What is the difference?

[drewcrane]

What is the difference between the fenders on  70 Barracuda, and a 71 barracuda? ,if any just want to know

[Cuda Cody]

About one year. 

Okay, now someone can really answer the question.

[Cuda Cody]

Not sure if it's the same as the Challengers, but they had a notch area on the top under the hood that was different.

[72hemi]

They are not interchangeable. The 70 cuda has single headlights while the 71 has dual headlights, making the headlight buckets in the fenders different, plus the header panels are different.

[usraptr]

The big difference is that the '71 front fenders have the gills.  The 70 do not.

[drewcrane]

Why canti change the headlights and grille, what i am really wondering is what part of the front of the fender is different i really cant tell.

[72hemi]

The inner headlight structure is completely different, because of the different headlight configurations. You could interchange the headlight buckets but it would require cutting, grinding and welding. PG Classic does sell the 71 style headlight bucket structure as well as the headlight mounting buckets. The structure is $189 and the mounting buckets are $250. (I'm assuming you are wanting to use 70 fenders on a 71) Also like stated above on the cuda model, 71 had fender gills (one year only feature). PG Classic also has patch panels you can weld in to convert.

Now if you have 71 fenders and are trying to use them on a 70 I would reccommend selling them and buying 70 fenders. The reason being the 71 fenders are worth a lot more money (way fewer cars produced in 71). Then you could buy a pair of 70 fenders that are nicer than your 71's and still have money left over (most likely).

[drewcrane]

Thank you 71 hemi that is the info i need , on my gran cuope someone put a 71 grille on a 70 as far as i can tell they just shoved everything in ther it was kinda crammed in there i still cant figure out what they did , they probably wrecked this car and a 71 grille was all the could find,now i have 2 71 grilles.

now a plain jane 71 barracuda those didnt have gilles did they?i am thinking im buying 71 fenders with the gilles, there is a set from sherman for 600 bones per fender does anyone know of a different source let me know,

this car is kinda butcherd so i am not worried about origonality, my wife likes the 71 front end better anyway, i know it will look funky to the purists with a 70 back end but in the end its my wifes car and that is what she wants (me too!)

[72hemi]

Yes the cuda model in 71 was the only one with the gills. The barracuda and gran coupe did not. Now the 71 also had a unique front valance. I'm not certain if AMD or Goodmark makes a reproduction yet. I know PG Classic did for a while and it was $600. The 71 valance is easy to identify because it is the only year with the blinkers in the valance. 70 and 72-74 all had the blinkers in the grille. The bumpers and bumper brackets are the same between 70 and 71. Since you have a 71 grille in there now you probably have the 71 header panel, unless someone butchered the 70 header panel. I can get you pictures of all of this later today when I get home. Hope this information helps.

[drewcrane]

yes, yes ,yes this helps a ton, i do have the valance,and the header panel too! yes send pics and when im done today i will post the pic of the fenders that are on the car now , it looks like they have the assembly provisions for 4 headlights , perhaps they swapped those out too!

is the area around the bumper different form 70 to 71 or is it the internal assembly that is different?

[72hemi]

From the outside the fenders are the same except for the gills (on the 71 cuda model).

[drewcrane]

A Haa good to know , well i will look forward to your pix , and i will post mine asap thanks again very much for your knowledge 72 hemi

[72hemi]

You're welcome. You're lucky, I did a 71 cuda restoration 2 years ago (and had some issues with fenders that had been hit) and a 70 cuda last year. I learned a lot about cuda sheet metal during that time.

[72hemi]

Here's a couple pics. I'll try and find some better ones.

[72hemi]

Here are some better pictures.
70 cuda with header panel installed

70 cuda without header panel

71 cuda header panel

70 cuda front valance

71 cuda front valance