Fender Skirts

As I was watching traffic on O Street in Lincoln, I noticed a small compact with something I had not seen since the 1950s – it had fender skirts.

I remember the family 1950 Chevrolet Sedan had fender skirts on the rear wheels. The idea was to make the car look more sleek and streamlined. Of course you could not put them on the front fenders because the front wheels had to turn. Not only General Motors products had vender skirts, but also Ford and Chrysler models.

The skirts were metal sheets that filled the rear fender opening. They attached to the car by some clips that engaged a slot on the car body. In theory it would be easy to put them on and take them off when you had a flat rear tire.

It didn’t work out that way! Road dirt accumulated in the wheel wells and made the skirts hard to take off and put on. I think my father just left them off after a while because they were such a bear to take off and put back on.

The fender skirt craze died out and I had not seen a car with fender skirts for years until the little compact came past me on O Street.

Will fender skirts come back? Only time will tell.