I went to look at a '72 Conv. last week and we noticed the the right side inner fender had a manufacturer label indicating it was made bt Rockwell Industries? Is this correct? The body appeared to be pretty straight. Dennis #`12799
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Re: '72 Inner Fenders
Dennis-----
Very interesting. It would seem quite unusual for two things to have occurred here. First, and assuming that the label was on the part since the day that the car was built, that a manufacturers label would have survived so long in an area exposed to the elements. Second, that such a label would have been on the part at all; GM often tries to "hide" or "encode" such information on the source of its parts. Rarely is a brand other than a GM brand seen on GM automotive components, PRODUCTION or SERVICE. There are some exceptions that I can think of, but not many.
On the other hand, Rockwell was an OEM supplier to the automotive industry for many years, although, as far as I know, they have divested themselves of most or all of their automotive parts operations in the last several years. Also, and as far as I know, when they were in the automotive parts business, they provided parts only to the OEM manufacturers and never sold parts through aftermarket channels. So, this would tell me that either the part was on the car since new or it's a GM SERVICE replacement panel manufactured by Rockwelland installed later. Doesn't necessarily mean that the car was wrecked, either. Maybe the inner fender was cracked or damaged for some other reason.
So, it's kind of hard to say what happened here. However, if the label appears to be a paper type label(as most of these are) and is in an area exposed to the elements, I would probably have to question if it has been on the car since new. In that case, it may be a GM SERVICE replacement panel which slipped through the GM parts system with the manufacturers label still affixed.In Appreciation of John Hinckley -
Re: '72 Inner Fenders
Yes, Rockwell made many fiber parts for Corvettes. The labels can be seen in many spare tire covers with date codes included.Comment
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Add/ Inner Fenders
The label should be embeded in the fiber. Not a surface paper label.Comment
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Re: Add/ Inner Fenders
The labels are embedded, but are near the surface. They are readable if there isn't any paint or undercoat in that area.
Regards,
- GregComment
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Re: '72 Inner Fenders
Dennis, Joe, Bob & Greg:
These are common as some of you have said. Under the top surface of glass. Date code is week of year and two numbers for the year. Thus 18-72 would be 18th week of 1972.
Terry
TerryComment
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Re: '72 Inner Fenders
There was a '71 convertible at the Heart of Texas Regional last October that sported two of the Rockwell Industries tags on the underside of the left front fender. It was a very low miles car, though restored. It also sported the tag on the spare tire carrier. They looked very original. I have also seen the Rockwell tag on a spare tire carrier in the MF Dobbins book, or one of my other books in my collection.Comment
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Re: Rockwell Tags
Don't want to leave the impression that if you haven't got a Rockwell tag on your inner fenders or spare tire carrier that your fenders etc. are wrong. Rockwell only threw in the tag every so often. We would be judging spare tire cover dates if all the cars had them. Feel luckey if youv'e got one!Comment
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Re: '72 Inner Fenders
Bob, Joe, Terry, Greg, Thanks for the info, I will pass along to my friend who was looking at the 72. It originally came from Florida and that may explain why the label looks so good. The inner fender areas on this car looked very good. In fact the who car except for the paint was a good find. If I had the garage space I may have been interested. DennisComment
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