The original Endura bumper design was developed by GM's Inland Manufacturing. The original closed cell urethane over steel construction began in 1964 when they fabricated some push bumpers to be used when moving non-running cars around the Pontiac engineering garage. The first use of the material was on the 1967 Pontiac arrowhead emblems. Then came the design for the 1968 GTO, which used a steel inner frame with a closed cell urethane injection molding with a coat of urethane paint.
The Inland Manufacturing development car, their test mule, was a 1967 Camaro. Inland built a 'hoop' style front bumper that surrounded the entire grille, with 4-headlights, in preparation for the design of the 1968 GTO.
The use of Endura was revolutionary. Not only for the impact properties, but because it was body-colored. After 1968, manufacturers began using body-colored bumpers, some of them Endura, some were urethane paint over a steel core, some simply urethane paint sprayed over a blank bumper. Within a few years, many performance cars adopted the body-colored bumper, including the Firebird, Corvette, and Mustang, and by the late 1970's nearly every sporty car had body-colored bumpers.
Mike
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