Modifying the Camaro Front Fenders

A big part of modifying front fenders is knowing where to make the necessary cuts. Rick “Speed” Lefever has done this before – a horizontal cut to allow the top of the fender to be pulled out, and vertical cuts to realign the wheelwell lip. Simple!

After stripping the primer paint, Speed began the modification of the front fenders by making a horizontal cut just below the crease both ahead and behind the wheelwell opening.

 

Overall, the upper lip of the wheelwell was brought out approximately 1-1/2 inches.

With the horizontal cuts made, the fenders could be spaced outward to provide the necessary tire clearance.

 

To Accept Massive Rear Tires, It Was Necessary to "Tub" the Rear Wheelwells On the Camaro.

Big power isn’t much good unless you can put it to the ground, and that requires an aggressive tire and wheels package, especially at the rear of the vehicle. In keeping with the intent of retaining the Camaro’s nearly stock appearance, the rear wheelwells required enlargement. In the frame section, it is mentioned that the rear frame added to the Camaro was intentionally narrow to accommodate big tires. The idea was to bring the wheel tubs all the way in against the frame rails.

Rick "Speed" Lefever began by sectioning the stock wheelwells so that a panel could be added to widen each tub. At their widest point, the insert panels are eight inches wide. This creates truly cavernous rear wheel tubs. The inner fenders were welded to the frame rails for extra strength. A new panel was added above the rear axle, and a steel firewall was installed to isolate the truck/fuel cell area. All panels and tubs are fully welded to make them watertight and to prevent any smoke or fumes from entering the passenger compartment.
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Keeping everything aligned while the final filling and welding is done requires tabs tack-welded over the cuts.
 1) With the clearance determined, tabs were tack welded to hold the fender halves in the proper relationship to each other. Extreme care must be used to prevent overheating the fender base metal.

The goal is to modify the fenders in such a way that the casual observer will never realize they’ve widened.
2) Spreading the fender halves creates misalignment of the wheelwell opening lip. Vertical cuts adjacent to the opening lip permit realignment.
The Pirelli 265/13 ZR18 front tires are a lot to squeeze into the front wheelwells, but with this fender work, it can be done.
3) After removing metal to align the lip, the vertical cuts were tack welded back together and a strip of sheetmetal cut and tack welded to fill the horizontal cuts.
It takes experience to weld and fill sheetmetal without overheating or warping the surface.

4) With the tabs removed, Speed skillfully welded and filled the cuts, using care not to overheat or warp the fender metal. The welds were then carefully ground and filed to provided a seamlessly smooth finish.

If you look closely, you can see a slight color variation where metal was added. Otherwise, there’s no trace of the modification.

5) Look closely. The finished fender is still bare metal. No resin filler material was used. This is metalcraft at its best.

 

6) The finished fenders clear the huge front wheels and tires perfectly, and the change to the fenders is so subtle that few will even realize it was done.