[dataway]

Take a look at these two photos.

This is the front fender where the rear most vertical bolt goes in, right behind the hood hinges.

The photo with the arrows on it is the right side fender ... it's got this flange (red arrow) spot welded to it that A: prevents me from lowering the height because it sits on top of the bulge in the cowl (yellow arrow) .. and B: it covers up the last hole for the cowl to hood seal.

Compare to the photo of the left side fender (with the bolt installed) ... it's not there, and this fender fits nicely.

The fender with the mystery flange is not original to the car ... is it possible that a 69 or later fender had this added flange and a slightly different cowl design? I'm tempted to cut that baby right off.

[OG68]

This is the original fender from my May built 68.

I'd say "Cut Away"

[nytrainer]

Johnny here’s a pic from a passengers side OEM ‘69 GTO fender. As you can see there’s no mystery tab on it.
Also see OEM pass side fender from my ‘68 Lemans there is no tab.
Time to call Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo!

[dataway]

Well what the heck. It's obviously factory, and looks like an after thought of some kind, just a right angle bent piece of metal with a hole spot welded in a couple of places.

Jeez, my vehicle seems to have the most odd-ball problems

[OG68]

Hmm. wonder what happened to the photo? Well here it is again.

[69gtocv]

Not on mine either

[dataway]

Off it comes then.

Of course after it's gone I'll hear it's the unobtainable RA6 pre-production Tab Fender

[OG68]

Or a fix to stabilize the antenna mounting at high speed.

[OG68]

well now it would be interesting to see what the 69 or reproduction fenders look like

[dataway]

Found this in my "Unmolested 68 GTO" file.

It's got the tab on the right fender.

[dataway]

I was able to get the fender in the right place by bending the tab up a tad ... but it still blocks that last cowl seal clip hole.

All I can think of is maybe it was a handling fixture, for hanging the fenders perhaps, that they later realized was in the way of the seal clip hole, and sometimes making aligning the fender difficult.

[kk68]

Well I have the left side fender to match your right. Was wondering about that tab as well. I got the replacement fender from Scott Thelander a few years back. Don’t remember if it was off a 68 or 69. My right fender does not have the extra tab.

[ts3189]

My 68 Kansas City built convertible has the tab. I looked at a Baltimore built 68 convertible this morning no tab ??

[68pongto]

There is no mystery to the tab, early 68 fenders had it, and late fenders did not. I guess early on Pontiac planned to put two bolts to hold the fenders to the cowl but never did. I have a spreadsheet at work with all the dates and the cutoff time frame, I will have to look at it tomorrow.

[dataway]

Jeez, now left hand fender have them too

I have yet to see any car that has one on BOTH sides ... seems like an early-late model scenario would have tabbed fenders on both sides correct?

KK68 ... thanks for that photo, first left hand one I've seen.

[68pongto]

The data that I have collected shows that all the fenders I have seen up to fender date 1/19/1968 or car build date 01E had the extra hole on both fenders. The only anomaly is a 2/26/1968 fender that had the extra hole on the LH fender. I'm sure there were a few straggler fenders put on out of sequence. So I would say the crossover time was late Jan 68 to mid to late Feb 68. Every fender I have seen from March 68 onward does not have the extra hole. Also, NO 69 fenders ever had the extra hole.

[dataway]

The fender date is stamped on the vertical section above the inner fender correct?

[OG68]

I can't recall if the fenders are in the Julian week format or number/letter. My fenders are tucked away and hard to get to.
Almost all the rest of the sheetmetal is in the Julian week which was 1-4 weeks before assembly

[68pongto]

Here are a couple of examples of date codes. 1A10M translates to Jan 10th. 2C21M translates to Feb 21st. The first set of numbers are 1 through 12, so that has to be the month, I have never seen one higher than 12. The second set of letters is always an A, B, or C, so maybe that stands for 3 shifts a day? I have never seen a D or higher. The 3rd set of numbers is 1 through 31, so that has to be the day of the month. I have never seen anything higher than 31. The 4th set of letters are G, M, J, and B that I have seen, I have no idea what they stand for.

[OG68]

Ok, then that makes more sense than what I thought.

In my case it would be the same date;
4 B 8 M
I was thinking the second week of April 68
April 8 is more specific but within the second week.