Radiused fenders… only for the crazies

posted by Pete on October 27th, 2006

Radiusing a fender is basically a general term used to describe cutting the fender opening, usually enlarging the diameter in order to accomodate and “frame” larger wheels. Hot rod guys do it all the time cuz a lot of them are running crazy size wheels/tires, esp in the backs, and also cuz it’s the only way to ensure their fender openings end up looking the same side-to-side, since a lot of those cars aren’t perfectly-constructed from the factory to begin with, and a lot have had replacement fenders used that weren’t always an exact duplicate of the original. Anyway, this is something I foresee we will be seeing a lot more of from the big dog cars from Japan. It’s one thing to radius a hot rod fender (or the fender of any full frame car or truck) since there’s rarely an attached inner fender to contend with, and the body panels are usually not structural in a full frame vehicle, so you can cut away to your heart’s content w/o worrying too much about compromising the integrity of your chassis. But when you start radiusing the fenders of a unibody car… now you’re playing with power. AND when you have a rear door to deal with… more props to you when you can work that all out. Here’s some examples of radiused fenders:Accord: notice how the top edge of the champagne car’s front fenderwell is like in line with the door handles:

vs. stock which has the top edge of the front fender is more in line with the bottom of the door handles:

and this car… just check out how much the rear fender invades into the rear edge of the door! pretty awesome job recontouring the door though:

unknown car: I have no idea what kinda car this is… I want to say a crown, but I’m sure I’m way off. Look at how beautifully that rear fenderwell FRAMES that huge weds kranze ratzinger wheel!

Q45: I’m embarassed cuz my car is nowhere near as nice as the above… but I did this photoshop of an old pic of my car to illustrate, side-by-side, how radiusing the fenders can create a dramatically diff look

Ultimately I think sliggity slamming a stock fendered car over big wheels will give you that “slammed” look… but sliggity slamming a car with radiused fenders over big wheels may not make it appear as low upon casual glance, but then you realize that the wheels look like they actually fit the car (and you can still run them flush to the fenders, not sunken), and the car body itself looks sleeker, lower, wider, meaner (cuz you’ve effectively reduced the fender height), and like the car was actually MADE to ride that low.. (think exotic sports car). I wonder when we’ll start seeing such madness in the US…

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