[Marcus]

I have a 72 car,the car came in pieces,I thought all challenger rear bumpers were the same,my brackets that hold the bumper on don't seam to fit it sticks out to far,maybe the rear bumper I have is for a 73 or something ,is there anything I should know about the change in challenger rear bumpers over the years?I think its more mounting brackets than the bumper itself.

[Joel]

The only changes that I am aware of is the rubber bumper guards. '72 has smaller ones than '73 and '74. Apart from that, I am not sure of any other changes to the bumpers.

[dave-r]

There were changes from year to year. Mostly in the front bumper and brackets because of changing regulations. I do know that the 73-74 rear bumpers are different to the 70-71 bumpers but I am not sure about the 1972 versions.

The 73-74 items have slots for a bumper jack in them.

[Joel]

I think of the '72 Challengers as more of a transition car between '70-'71 and '73-'74. I think that '72 is the first Challenger with a charcoal canister and other pollution control equipment, I could be wrong though. Perhaps I should read the Challenger section in Anthony Young's book 'Mighty Mopars'. What I remember of what he had to say about the cosmetic changes through the years for the Challengers was, the dropping of the big blocks and the 198 slant six, thank God, along with the really ugly rubber bumper guards as well as the slots for the jacks. My front bumper brackets are really beefy, but I am not sure if they are the same as the '70-'71 Challengers, again, the '72 Challenger, in my eyes, is a transitional platform, and shares parts with the '70-'71s that the '73-'74's don't have and the parts that the '73-'74's that the '70-'71's don't have. At times it is kinda frustrating.

[Marcus]

Just got done talking to a year one tech,he said each year challenger has variations in mounting brackets,So I can't put my "some year" bumper on my 72 and 72 brackets,seems they have to match up year for year,My best bet would search for a 72 bumper,I just thought they where all the same,they sure look all the same.

[Joel]

I would say the same thing just looking at the cars myself.

[Tom C]

I have both a 72 and a 74 Challenger. (I'm restoring the 72, parting out the 74) The 74 bumpers stick out much further, both front and back because of larger mounting brackets and they also had a massive steel inner bumper. (It's my understanding that this was because of 5mph safety regulations imposed in 73 and 74.) The gap, front and back was covered by plastic moulding. On the 72, the bumpers were bolted directly to the brackets. In 74 the bumpers were bolted to the inner bumper which in turn bolted to the brackets. The bumpers are physically identical with the exception of the jack slots and a few extra holes on the 74 were they bolted to the inner bumper.
I conclude you must has 73-74 brackets. I just ran into my garage to verify. The fronts are a good 2 inches longer and approx 1.5 inches on the back.

[dave-r]

Good information there Tom. Thanks!

[Tom C]

Correction I measured again. The front brackets on the 74 are 4.5-5 inches longer.