A friend has a pretty clean 73 2-door hard top New Yorker, however no one is real crazy about the grill compared to any of the previous years of the fuselage cars.

Just wondering how hard it would be to swap front ends. It looks like he would need fenders, hood, grill and bumper for any 69-72. However, a 73 Imperial grill/bumper would look good as well.

I haven't really looked close at the rear, but any thoughts there?

I don't know if it's possible, but a Hurst 300 clone is what I would do with it.

I have a '73 New Yorker too. I wasn't big on the grill at first myself, I always thought they looked similar to Impala's but it grew on me. I now think they have a classy sort of look to them.

Anyways, the body lines changed in '72. If you look at a pic of a '71 you'll notice a body line about 3-4" down from the beltline, that isn't there on '72-'73. However it stops before the quarter, so you MAY be able to put '69-'71 front sheet metal on a '73, but you'd have to swap the doors as well. Or, if you're just after an easy loop bumper stick to 1972 only.

edit: what I said applies to 4 doors. The body crease extends into the quarter on a coupe, so it looks like you'd have to use '72 sheetmetal.

The Imperial stuff won't fit without an Imperial subframe.
Imps were stretched 5" in the front. The fenders run up to the bumper without a separate filler panel so that's a no-go.

Thanks guys. I wasn't aware the Imperials were that different.

So, it looks like his only option would be 72 and he'd need all the sheet metal along with grill and bumper.

To me the 73 has that big 70's luxury look, whereas the 69-72's have more of a big muscle car look, which appeals to my friends and I more.

Regardless of what he does with it, it's still a cool car you don't see very often.

The longer (and much beefier) front subframe is the reason the Imperials were known to be killer derby cars.



The rest of the car tends to fold up before that frame.

The Chrysler C bodies were not quite as hefty.




Strangely enough, the Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth subframes won't interchange. There are significant differences.

Thanks for the pix. I've never seen one with the sheet metal off.