- Oh hey there, neighbor.
How is it going?
Because the weather sucks now and it's cold,
only perk of actually us being in Wisconsin is the fact
that, I mean besides the rest of the automotive world
and all the YouTubers and all the cool people
live in California,
we don't have super high taxes
and the winter stops spiders from turning into the size
of my cat, which is pretty cool,
however, it makes for crummy attitude.
Either way, since we're stuck inside
because it's cold and it's raining,
we gotta talk about another round (clearing throat)
of rookie mistakes.
This one, judging by some cars out there
in the World Wide Web, probably need this one.
I'm Alex, @alex.fi in Instagram
and today's episode of Alex staring awkwardly at the camera
and praying the editor can turn it into a joke of some kind,
we're gonna be talking about the good,
the classic, the old-fashioned rookie mistakes
people make when they go to try and make their wheels fit,
because it happens.
(techno music)
♪ Won't you be ♪
♪ my neighbor ♪
And I would actually have my flippy-flippy hair but it's, uh
it's not there.
It's not there today.
It's a little deflated, a little limp.
And of course, as you jump into this video,
don't forget to subscribe so we can keep making
banging videos like this
and if you're feeling, you know,
amped up, pick up some wheels or just drill in your keyboard
because you just can't do the wheel-purchase-thing yet.
Be sure to check out www.fitmentindustries.com
where we have it all, like wheels and tires
and suspensions, I bet you didn't see that one coming.
I realistically say that the first
and biggest rookie mistake
that people make when they go to try and make
their wheels fit, and there are a lot of them,
will probably be not truly understanding the potential,
like, damage and sort of like, difficulty
that comes along with rolling your fenders.
Now you've seen all of those YouTube videos before
where they take like a baseball bat or something,
or maybe sometimes they just pray
that if they've heated it up enough,
they can just gank on it which sometimes work
but you've also seen like the poor kid that uses
the wooden baseball bat and he rolls the rear fenders
and it just ends up looking like
some nice crusty warm beach waves
which is not what we have in Wisconsin right now
but I'm assuming that all the cool kids in Cali do.
But it actually is a little bit unfortunate
because then your fenders look like
they got absolutely thrashed.
Now you don't wanna try to roll your fenders
so low the first time, because that's how you fail.
That's gonna be ultimately a dangerous game
that you're not really gonna win.
You're gonna have somebody come over and maybe has
done it a few times, because they're gonna have
tips and tricks on your fenders if they've worked
on that car before.
Heaters, rollers, things that mount up to the hub
and everything in between, to try and minimize
the amount of damage when they go to roll your fenders.
A lot of people think that the only tool they have
to make their wheels fit is rolling their fenders,
and it makes sense.
But there's a whole another round of bits and pieces,
clues and deals, see if you will,
that your car actually probably won't end up once
you get into actually making your wheels fit
because you're just gonna have to remove things, you know.
You end up removing your fender inner plastic bits
and all that.
Now if you can manage to save those pieces,
I'm proud of you.
But the tighter the setup, the more unlikely that's
honestly going to be, and here is why.
Now, if you imagine a wheelwell, right?
You would assume that the little plastic liner in there
that helps keep some of the electrical stuff dry
and the engine bay clean would be smooth.
Like a nice smooth, no!
It's not, because those inner liners have these bump outs,
they have these vents, they have indentations
all over the place, and every other type of shape
that ultimately doesn't make it a nice smooth surface
and you'll have it end up being something that you rub on
because you don't have a tight fitment,
or you want for a maximum width on your wheel
because you wanna be a cool kid.
Now, what you're gonna wanna do is
you're gonna wanna decide if you're gonna wanna take it out
or just let it rub until the whole thing just breaks off.
The choice is ultimately yours
but what you can do if you're looking to keep
the inner fender liners is heat them up, push 'em out,
or put a book on 'em or something like that,
that'll help push out bump stops, in case you're wondering.
And there's a whole lot of things going on
in the good old wheelwell,
but one of the biggest things that becomes
one of the biggest issues especially with those
guys and gals out there that have big brake kits,
either from factory or aftermarket is that,
is you're not accounting for the fact that you've got
the big brake boys in the front or rear
and then you automatically go to throw your wheels on
mostly because you're absolutely ecstatic about
installing them because you got them.
www.fitmentindustries.com
But then when you mount it up, you're gonna hear
metal on metal noise, and not the metal on metal noise
that you want.
The wheel's not gonna sit where it's supposed to.
It's not gonna mount on,
and then a fit of rage will come,
and you'll wonder, "what did I do in my past life
for me to deserve this?"
Big brake kits are becoming especially more common
on cars these days, especially the ones
with the performance trim, which is pretty much
every single car out there these days,
and if you're lame and don't get wheels from us
and they don't check if you have a big brake kit,
you're gonna end up with wheels that could potentially
not clear, especially with wheels that have a super
flat profile and very minimal concavity,
but that doesn't mean that if you have a concave wheel
that it's automatically gonna fit.
Now a lot of sport compact brands like Cosmos
and Konig, and Motegi, and Enkei,
specifically build their wheels around brake clearance
because they're more of the sporty racing style wheel
which is why you won't see many of their wheels
feature a ton of concavity of their wheels designs,
but mostly just a super deep mounting pad
so you never have to worry about your big brake clearance
becoming an issue for those wheels.
If you keep the wheels because you didn't get them from us
and they won't take them them back,
so you decide, "I've got it.
I'm just gonna get some spacers and I'll be golden."
So you type in the space room information,
you go on Amazon, they're somehow twenty dollars,
they're made of metal which is good enough for you.
So you throw 'em on, then get the wheels on,
and magic happens for you, and now your wheels
are mounted up to your car.
You go to throw your wheels on and quickly realize
that when you're going to tighten them down,
you have a little bit of what we call an "oh moment"
because your OEM lugs don't fit the aftermarket wheel holes
and/or you've got about half a thread left
to tighten your wheels onto your car.
No duggers are gonna save you there, son,
it's just not gonna work.
Okay?
And because you didn't get spacers from us and
they didn't tell you that you're gonna need longer studs,
your now 25 mm spacers are, um,
(clears throat) pretty much useless.
And that deserves a shame moment.
If someone told you this sort of stuff
so you didn't make these mistakes,
it probably would have helped you.
Maybe somebody (clears throat)
Maybe it's somebody that's trying really hard to grow beard.
(sniffs)
But I still think it's gonna happen.
A lot of times rookie mistakes happen because
somebody's going to purchase their first set of wheels
and want their setup to look like somebody that's
purchased their tenth set of wheels,
or have gone in to really measure their own wheels.
And they end up going through all of these issues
because the other person that was more experienced
knew all of this stuff, and that's what
we don't want you to do.
So if you're looking to go with a more aggressive fitment,
if you're looking to go with something that's gonna be
a really close, tight setup, you're gonna wanna make sure
that you look at some of these things
and make sure that you don't have to get
any sort of wheel spacers or that you don't have
to worry about getting extended lug knots or bolts
or studs, or anything like that,
because it is going to be a pain unless
you're willing to do that,
which I mean in all the grand scheme of things,
it's a kind of a rollercoaster, more of a storyline
than a list (clears throat)
but either way, we need more ideas from you guys and gals
for future videos, so let us know
what you would like us to talk about next, and we'll add it
to the old docket.
Apparently people don't like it when I say docket.
Apparently that's not a thing.
But if you're looking to purchase some good old
wheels, tires or suspension and don't wanna go through
the hypothetical story that I just shared with you,
go on over to www.fitmentindustries.com,
and if you don't really wanna do that,
you know what, fine.
I'll have my ramen
and I'll just cry a little bit,
but at least subscribe so we can keep making
awesome videos like this.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
I love you
(clears throat)
I mean, I'll see you later.
Peace.