Fisher Body

Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded as the Fisher Body Company by Frederic and Charles Fisher in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan when they absorbed a fledgling autobody maker. By 1916, the company had grown into one of the world's largest manufacturing firms, the Fisher Body Corporation, and was producing over 350,000 vehicles a year for nearly 20 different makers. In 1919, under the guidance of its ever-aggressive president, William C. Durant, General Motors purchased a 60% stake in the company. Before stamped metal bodies and interiors became the norm, the company owned 160,000 acres (650 km2) of timberland and used more wood, carpet, tacks, and thread than any other manufacturer in the world. It had more than 40 plants and employed more than 100,000 people, and pioneered many improvements in tooling and automobile design including closed all-weather bodies. Fisher Body's contribution to the war effort in WWI and WWII included the production of airplanes and tanks. Fisher Body developed the prototype Fisher P-75 Eagle heavy fighter. Over the decades GM increasingly internalized Fisher Brothers in its operations, eventually acquiring the entire company. In 1984 GM dissolved its Fisher Body Division as part of its extensive North American restructuring. Eight parts-making facilities from within the Fisher division were combined with the Guide division, which manufactured headlights and plastic parts, to form the Fisher Guide Division. Other plants formerly operated by Fisher were reorganized to become the Chevrolet, Pontiac, GM of Canada (CPC) and the Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac (BOC) groups. The name and its iconic "Body by Fisher" logo were widely known, as hundreds of millions of General Motors vehicles displayed a "Body by Fisher" emblem on their door sill plates until Fisher Body's demise.