Front Bumpers

[not2old]

I've seen 71-73 mustangs with chrome and rubber front bumpers. My 72 has a rubber one with painted hood and fender extentions. I'm not sure how it was built, but I did find old chrome frt fender extentions in the trunk. Also a pair of 1/4windows, hood hinges and old roof lip moldings. In addition the old owner shipped me A full lf rear 1/4 an old complete drivers door, lf front fender and a rt rear lower 1/4. All strange because it looks to have all new metal at each corner because they did a poor job welding in the panels.. Burn through old in trunk wells and inner frt well well.

 

[72HCODE]

Basically the 71-72 Mach 1 the rare sportcoupes and the sprint cars got the rubber front bumper.

There was no such thing as a Mach 1 convertible.

Everything else came with a chrome bumper, even the boss 351 had a chrome bumper in the front.

A sport roof had a chrome bumper also and a standard grill.

However lots of dealer installed front rubber bumpers happened back in the day.

All 73 cars had the same rubber front bumper to comply with new government safety standards.

 

[69 Rustang]

Just a footnote on the '73 urethane bumper--it is different than that of the 71-72. The '73 bumper is physically bigger and weighs about 80 pounds. The '73 bumper does not interchange with the earlier cars and vice-versa. Same deal on front fenders and fender extensions - they do not interchange. Also, the rear bumper on the '73 is set out a few inches and there is a spacer and rubber end moldings for the rear bumper.

 

[73vertproject]

Good info to know, Dave. Thanks for sharing - I'll know to cross '71 and '72 front end parts off my list of interchangeables.

Doc

 

[RocketFoot]

I'm kinda glad that my mach 1 has a chrome front bumper. I'm not a huge fan of the rubber bumpers. I'm just not sure if it came with a chrome bumper or if the rubber bumper was swapped out at some time for the chrome one? At any rate, I like the chrome one!

 

[cobra3073]

I agree with Dave as it relates to the "differences" in the rubber bumpers, BUT you can interchange the bumpers - - if you chose that route. You just have to change "more" parts.

Remember the "Weekly Fun Question" relative to the difference in fenders? Changing the fenders in '73 was necessary to clear the much larger bumper on the '73s. So, it definitely CAN be done, relatively easily if you have the parts.

As an aside, did you know that some of the body parts on the 71 - 73 Cougars are interchangeable on our Mustangs (Coupes)? The roof and windshield come to mind.

That is the approach that brought about "hot rodding" in the first place, changing "stuff" to please oneself through better performance, desired appearance or other such reasons.

BT

 

[verdelizard]

When I bought my 71 it had a rubber bumper but it was severely damaged. The rubber of the bumper probably could have been fixed but the inner metal core was bent too far out of place.

Personally I really liked the rubber bumper and did not want a chrome bumper. Problem was I couldn't find another one because nobody makes reproduction rubber bumpers.

I was told I would never be able to find one and if I did it would cost upwards of $500.

Through some sort of miracle I found a rubber bumper on ebay within the first week of my search, snagged it for an amazing price, repaired the rubber coating, had it painted, and I was good to go.