone of the eastwood/ebay/harbor-freight/princess-auto/kms-tools fender-roller.  I've used it, but I seem to find better luck with a baseball bat.  Likely an operator error, though.

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Interesting. why? 

I'm not sure why. Maybe impatience on my part?  Seems to take forever, and I guess I wanted to see progress faster? Or maybe I just had some fenders that didn't want to be rolled.  I got frustrated enough that I grabbed the bat and was done in far less time.  I also hate doing bodywork - I don't want to have the patience for it.

With a bat (or a pipe, or an extension, or whatever fits), you can roll the fender to match the clearance you need for the tire at ride height.  With the fender roller, you clearance the fender from full droop.

The youtube videos made it look easy.  I didn't find it easier.

I likely also have very little experience with it compared to others on here.  Hoping someone can enlighten us both on the merits of the little beast.

My experience is very similar to SkinnyG. I rented one from a local guy. It was very slow and a lot of work for a result that wasn't any better.

Bat boy it is. Thanks. 

FB marketplace?  I see a lot of Eastwood-styles for sale for around $50 to $75.

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Used FB lately? There's nothing local to me after sifting through "ships to you" results. 

Eastwood worked for me on the Molvo after it was painted. Going slow is part of the reason you can do this on a painted car.

Where are you at? Nobody from GRM local with one? I picked up an eastwood version years ago but I haven't needed to use it since.

I've used dowels, jack handles and the Eastwood style. I find the Eastwood style to give the most control over the shape of the lip - I can push up or out or fold it. If you're in the pits and you need more clearance before the next heat, grab the bat. If you care about the shape, use the roller :) Doing the rolling with the car on the ground means you can't actually check anything.

I shot a video on using it. It's not an awesome video - I was using a spare fender and forgot to bolt the front down, and shootling live doesn't give time for do-overs - but it's not clickbait. That's a legit Eastwood roller in the video, the knockoffs hadn't yet appeared on the market when we bought it in 2007 or so.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Thanks Keith. It is an NC and low miles. So I don't want to jack the paint up. So I'll buy the right tool if I have to. 

Heat helps it go a little more quickly, I'm definitely a fan of using a tool designed for it. I can vouch for jack handles not being a paint friendly method. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Damn it Keith now I don't have a good strong no for when Lil Stampie wants to put 225s on our NA.

Using the one from Eastwood will stretch a Miata fender to fit a 275 tire and not one of the ridiculous ones with no suspension.  If done slowly it will look stock. 
 

I used one to roll the lips of the rear fenders of my Pontiac G8 GT. I had installed 1" thick wheel spacers (billet aluminum) in the rear to bring the outside edge of the wheels to the edge of the fenders, and at full compression needed just a little more room for the outer sidewalls. Getting the lip to start bending took some patience but once the lip starts curving in, it gets easier and faster. I used a heat gun on the outside of the fender just in case, but no paint cracking happened. 

I bought a knock-off of the Eastwood style tool and it got the job done. The build quality is pretty questionable though:

You can see that the adjuster that allows you to slide the roller gave up the ghost.  The nuts they tacked on are less effective than bubble gum TBH. Some attention with a welder though, and it’d be serviceable for many years.  

I do agree with Keith that it’s a pretty useful style of tool, and while it can be brutish and cause real damage if you rush it, it’s uniquely effective at rolling the lip and flexing the sheet metal to pull the fender out. On balance I would have paid extra for the Eastwood tool if shipping to Hawaii had been more reasonable though.  But this is as cheap as you want to go.  The baseball bat is a method of last resort.

Getting the lip to start bending took some patience but once the lip starts curving in, it gets easier and faster.

I found it easier and faster to get the lip folded over with a body hammer, using light taps to progressively bend it up.  Once I took it from 90° to 45° or so the tool is really ideal for finishing out the rest of the fold though.  The hammer marks get turned in toward the wheel well anyway so they never show.

Vajingo said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Thanks Keith. It is an NC and low miles. So I don't want to jack the paint up. So I'll buy the right tool if I have to. 

Where are you? One of us could probably loan one to you 

I used a fleabay one on my E55 AMG to get the wheelwells stretched enough for 285/35R20s on 12" wide wheels.

Then I sold it for a little more than I paid for it locally.  So it was a pretty big win.  Quality was "good enough"

The Eastwood roller worked for the back fenders of my E46 -- for those in the know, that's no easy task.  There's no way a baseball bat would have budged them.

I've got a Eastwood knock-off from Amazon. Took a bit to figure it out but it works. I had a hard time grasping that if I wanted to add pressure to the roller that meant going in the loosening direction on the roller. Once I got that through my thick skull everything went smoothly.

In reply to jerrysarcastic (Forum Supporter) :

After looking at the pic of yours and watching Keith's video, I ordered one from the Bay of E. I figured, check the welds and repair if necessary. Worst case scenario, I have a pattern, the roller, and the mount, so I don't have to design one. 

Amazon one here and used it quite a bit. Have also used the Eastwood version and you can tell the difference in quality but we got the job done with the cheaper one without issue. Grease the screw thing quite a bit as mine started to gall with pressure.