Rolling the arches

Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:59 pm

Hello,

My front arches catch, which is quite annoying. Is there a good way of a diy arch rolling, or am I best off to get it done properly? The paint is already butchered from where the arch has been caught before...

Thanks

Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:46 pm

Firstly, what size wheels are you running??
And secondly, do you have front bumpstops on the shocks??

Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:49 pm

Also are your wheels the correct offset? If youve got massive wheels & the wrong offset theres not alot you can do to your arches. Well you could do a wide arch conversion or just change your wheels.

Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:30 am

here is a kit off ebay if you want to remortgage your house first.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E30-M3-EVO-RA ... 2a04ec2d19

for the buy it now price i would want it fitted and painted

Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:38 am

does it matter if he has bump stops or what the wheel et is and size, they are catching so he needs to roll his arches.

have look on you tube, lots of DIY arch rolling links there

Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:41 am

Kos wrote:does it matter if he has bump stops or what the wheel et is and size, they are catching so he needs to roll his arches.

have look on you tube, lots of DIY arch rolling links there

Ofcourse it does.
It might be easier for him to swap his wheels over to the correct size if they are a cheap set.
Bumstops help.
But by all means, if your keeping you wheels, have done your homework and still need to roll the srches, as Kos said, plenty of DIY sh1t on youtube with bottle jacks etc being used.

Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:07 am

15x7 BBS, the optional extras from factory! I'm not sure about the bumpstops, but with the increasing amount of dodgy roads its happening more and more (the joys of countryside living!)... Will look it up on youtube, thanks! Getting some 16's eventually so it's best to roll them!

Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:09 am

Then you shouldn't really need your arches doing if these were from factory.
Look at your suspension as it sounds like that's knackered.
Rolling your arches won't really cure the origional problem.

Wed Feb 24, 2010 10:36 am

OK cool, is there any other indicators that the suspension is knackered?

The arches only catch on big pot holes and on my driveway when approached faster than crawling pace!

Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:05 pm

Sounds like your shocks are knackered.

Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:11 pm

Rav335uk wrote:
Kos wrote:does it matter if he has bump stops or what the wheel et is and size, they are catching so he needs to roll his arches.

have look on you tube, lots of DIY arch rolling links there
Ofcourse it does.
Bumstops help.

Pardon?

if you do go about doing your arches at home make sure to protect the lips properly afterwards. the paint wont stretch like the metal and will either crack or flake off leaving tin worm to do the inevitable.

Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:53 pm

OK, will check the shocks when I get home, I guess bouncing up and down on the bonnet?!

Yeah, will protect the arches for sure, there is some paint flaked off currently which I need to sort!

Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:50 pm

Sounds more like your car is to low!

Wed Feb 24, 2010 10:51 pm

On recommendation of my dad I did the "bounce on the front of the car and see if it keeps bouncing" test, to which it didn't keep bouncing (scientific hey) so he seems to think the shocks are OK!

As I bought the car not too long ago I'm unsure of the spring/shock setup, so it could be a case of low springs (they are red, haha).

Am going to take it to a friend of my dads who runs a garage to see what they think of the suspension...

If it is knackered I'll probably go the B8 + Eibach route as this seems to be recommended on here, but are there alternatives to think about? I'd perhaps like a 60/40 drop...

Thu Feb 25, 2010 12:59 pm

How low is your car? I've got a good 70mm drop on my car and I've got 195/55's on the front that don't catch! (which I was mega suprised about tbh)

Getting a new suspension kit will be beneficial - you will KNOW what drop/setup you have and everything will be new.
I can get you a reasonable discount on all Spax items by the way, if you are interested.

As for rolling arches - best is to use 2 people, have one to drive/move the car, one to heat the paint (paint gun or similar to help the paint stretch) and roll it - you can use many things, e.g. scaffold pole, coke bottle etc.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:57 pm

Umm it's not low:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... 30%20318is

I'm running 205/55's on the front I believe, but yeah it's scraped the arches out up to 10 times, each of which I've pinged it back in (bar now - hence the looking for a solution!).

I think I'm angling towards a new setup... Potentially the Supersport coilies...

Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:28 pm

That wheel does look like it's sticking out of the arch a lot more than it should, arte there any spacers behind it??

Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:48 pm

Hmm, that's interesting... There are no spacers (I jacked it up when I got it to muck out the inner arches), I guess I'll have a look to see if they are the right wheels, could they be different offset 15x7 bbs'?

I'm nipping it to a garage tomorrow for a suspension test to see what the score is there (better to be safe than sorry), so will ask their opinion on the matter!

Thanks for all the help/suggestions so far!

Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:48 pm

E30star wrote:How low is your car? I've got a good 70mm drop on my car and I've got 195/55's on the front that don't catch! (which I was mega suprised about tbh)

Getting a new suspension kit will be beneficial - you will KNOW what drop/setup you have and everything will be new.
I can get you a reasonable discount on all Spax items by the way, if you are interested.

As for rolling arches - best is to use 2 people, have one to drive/move the car, one to heat the paint (paint gun or similar to help the paint stretch) and roll it - you can use many things, e.g. scaffold pole, coke bottle etc.

pm sent

Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:52 pm

Check the tyre size too, as the profile looks to be bigger than 55

Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:57 am

Hiya, the tyres are 205/55/r15, just had a look! Will update whats going on when I know!

Thanks for the help so far though

Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:16 pm

Right an update from getting it looked at, and the suspension tested:

The shocks are all good, they had a vibrating plate type thing which tests the shocks, they are at good levels of efficiency.

The car has been lowered 40mm I/they reckon.

The offsets are fine on the wheels too... So I guess the answer is to crawl up my drive as s-l-o-w as possible!