first attempt at fender rolling

so i had my first attempt at rolling my fenders 2 days ago. I rented a roller and bought a heat gun. I started with my front driver side fender. i ended up with a half inch crack and several hair line splits in the paint. I also saw after I was done that the fender flared out a lil bit but barely noticeable. the next day i did the rear driver side fenders but this time i would take it slower and more time heating the fender. i would heat up the sections of the fender where it would extremely hot when i touched it with my mechanics gloves on. I finished it up with no major cracks but only hairline splits in the paint where the metal was bent. Will I always have thin splits or do i just need to heat up the fenders even more?

paint is very brittle and will crack if you try and work the metal no matter how much heat. In fact the heat is bad for the paint also. The heat keeps the metal from cracking and makes it more workable.

U need to work the roller slower. gradual rolling is needed to stop it from cracking. its a painstaking process. I did it on my wrx with a roller and i did it over a 5 hr period with a heat gun as well. no cracks or paint splitting Slow is the way.

U need to work the roller slower. gradual rolling is needed to stop it from cracking. its a painstaking process. I did it on my wrx with a roller and i did it over a 5 hr period with a heat gun as well. no cracks or paint splitting Slow is the way.

 

troof...i did it with a wooden baseball bat and heat gun on my old civic, wasnt fun, but it looked fine

Slow and steady is key, and make SURE you clean out the lip on the fender before you start rolling, a pebble left in there would make you cry.