My road runner has a 608 spd and has a 72 front bumper. Its mostly original paint with low miles. The front valance, grille, and other parts do not appear to have ever been taken apart. Even all the stone and splash shields are in place. Those little slots bug me though. LOL

Thoughts?

My 71 Duster (July 9th scheduled build) has 1972 bumpers, trunk lid, and blue engine.

You going to have your Duster out during Mopar week? Look forward to seeing it.

Guess it's possible on that late of a car. A-bodies changed some time in 71. Have had several 71 Darts and some had the slots and some didn't.

I noticed that front bumper when that car was forsale. Personally I doubt it, why not get the original owner to tell you what happened?
Ron

I should be able to make a few of the events during the week, hope to see you their! This is from last years Mopar Week.

Not sure about A and B Body bumpers but on a 1971 Challenger both front and rear Bumpers were slotted bumpers starting around the beginning of June. A lot of the late built cars no matter what kind have 1972 style sheet metal, bumpers and other minor changes.

I would love to but I don't know him.

possible but I have not seen one on an original late build 71 yet

Original undercoat still covering all hardware. Hard to tell over the years but if it was changed someone did a great job of not disturbing anything around it.

it could be possible. unusual things happened to cars at the plants in the 70's.
I have a 72 roadrunner. had just short of 10K miles when I bought it. I bought it from a flipper I know who bought it from the original owner.
when I was restoring it.
I found out it was painted 5 times, including under the hood and inside of the trunk.
had a NAD PAINT tag. with a 229 spd date, to early for NAD PAINT tag.
it also had bumper impact strips when it wasn't coded for them.

after I finished it I met the original owner at a show. he told me it was never repaired when he owned it. and when I took it apart it looked just like yours. it was rustproofed by Ziebart when new and looked like it was never apart. the guy I bought it from never touched it when he owned it.

"NAD" paint?? Dare I even ask? Some sort of flesh tone?

i would think not
especially if you don't know the full history of the car.

i was looking at a 71 rr the owner (btw is a moparts member) swore to me was never apart
and i told him it was because it was missing a small bracket that
goes from the front bumper to the latch tray support.
he was pretty suprised..
if not for the missing piece,it looked untouched.
you just never know what was really done to these cars over the years.

NAD PAINT is New Acrylic Design paint. basically they use some cars from current model to practice painting the new colors for the next year. the only problem is my car is B5 blue. a color that has been used for years.
in 73 Chrysler used a different type of painting process with different chemistry.
the best guess I have heard is because it was a different mixture of paint they first practiced with a known color to see how it worked in comparison to the older paint..
the other problem is they didn't start practicing with the new paint until the 5 month of the year. my car has a 229 spd.
the best guess I have heard is because it was a different chemistry paint in 73 maybe they started a little earlier.
all I know is the original owner told me the tag was on the car new when he bought it, and it will stay on the car until sell it.

Kinda hard to believe as you would need two separate bumper jacks...

Nope. The hook style works with the slotted style just fine.

What he said it might have had a very minor bumper only mishap when only months old and it was replaced with the slotted style.

The Correct answer is yes...all late build 71 A/B/E bodys use the 72 slotted bumpers.Early bumpers used up to June ,slotted after.It's in the Master Parts Catalog people.

But whats up with Challenger fronts?
2962348 ,chrome used up to Feb 71
3595062, chrome from Feb 71 to June 71
3595032, chrome after June 71 (SLOTTED)

Well their you go. It's in the book

Thing is, the few early July SPD original cars I've seen did not have the slots.
Does this car have the 71 or 72 style jack hook? Does it have the small bracket that attaches the top of the front bumper to the header panel support? These many times are missing if the bumper was switched out.