The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Is there a good thread in this massive tome on the rubber bumpers used on the 71's? How many and such? I tried the search engine and I didnt' really know what to do with the results, there were a few.

And most seemed to be about rubber things, not bumpers. Just to let you know I tried to do it by my own big self before I asked....

Thanks again.

are you talking about the Elastomeric bumpers in body colour? i think they were steel ones coated in that plasticky rubbery stuff. Looked good.

The search facility can be frustrating sometimes, but it definitely works well, you just have to spend a bit of time sifting and wading through the results

I have not tried it, but search for A21 & / or A22 .

Sorry. Didn't realise what you meant until now.

Elastomeric bumpers start off as a un-chromed steel bumper and then they were coated in urethane.

Plymouth designers had wanted a full urethane front end on the 1970 Barracuda like GM had developed for the Firebird. But the money to develop such a thing was not available so the coated steel bumper was a cheap way of getting a little of the look.

Elastomeric front and rear bumpers became available on the Challenger in '71 but only in four colours. These were B5 blue, Y3 yellow, V2 hemi orange and, depending which reference you read, either C7 plum crazy or J6 green.

I understand that from April '71 all painted bumpers were cancelled except for Y3 yellow.

This type of bumper was dropped completely for 1972-on.

This is from early in the 1970 model year, possibly slightly before;

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/ima ... %20217.jpg

Note the Challenger reference. They were evidently planned for 1970 Challengers, but for whatever reason they did not debut until the next model year.

The E-body platform was not taken up by Dodge until very late in the day and after most of the 1970 Barracuda design work had been done.

I think Dodge ran out of time trying to get the Challenger out for the 1970 model year. When it did come out they had still not ironed out many of the production quality details. I think a lot of small details were held back to the 1971 model year.

dave-r wrote:...When it did come out they had still not ironed out many of the production quality details. I think a lot of small details were held back to the 1971 model year.

What sort of small details Dave? When you say "Production Quality", do you mean they did things a better way, ie design, in the next year, or they just improved the quality control of the same item design? The build numbers were much lower for 71, therefore conceivably they would have had more time to build each car to a higher standard? Also the fact that due to poorer sales, they would not have wanted to lose sales due to obvious quality problems. But i can't really see where things actually improved in quality in the 71 model, except for more options and colours etc.

The 1970 dash is held together with just short of one million sheet metal screws. The grille looks like it was made in a college class.
The doors rattled even when brand new. One of the Chrysler bosses slammed a Challenger door and when he heard the sound it made (more like a clatter than a clunk) he realised straight away that the quality was rubbish and that people would see that.

Hell yeah sales dropped. They were supposed to sell 200,000 a year.

Figures were (very aprox) 77,000 in 1970 and then only 27,000 in 1971.

But you are right. Things only got slightly better quality wise. That was because the decision to stop production sometime after 1972 had already been taken before the 1970 model was even released.

again, good replys all and thanks.

Back to quality, let's not even mention the cheesy console. But not sure the other guys were much better. Makes restoring them more fun.

I started this thread since I'm done with my 6 pack, I'm looking for my next 'money pit' to restore. I saw a 71 ev2 challenger, loaded with options, a year or so ago. Needed to be completely redone. Shoulda grabbed that car, it had the rubber bumpers, louvers, air, windows, loaded. Must have weighed a ton.

383 though. So I went with my 6 pack.

The front bumper was a very rare option on the Challenger.

dave-r wrote:That was because the decision to stop production sometime after 1972 had already been taken before the 1970 model was even released.

Thats amazing! They must have realised something before they even finished the project.

Thanks for the interesting bits on quality. Didn't realise they had that much trouble. I know the crash pad (Trim Pad in the manual) is held in with 13 screws alone.

However i personally love the 70 grille design. I think its the best looking of the 3 designs. All metal for a start and from a distance (which is where all E bodies look the meanest and best balanced) gives it a hungry lean look. The stepped area around the inner parts of the headlights are great.

And i actually like the console. Compared to most other cars' flat consoles, it is unique. Pity it has so much plastic in it, but it gives the driver more of a cockpit feel. When i first saw the Ebody centre console i was overjoyed.

There is nothing about the look of the 1970 Challenger I don't like. Sure it was not up to much under the skin but for those looks and the wonderful 440 engine I can forgive it anything.

dave-r wrote:There is nothing about the look of the 1970 Challenger I don't like. Sure it was not up to much under the skin but for those looks and the wonderful 440 engine I can forgive it anything.

Amen to that. They just don't make normal production cars these days that look or sound that good. These cars turn heads like no ricer can.