fender or wheel wells - what paint color

[sidcharles]

two part question since i don't know the correct term:

Q #1: wheel or fender ?

Q #2: do we like body color, chassis color, contrasting, or a complimentary color ?

[prototypical replication not included -  someone else has already made that decision]

thanks,

sid

[gtx6970]

Depends entirely on subject matter for me 

[Ace-Garageguy]

The term "wheel well" usually refers to the inner fenders on an "envelope" bodied car, starting with the '49 Ford era.

If you're not going for a factory look, it's entirely up to you.

'60s GM cars, for instance, usually had black front inner fenders. '66 Chevelle below.

But the high-end real '66 Chevelle I'm building will have body-color applied to them...something like this:

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:09 AM by Ace-Garageguy

[Mike 1017]

I Google the 1:1 for reference

[sidcharles]

interesting twist on the assumed clarity of question wordsmithing.

i am referring to the part which encloses the tire & wheel, yet Ace immediately thought of the opposite side of the coin.

never gave that part a glance until he brought it to my attention. 

now i have two conundrums!

[Rick L]

I’d say it depends on the year of the car you’re modeling. Undercoating was an available option in the 50’s to prevent rust. So a black coating would be appropriate. If you were too cheap to buy that option ( like my dad) the wheel wells were either the same color of the body or primer.🤣

[sidcharles]

c'mon now. I was one of those guys also too cheap to buy that option.

[Fat Brian]

This is an area where whether you're building something as a factory replica or a custom build plays a large roll in what color it is. Also, to get super nit picky I would call the areas shown the engine bay and the underside where the tire is the wheel well. Chrysler products in particular mostly had body color engine bays and the underside wheel well area would be body color, gray or black depending on who painted it and whether undercoating was applied.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Lots of variation depending on make, model, year, etc, and depending on whether or not it's stock or otherwise.

A lot of Mopars had body color on the fender wells.

Most GM cars were likely painted a semi gloss black.

Ford I'm not particularly versed in.

Some individual models were unusual, such as late '60s-early '70s Olds 442 w-30s, which had red plastic inner fender wells, and some Pontiac GTOs were available around the same time period with red fender well liners front and rear.

 

The best way to find the answer is to do some Google searching for the particular car that you're looking for.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[stitchdup]

depends what it is. most of my models just get matt black undersides so if the wells are on the chassis they get black below with body colour from the top and no masking. if the wells are molded to the body they just get overspray and it pure luck if they get any paint. I concentrate on what you can see without lifting it up(i only recently started doing headliners as i reached a taller shelf so could see bare plastic, lol) and my models are just shelf builds anyway. my current golf will be getting everything painted though as its a bit more special to me. 

[TECHMAN]

On 7/23/2025 at 10:29 AM, sidcharles said:

interesting twist on the assumed clarity of question wordsmithing.

i am referring to the part which encloses the tire & wheel, yet Ace immediately thought of the opposite side of the coin.

 

 

On 7/22/2025 at 8:51 PM, sidcharles said:

two part question since i don't know the correct term:

Q #1: wheel or fender 

thanks,

sid

As to the "original" question:  Front: all that I have ever heard these called was Fender wells (i.e.: Fenderwell outlet headers)  which, some manufactures had painted a sort of semi-gloss black (many GM's for instance)  and body-color on unibody cars (various Ford & Mopar come to mind).......  Rear:  were always referred to as "wheel wells" (i.e.: radiused the wheel wells for tire clearance, Like building the old Gassers)  and these could've ended up most any color from body-paint color, to undercoating, to mud....😉

Hope, maybe, this can help clear up some of the confusion, then some of the "advice" will help you to answer your original questions.....😊

DJ

[sidcharles]

thanks DJ.

i now feel like i can distribute the terms, and be technically correct doing so = conundrum solved!

it's going to be a good day.

 

sid

[TECHMAN]

SID,

Not to "add to the confusion", but, technically, BILL IS CORRECT in that the front "inner fender wells" ARE a wheel well.  May only have been the area of the west coast I grew up in, or possibly those people I grew up around, but, again, all that I had ever heard them called helped us distinguish between the fronts and the rears......😎

DJ

[peteski]

7 minutes ago, TECHMAN said:

SID,

Not to "add to the confusion", but, technically, BILL IS CORRECT in that the front "inner fender wells" ARE a wheel well.  May only have been the area of the west coast I grew up in, or possibly those people I grew up around, but, again, all that I had ever heard them called helped us distinguish between the fronts and the rears......😎

DJ

Instead of calling the rear ones "wheel wells" and front "inner fender wells" wouldn't simply calling them "rear wheel wells" and "front wheel wells" suffice?  Those terms are unambiguous.  Also isn't  the sheet metal over the rear wheels also called a "fender", so "inner fender wheels" isn't really pointing exclusively to the front fenders? 

But there are other examples  of not very clear or correct names for various automotive items.  Like wheel covers are called "hubcaps" even though they cover more than the wheel's hub, and
"valve covers" where those are actually rocker-arm (or cam in OHC setups) covers.

[TECHMAN]

Gotta agree with you 100% PETE, but as I said, "May only have been the area of the west coast where I grew up, or possibly those people I grew up around".  Again, was not trying to add to the confusion, but only attempting to help see thru the confusion.....😉   

DJ

[Rob Hall]

There are many words.

[Beans]

I've used the terms interchangeably for my entire life.  If I'm wrong, oh well.  I can live with that. 

[sidcharles]

THIS is why i am a model railroader!

 

oh, wait: turnout? points? switch?

 

macrame; now That's the hobby for me.

[peteski]

1 hour ago, sidcharles said:

THIS is why i am a model railroader!

oh, wait: turnout? points? switch?

All those are valid and correct when used in the correct context.

Turnout is the the entire configuration of diverging track.  Points are the individual movable rails of that turnout.   Switch is also part of the turnout. It contains the point rails, the throwbar, and any other components involved with the movable  points.  Remember that a frog and guardrails are also parts of a turnout.    But yes, model railroaders often misuse the term "switch" to describe a  complete turnout.  But we are getting astray of the wheel wells.

[sidcharles]

right. wheel flanges is what i meant . . . .

now is that HO gauge, or HO scale?

hmmm

[sidcharles]

1 hour ago, Beans said:

...   If I'm wrong, oh well.  I can live with that. 

at this convergence, i am a believer

[peteski]

1 hour ago, sidcharles said:

right. wheel flanges is what i meant . . . .

now is that HO gauge, or HO scale?

hmmm

Ah, you want to go that way?  Gauge is the distance between rails.  Scale is just like with model cars, the actual scale of the model itself.  Your standard gauge H0 scale (1:87.5) model train runs on H0 gauge (16mm) track.  I mentioned standard, because you could also be modeling H0 scale  narrow-gauge trains which, while  still 1:87.5 scale run on N gauge (9mm) track. Or going the other way, you could be modeling narrow-gauge 0 scale (1:48) trains and those could run on H0 gauge (16mm) track.   "Scale" always indicate actual scale of the  model, while track  of a certain gauge can be utilized in more than one modeling scales.  Things are never simple and easy.  Many modelers refer to model train's scale as "gauge".  Also, I use "zero" and not upper case Oh because that is the most proper nomenclature.  In the early days of model trains when scale was not very precisely defined, large gauge was called "1" (one). Then a smaller gauge was developed, and that one was called "0" (zero) because it was smaller than "1".  Then even smaller models were produced, and those were called H0 (as in Half a Zero, because their scale and gauge was approximately half of 0). That is how H0 was named.  But probably since it was easier to pronounce, modelers (especially modelers in USA), started pronouncing it Eich-oh, replacing the zero with an upper case "oh".   Not very useful  but fun trivia. 

Not sure how wheel flanges come into play.  Those are the the protruding rings on the inside of wheel treads which prevent the train from derailing.

[mcs1056]

Hopefully, the wheel-well is designed to allow for full jounce...of course, at least to the point of contact with the jounce bumper.

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 hours ago, peteski said:

...Also isn't  the sheet metal over the rear wheels also called a "fender"...? 

It's called a "fender" by girls and moms and little boys if they don't know any better, but most car guys call it a "quarter panel"...though on earlier non-envelope-bodied cars it is indeed correctly called a fender.

On those cars though, there's also a rear inner fender or wheel-well or inner well or under well...

IIRC, 1949 was the year that separate rear fenders pretty much went away on US cars, and merged with the quarter panel...but the fender was still there actually, just migrated to inside the quarter panel and now called an inner fender or wheel well.

The '49 Ford did away entirely with the separate fender...

   

But GM held on to vestigial fenders longer...

 

Of course, there are also multitudes who confuse fender and bumper too, so wat choo gonna doo?

Edited 3 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[stitchdup]

just to confuse the issue, fenders are called wings in the uk