So, it's possibly that Blue 71 Hemi Challenger's original factory installed air cleaner was probably the N94 TA Hemi assembly that John D bought! Maybe Downer suspected the same thing and wanted it back with the car.
According to Walt himself that car never was an N96 or N94 car also backed up by the b/s sheet. Plus he proceeded to shaker, louver, wing, wide hood mldg, wheelip option it as soon as he got it. Knowing Walt, and you knew him like I did Ken, he wouldn't want the air cleaner to re-unite with the car after just loading it up...it would likely be for a trade deal he had in the works for something he wanted. Considering some 19 year old line worker, after cashing his $92.00 check Thursday nite and hiting the suds with the proceeds...coming in fuzzy headed Friday morning, he may have grabbed a wrong air cleaner. Hope that didn't result in a N94 car leaving the line with a steel hood air cleaner. Or a trade, accidental or intentional on a new car lot... We know a lot of that went on. Just ask Steve J about the decklid swap on his orange 71 Hemi Challenger sunroof car, by the dealership owner himself when it sat brand new on his lot. One 71 orange Challenger decklid with a wing was swapped on to another 71 orange Challenger without a wing and both cars sold brand new that way. Now that you mention it Bruce, I do recall hearing Bob's black Hemi Challenger having that wide lipped hemi lid. Another oddity and ever so cool.
This kind of thing went on back then. I know a guy who bought a 70 Charger R/T SE brand new,and the car had 14 inch magnum 500 wheels,he said he wanted the 15 inch rallye wheels,so they took the 15 inch rallye wheels off a sixpack Challenger R/T and swapped them with the magnum 500s to make the sale happen. The Challenger was sold with the magnums on it.
