TheGrand Blanc Metal Center, also known as theFisher Body Tank Plant, was aGeneral Motors automotive body metal fabricating facility inGrand Blanc, Michigan. It was built to produce tanks, which it did in large numbers during World War II and the Cold War.
The Factory opened in 1942 primarily as a facility for the manufacture of tanks. From April 1942 to May 1945 it produced 11,385M4 Sherman tanks and roughly 1,190M26 Pershing tanks from November 1944 to June 1945. With the end ofWorld War II and the draw down in U.S. defense expenditures the plant ceased the manufacture of tanks and by 1947Buick leased the plant as a storage facility. However, with theCold War heating up in the early 1950s the plant again resumed the manufacture of tanks, producing 4,200M48 Patton tanks by the time of its conversion to an automotive body metal fabricating facility in 1955. By the time of its closure in 2013 the plant was operating as a corporate-wide-weld-tooling center.[1]
Much of the tooling and employees were relocated to a plant inParma, Ohio.[2]
It wasalliteratively and popularly called the "Grand Blanc Tank Plant."[3]
Built From the ground up to accommodate the growing need for tank production in the United states during World War II, it became one of the most important but understated production facilities in the United States
42°55′59″N83°38′40″W / 42.93306°N 83.64444°W /42.93306; -83.64444
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