[Lloyd-TX]

While my front fender skirts, etc. are removed from my '72 Formula for detailing I'm now able to get a good look at the back sides of my fenders. Not a pretty sight - lots of small wrinkles and plastic filler! Anyway, I'll be looking for a REAL nice used, or NOS pair of fenders for it before doing the body and paint work. What years of Firebird fenders are a direct bolt-on? I know that the '71's are different because they had the louvers. I checked my Firebird parts book on disc and it shows that '70 and '72-'75 are all the same part number, and '76 are different.

Any advice?

TIA,
Lloyd

'72 Formula 400 - soon to be a 455HO, TH400, A/C, etc.; Lucerne Blue with Medium Blue Interior
Restoring a '72 GTO 455HO, TH400, A/C, etc.; Sundance Orange with Parchment buckets

[Lloyd-TX]

While my front fender skirts, etc. are removed from my '72 Formula for detailing I'm now able to get a good look at the back sides of my fenders. Not a pretty sight - lots of small wrinkles and plastic filler! Anyway, I'll be looking for a REAL nice used, or NOS pair of fenders for it before doing the body and paint work. What years of Firebird fenders are a direct bolt-on? I know that the '71's are different because they had the louvers. I checked my Firebird parts book on disc and it shows that '70 and '72-'75 are all the same part number, and '76 are different.

Any advice?

TIA,
Lloyd

'72 Formula 400 - soon to be a 455HO, TH400, A/C, etc.; Lucerne Blue with Medium Blue Interior
Restoring a '72 GTO 455HO, TH400, A/C, etc.; Sundance Orange with Parchment buckets

[poncho-mike]

Lloyd,

1970 and 1972 are the exact same fender. The 71s had the small vent.

In 73, there was a raised boss over the center of the inner fender well for mounting the brace that ran from the fender to the core support. Other than the boss for the brace, the 73 fender is the same. The original 70 & 72 fender was replaced by the 73 long ago in GM.

The 74 and newer fenders are missing the bracket for mounting the valance panel. 76 actually has a little bracket that is used as a filler to the bumper, and this bracket must be removed.

The small bracket for mounting the valance panel is spot-welded to the front of the fender. You can drill out the spot welds and remove this bracket. You can mount it to a later fender, but I believe you have to remove just a little of the lip to mount the bracket.

I have seen a few cases where people that most likely didn't have access to a plasma torch drilled out the spot welds on the bracket, and riveted the bracket to a later model replacement fender.

I have also seen people take a later model outer fender apart by drilling out the spot welds, and then weld it to an early inner fender to make a correct appearing 70-72 fender.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Lloyd-TX]

Mike:

Thanks for the info. I'll concentrate my search for '70 or '72 fenders, and accept '73 fenders. I'd rather not go through the effort to modify the '74 and later fender unless I have to!

Later,
Lloyd

'72 Formula 400 - soon to be a 455HO, TH400, A/C, etc.; Lucerne Blue with Medium Blue Interior
Restoring a '72 GTO 455HO, TH400, A/C, etc.; Sundance Orange with Parchment buckets

[poncho-mike]

Lloyd,

It's not that tough to modify the later fenders.

There is one other difference I noted between original fenders and GM NOS fenders.

On all the original fenders I've seen, the threaded piece the hood hinge bolts onto is welded to the fender. On the later NOS ones, there is a rectangular hole there. You are supposed to use the big bolts that have the clip on them, which slide into place.

The early T/A fenders w/o the brace bolts sell for some very big dollars. I'm not sure how much the standard 70 & 72 fenders go for, but I do know they are very hard to find.

Mike