Plastic Inner Fender Wells

[Bill Pritchard]

There have been a few cars documented over the years as coming from the factory with one plastic and one metal inner fender.

My 1/69 KC built Chevelle has both plastic ones.

[Dicky]

I had no idea that GM used them on what appears to
be mostly mid-size intermediate cars, Chevelles and
Monte's. When I worked at a Chevy dealer in the late 60's-
late 70's (in Montana) I was not aware of any plastic inners.

However at that young age I'm sure my focus was not entirely
on cars. Maybe if I had worked in the body shop??????

Thanks for all the replies.
Dicky [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]

[StealthBird]

The red plastic inner fenders were first developed by Pontiac in 1965, and were used on 1966 A-bodies under option code 522. The creator was Pontiac materials engineer Josh Madden, who also developed the cast polyurethane-enforced Endura bumper (introduced in 1968) and the thermoplastic front grilles (1966 GTO). The red inner fender liners were not popular at the time, but were definitely eye-catching. They were available with any body color.

In 1967, Oldsmobile borrowed Pontiac's idea and created injection molded red inner fenders (not just liners, but entire inner fenders) for the front wheelewells of their 1967 W-30 442.