Classic Alfa Forums

I'm sure I've made mention of my guard rubbing issues somewhere before and this is the result of carrying my parents up to my brothers place on the weekend. The tyre didn't just catch the drain hose tab it rubs all round the arch and I'm reluctant to stiffen the shock settings because the ride comfort and handling through corners is great.

So I've ordered a guard roller for $86, I think it would cost more if someone else did it and need to do my 33 as well.

I have the Pro-Tek arch roller/former, and they are brilliant!

my 33 can now house some beastly sized rims thank to that device.

a car that started with 14" 5.5j wheels, can no accomodate 17" x 9j with shallow spacers, and lowered!


very very useful tool!

Shrew... post a picture , show me what it looks like (both the tool and the car)


Mate, I used an angle grinder and skimmed those pieces off myself. There's much more excess there than you actually need, and it causes more trouble than it does good.

It's supposed to be folded like that for added strength and for the inner wing to be spotwelded with the wheel arch.

In other words, just keep a very thin line making sure you dont cut the spot welds completely . The rest is useless

This is my no name ebay roller, it's more of a folder a hefty bit of gear. It did crack the paint in spots but was folded out of sight, touched it up with cold galv paint. I only folded it enough to where I thought there's enough tyre clearance, any more would ruin the paint I think.


Shrew I would like to see those wheels fitted, I'm looking for wheels now and coming up with a plan for my 33. I do want big wheels, with this tool the lip could be folded all the way back under to make the guard lip double gauge thickness. Obviously this would be done before a full respray but I'm thinking 16x8 wheels, probably not available 7 inch would do with spacers.

petrolhead wrote:I have the Pro-Tek arch roller/former, and they are brilliant!

my 33 can now house some beastly sized rims thank to that device.

a car that started with 14" 5.5j wheels, can no accomodate 17" x 9j with shallow spacers, and lowered!


very very useful tool!

I'm sure it looks nice, but IMO are they to big for a boxer. It kills all the fun

SteffenJ3316V wrote:

petrolhead wrote:I have the Pro-Tek arch roller/former, and they are brilliant!

my 33 can now house some beastly sized rims thank to that device.

a car that started with 14" 5.5j wheels, can no accomodate 17" x 9j with shallow spacers, and lowered!


very very useful tool!

I'm sure it looks nice, but IMO are they to big for a boxer. It kills all the fun

I was going to use my 17x8 supertourers, to be very much like the AHM car, which i think looks awesome, but i stuck them on my 155 V6 instead! ha ha!

I agree that the final gearing will be notably taller, turn in will be a lot less sharp, but i'm building my 33 to be as much a showy piece of kit, and more of a boxer to use with more than just me in it, so if it tones it down from a thrash hound, i honestly don't mind.

My sud will be radical enough, THATS gonna be the thrash hound!




Did you use a heat gun on your arches Ricky? it helps preserve the paint no end.

I kept plenty of general heat in the 33 arches and wings, and got quite a subtle flare from them aswell as a complete fold in of the lip.


and this is the wee beasties, offered up for size on my 164 as thats the next thing to get some wheel surgery, possibly with the same design wheel again, Brock B1.

Did you use a heat gun on your arches Ricky? it helps preserve the paint no end.

I kept plenty of general heat in the 33 arches and wings, and got quite a subtle flare from them aswell as a complete fold in of the lip.
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Now you tell me no I didn't think of that. Paint was already loosing adhesion down there and there's no sign of primer from the factory

And Shrew thanks for the move here now that all talk about the car will be technical in nature and anyone can look at how the car started.

Yes heat gun is an absolute must for the arch rolling.

gentle enough for the paint of course, but it does soften the tin notably, and will form much much easier.


hot to touch as rule for me, not too concentrated on the lip alone, let the heat go through the arch starting at the lip, and it for very easily, and 9/10 leav the paint undisturbed if done correctly.

It didn't matter to me so much as my car will be painted (sometime in this millenium!) but i still did it properly as a practice run for cars that weren't going to get new paint, plus i needed to get a bit of a pull out on the arch width to accomodate those 9j Brocks.

went quite well, but its actually quite easy to get carried away too. I found myself trying that hard to flare the fronts in the end i was pulling the whole wing away at the bottom mount! ha ha!


Still, the wheels do fit now,

i think!



Your roller looks almost identical to mine, which was a damn sight more expensive, so i think the Copy Goblins have been at it again, but thats no bad thing. The Pro-Tek version i have tends to be the tool brand of choice for the professional guys offering the mobile arch roll service over here, which is where i picked up on it, and yours looks so close, i reckon you've got a real bargain and quality bit of kit too.


It happens to everything in the end eh.


Incidentally, if anyone would like to try and do their own arches, mine sits idle in the tool cupboard most of its time, so as long as you pay the parcel costs to and from, you're welcome to borrow it, on a bend it you mend it basis.

Johnboy i reckon you'll need it for sure too!



No sweat on moving the thread Ricky, it has made sense straight away eh.

Hey all, I'm after some advise about (Power Flex bushes) I bought a while back.

My car was driving just fine with the original rubber bushes but thought I will buy poly bushes any way. After fitting them I found the car was driving twitchy and would follow wear ruts in the road, as you can imagine this made the car tiring to drive mostly on long highway stints that I do.
I tried different wheel alignments, Toe out neutral and toe in and it didn't solve the problem.

Before posting here I did searching on the net and found people had to make washers for the inner rear bush because the metal pin in the poly bush supplied is 46.8mm long vs 52.8 for the rubber bush.

"Would adding a washer solve my twitchy problem ??" I'm interested if anyone has had any problems driving with these bushes. I'm sceptical about a washer fixing the driving problem but could help with the longevity of the bushes.

Today I removed the poly's and put back in the rubber bushes and considering selling them, a guy on the ABB forums has offered to buy them but I did get them cheap and certainly wont get them this cheap again or get what I payed for them back.

Any thoughts These are the purple bushes I bought.

Hi Ricky

ive got the same kit of poly bushes, both in purple and in black for the 33 and the sud respectively.

Ive not installed the arms yet, but have installed the kit into the arms etc, and i can't say i noticed anything that would concern me.


any chance you can show us what you mean on the part in particular?



i wouldn't be in too much haste to sell the kit, they are excellent, and the purple grade are an ideal upgrade from the standard rubber without compromise elsewhere in my opinion.

Hi shrew thanks for the reply. The pic should show what's the problem.

It's the bush below the fire wall. 2 of the inner bushes should be 53mm in length. When you go to bolt the suspension arm with poly bush to the car it deforms the body mount to hold the bush tight.

So what some people have done is make two 53x3mm washers to go on each side of the bush.

What I don't know is if this has anything to do with making the car twitchy to drive, it gets pulled off line by wear ruts in the road and hard to control but I really have found the car a delight to drive with rubber bushes and no handling probs.

I haven't had time to make some washes yet but will try it soon. "Oh" and I'm not selling them.

In my experience, the sprint can succumb to tramlines in the road a bit anyway, BUT, my guess is that your wider lower profile tyres are more resonsible for this more recent trait than the bushes.


As for the washer plan, that sounds spot on to me.


Shame you won't be knocking a few out though Ricky! ha ha!