Converting a 73 Challenger into a 70

[challenger_73]

Could anyone tell me what converting a 1973 Challenger to a 1970 entails? How many changes to convert the outside appearance? I know that the tail panel needs to be changed, The side markers and the grill. Any other changes? My car is pretty much stripped at this point. Would I need to change the front Valence?  If I am going to do it now's the time.  Any help would be appreciated.
challenger_73

[Scatterbrain]

Its expensive.  You need front fenders and bumper hardware and stuff.  Do a search on here, there are plenty of good posts on the subject.  Seems like this question gets asked almost once a month.

[ChallengerHK]

The biggest thing that most people (I think) don't think about is that the headlight mounting is completely different. When you go to the 70 grille you have to pull the 73 header panel, which is where the headlights mount, so you have to use 70-style fenders and headlight buckets.

[72bluNblu]

  Do a search on here, there are plenty of good posts on the subject.  Seems like this question gets asked almost once a month.

  As someone that is collecting parts for a '72 to '71 swap, I can say there are at least a dozen useful threads on here that have laid out everything in pretty good detail.

To make my point, this was my last response to a similar question... (full thread here http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=65386.msg672560#msg672560 )

This topic has been covered several times already, but as someone that has collected about 95% of the parts for the swap (mine will be a 72 to a 71) I'll give you a quick run down.

Headlight buckets- these have to be added to the later fenders, you'll have to find a set somewhere and spot weld them in. BE&A sells plates, but they're not cheap. $317 for the pair, and they won't look stock. But originals are hard to find (trust me, I know)! http://beaparts.com/list_items.aspx?body=E&cat=E&subcat=37 Its probably easier (although more expensive) to just get a set of 70-71 fenders.

Grille- Not cheap, even in driver condition.

Headlight bezels- hard to find in good condition, used ones usually have dents around the edges.

Hood latch support- Not sure if the later one can be made to work. They look pretty similar, but I haven't tried it. I bought one from an earlier car at a swap meet.

Hood latch- at the very least, the release arm will have to be changed, as it won't be in the right place on the earlier grille, the arms are bent differently for each type of grille. Worst case you may need an earlier latch and may have to move the catch on the hood.

Bumper brackets- for a '73 car you'll need the earlier ones, otherwise the bumper will stick out too far. I dodged this problem with my early '72 car.

Hood trim- The headlight bezels for the earlier cars matches the earlier hood trim, which your car doesn't have. You'll either have to paint the headlight bezels to match your body-color hood trim, or match your hood trim to the headlight bezels.

And if you're looking for the whole "clone" package, you'll also need to change the side marker lights, the tail light panel and tail lights, both bumpers, and quite a few of the interior pieces.

Here's a link to some other threads...

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=43678.0

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=49721.0[/url