challenger tail panel

[sparkybr74mr]

O.K. so here's the deal, I have a 70 challenger that I have at the body shop getting painted. The car has 71 taillights on it so I assumed that at some time the car was wrecked and the tail panel was replaced with a 71 panel as well as the taillights. As I researched looking into replacing the tail panel with the correct 70 tail panel which you can find anywhere you look, I noticed they do not sell any specific 71 tail panels anywhere I looked (specifically e-bay and goodmark).  My question is this, did they make a 71 tail panel that was differnet than the 70? Will the 70 taillights assembly work on the 71 tail panel if there is a difference in the tail panels? any help is welcomed. Sparky

[MEK-Dangerfield]

70 and 71 tail panels are different. The tail lights from one, won't fit the other. My guess is the car got hit early on, and the dealer must have put the 71 tail panel on there.   

[bb71challenger]

You can definitely put 70 taillights in a 71 tailpanel but you have to butcher it up pretty good. Dont ask me how I know....... I will try to find the pics of the old tailpanel and if all else fails it will show you what had to be done to my 71 panel to fit 70 lights.

[bb71challenger]

Here is how it looked when we put the panel that was donated by my now decimated 71 parts car. At the time of the photo it was not welded in yet. If you can it would be much better to put the right tailpanel in there.