Stupid question- how to tell '72-'74 Challengers apart?

[VTMopar]

Well.... I won't speak for earlier years, but I'm quit confident that '74 Rally challengers had black Tail panels and non-rally cars had the argent (silver) panels......

VT Mopar

[rallye73]

My 73 Rallye has the argent tailpanel. Found the original color after carefully sanding through the black that someone had painted on it. I prefer the black, but the argent is growing on me.

[dwbiggs]

Well.... I won't speak for earlier years, but I'm quit confident that '74 Rally challengers had black Tail panels and non-rally cars had the argent (silver) panels......

This is correct.  And the same for the front grille I'm pretty sure.  My car is a Rallye and had a black tail panel and grill...I changed to silver cause I just like it better.

[burdar]

This thread is a little old but I really like the 72-74 style Challengers and have tried to find out as much about them as possible.  I agree with most of what has been said above but will state a few things again that I believe to be correct.

72 was the only year for the organisol black tail panel on the Rallye.  72 Rallye's also had the med/dark argent around the tail lights.  The back of those cars were never all black.  73-74 cars all had med/dark argent tail panels with organisol black around the tail lights no matter if it is a Rallye or not.

I think the reason it changed is that 72 was the last year for the JS VIN.

Like was said earlier...early 72's had some leftover parts from 71.  I looked at every 72-74 Challenger at this years Mopar Nats and saw that alot.  Most 72's I saw had the early style fender mounted turn signal lights as well as the-1970 California emmisions/all 1971-style vapor tube in the trunk.

72 was the last year for the hard plastic seat backs.  I don't know if it changed mid year or not.

I didn't realize that 74 bumper guards were bigger.  If they are...they can't be much bigger.  I also didn't know the rears were one piece.  I know the 73's are a 2 piece design because my lower sections are cracked.  72 used the same bumper brackets as the 70-71 cars.  73's used the same basic design...but they were a little longer to move the bumper out away from the body.  74 had a completely different style bracket that used a large metal piece behind the bumper. 

The filler pieces between the body and the bumper are painted med/dark argent just like the tail panels on the 73-74 cars.  The front filler pieces aren't painted at all.  THey are just a light gray...the natural color of the rubber filler pieces. 

[Challenger6pak]

I sold some NOS front bumper fillers not too long ago.  I bought them when I worked at Chrysler. They were painted the same silver that is on the rallye wheel face. Over time this silver goes bad and fades away.

[burdar]

Do you have a picture of them?  So you are saying that they are painted the NON textured argent wheel paint?

[Challenger6pak]

Yes I do.  Unfortunately the computer it is in has quit.  I am going to try to recover the harddrive from it.  I had a garage full of NOS parts and took pics of everything to know how things were supposed to be.  The non textured silver was used in many areas on the car.  It was even used on the taillight lenses.

[Bullitt-]

Do you have a picture of them?  So you are saying that they are painted the NON textured argent wheel paint?

On my '73 the FRONT fillers were body color, the rear had the heavy metalic sparkle as the tail panel

[Challenger6pak]

The fillers were put on the car after it was painted at the factory.  I can't see why they would be body color.  I have some originals that I can dig out.  They are not NOS but they are as they came from the factory.

[Bullitt-]

The fillers were put on the car after it was painted at the factory.  I can't see why they would be body color.  I have some originals that I can dig out.  They are not NOS but they are as they came from the factory.

  MMM  There is a picture at my mothers house that shows my car, I believe, in it's original paint...If the strobe stripes are there I will know for sure... The car was in an accident in '76 that resulted in a repaint, since that time paint has been on the fillers, I just checked & there is no silver under the body color on the fillers now...   Along the same line of thinking though the metallic sparkle was obviously put on in two stages as there is sparkle on the rear bumper/frame & on the tail panel under where the filler mounts.

[burdar]

There are NO traces of silver paint on the front fillers on my 73.  If they were painted with a silver paint, there would be signs of it left on the areas that were shielded from the elements.  There were no traces of paint where the bumper overlapped the filler.

As far as the rear is concerned.  It does make sence that they would have been painted before hand because the tail light buckets were painted before they were put on the car.  The rear filler strips most likley came from the manufacturer painted with the argent paint, ready to be installed.

On a side note...there was most likely a color difference between the tail panel and the tail light buckets from the factory.  The argent on the tail panel was sprayed either over body color, or primer.  The tail light buckets were  first completely sprayed with organisol black...then they were masked off and the argent was sprayed ontop of it.  If you look at origonal buckets, you can see black specs showing through the argent.  The accual tail panel itself wouldn't have had the black showing through.   

[Challenger6pak]

I did some studying on it tonight with several old pics, paper work, etc.  From what I can tell the cars were built with an unpainted rubber bumper filler that was a silver or grey color.  I have seen some with silver fillers like I mentioned.  The silver fillers I had were a replacement part.  They were also purchased in the early 80's.  It is possible that the last of the fillers were painted because they faded or because they were made by a different manufacturer for Chrysler.  It reminds me of another question I ran into on the 72-74 cars.  Some Rallye grilles were black plastic.  Others were silver or grey plastic painted black.  Was there a change at a certain time in the model years?  Was a silver/grey grille painted black if they ran out of blacks? 

I don't remember if it was mentioned or not.  A 74 had it's own rear bumper.  The bolt pattern is different and the brackets are different.  The 74 cars were reinforced with steel plates at the roof and roof pillers as part of new 1974 safety standards.

[Bullitt-]

My grille is black paint over silver.