How DeFender Auto Covers began

DeFenderCo is the culmination of years of personal experience designing, building, and servicing rare automobiles. The DeFenders concept directly resulted from a universal fender cover, the carrying of a concealed handgun, and a muscle car.

Short story long, I operated a hot rod shop in a bad area of town and began to legally carry a concealed weapon. Late one summer night I was closing up shop to head home when the conceptual birth of DeFenders took place. I was navigating the dark shop heading toward the exit when an ill-fitting holster caused my firearm to accidentally make contact on the front fender of a 1968 Camaro I was final assembling, causing a small scratch. A scratch that could have been avoided by having a better fitting fender cover with complete coverage. Anything other than a universal fender cover did not exist, and I knew if I wanted something worthy of being called a fender cover, I’d have to build it from scratch.

I set out to combine my love of firearms, and my love of building cars, into something that could entertain both of those interests. Defense was the core ideal, and the idea grew into something you could conceal in your shop and deploy when your ride requires protection. These days we are all about safely expressing your 2nd Amendment rights, making things from scratch in the USA, and taking protection seriously at a personal and professional level.

A combination of blankets, U-haul furniture pads, and tape offered more complete coverage of the client’s investment, however the textile was absorbent rather than resistant to oil and fluid spills. This combination was difficult to secure and picked up dirt and metal debris, further risking damage to the expensive finish, and ended up offering as little paint protection and coverage of the fender as the mechanics cover they replaced. So called ‘custom-made’ fender cover offerings are constructed from single sided thin marine upholstery vinyl and are backed with a microfiber cloth; and yet still provide no padding to prevent impact damage. Some of these higher-end universal covers that offered new attachment methods to keep them in place would also cause more harm than good. The microfiber backing would trap dirt and metal shavings just as easily as the blankets, and the sewn-in magnets used to keep them from falling off would attract metal debris that would scratch the finish.