DeeGee

How To Fit C6 Fender Guards to a C5.

Big to jdmvette and cmyc5 for their original ideas and write ups.

I'll update this as I finish the job. I know quite a few members plan to fit the guards this weekend so I'm sure others will chip in with refinements.

Step 1 Tools and parts:

Parts:
Part Number: Left Molding. #15818637
Part Number: Right Molding. #15818636
Clips #11519444

Tools:

Dremel with sanding and cutting disks
Sandpaper
Snips
Drill and bits. Small working up to a 3/8" for the clip holes.
Pliars

This is the molding as it arrives in the box:

Broad View

The Clips

The Bracket

The "Shoe"

The "Notch"

DeeGee

Offer up the molding to the wheel arch to see where the cuts will need to be made. Work slowly and take small pieces out at a time. The wrong cut will ruin the molding. You may want to put masking tape on the outside face to make sure you don’t damage the trim as you work.

Remove the bracket on the inside of the molding with a dremel cutting wheel



Pull the metal clips off and remove the plastic tabs with a dremel cutting wheel.

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Lower Curve. Remove the notch and trim the excess from the base of the molding. You need to take out quite a large piece from the marked area to adapt to the curve of the C5 fender. Offer the molding to the arch and mark a rough curve. Slowly trim the excess back to form the lower radius around the fender. Mark with a sharpie and slowly grind back to form the curve.



Work the shape of the lower curve first to get a good fit. Make sure you push the fender flush with the wheel arch at the base as you trim the molding. Once you are happy with the rough fit at the base switch to the upper section.

DeeGee

Upper Curve. Offer up the molding to the fender and mark the upper area of the flare where the curve is shaped to fit the C6. This is just above the joint in the fender and is very obvious. Start to trim the excess to fit the shape of the C5 flare with long strokes of the dremel sanding disk. Keep checking against the fender. Because of the complex curve, the top part of the molding pulls away from the fender. This can be held in place later with pins.

DeeGee

Step 5. Trim the “Shoe”. Mark the edge of the existing fender underneath the car with a sharpie. Mark a square line across the molding. Cut the shoe to fit.

DeeGee

Step 6. Final Sanding. Carry on sanding by hand around the inner edge of the molding until you are happy with the final fit.

The curves should look like this:

Lower Curve


Inside Fender

One problem is the infamous poor panel fit on the Vette. You may find a gap where the upper and lower panels don’t fit flush at the join. Either live with the gap or notch the molding to fit closer.

DeeGee

Step 7. Fitting. When drilling the fixing holes start with a small pilot drill and gradually increase in size to the 3/8 drill. MAKE SURE THE MOLDING IS IN ITS FINAL POSITION BEFORE DRILLING.

Fit the molding tight at the base and mark the hole underneath the fender with a sharpie. Drill a 3/8” hole in the underside of the fender. Reposition the molding and fasten in place with a push clip.



Check the clearance inside the fender arch behind the molding. Measure downwards and mark a point for the upper clip. It needs to be far enough down to allow the clip collar to sit inside the molding edges. It needs to be far enough inboard that the push clip goes all the way through the fender lip and not into the well cover.

Drill a hole for the bottom clip inside the fender and fit a push clip

Measure the half way point and drill a pilot hole. Again the hole needs to be positioned to go through the molding, through the fender lip and have space behind.

This picture shows the rough location of the 3 holes.



Drill a small hole and put a small black screw in to hold the top of the molding securely

DeeGee

Step 8. The Finished Fit

red97vette

wow awsome write-up! very detailed, ive been debating on doing this mod too, thanks!

Dan

BAD AZZ C5

NO! On the contrary, its looks great and very informative write up. I should have you do this to my car. Given that you are now an expert!

alssiri

Nice write up

Ahmad

steve8

Dave gave me some very good advice and photos when I installed my heated seats. Once again very helful information here. Nice work Dave!
Steve.

peter pan

Wow that is one great write-up and if you lived in my part of Texas I would have you do mine. In fact I am going to order a set and have one of my buddies do the install on my coupe an I will use these pictures to assist. Thanks

nite

You are THE MAN!!! I wasn't considering this mod, until I saw your instructions. Now it's a must do! Excellent write-up! Thanks!

BanditDude

I've been thinking about doing this. Thanks for the writeup! Now, I also know how it'll look on my car.

Cozmo

Great write up!

I'm going to bookmark this bad boy as I intend on installing the fender guards at a later date.

Hams

Thanks, Nice write up how long did the install take you? It would look great on my black.

DeeGee

It took about an hour last night. I then spent about 5 hours today. I was very careful on the first side but the second was easier once I had the idea. The right side doesn't fit quite so well because the joint between the fender sections is quite pronounced. I may tweak that at a later date. Its 105 outside so I need to cool off now

DeeGee

I've written this up in a word document and embedded the pictures.

PM me with your E Mail if you'd like a copy.

Just a warning if you're on dial up. Because of the pictures its in 3 parts each about 5Mb. (It's now 3 smaller .PDF files)

MyVetteDream

I think I just got pushed over the edge...

Thanks JB and DG!

PS- Any word on the fronts? Thanks all...