Putting a 70 Challenger grille in my 73?

[dalevt]

I found a 70 grille for sale locally at a good price.  What will it take to put in my 73, if I keep my 73 fenders?  Will I need different headlights, headlight bezels, and headlight mounts?  Or is that all the same?  I'm sure one of you have done it.  It's not for a show car, I don't care if all the parts are dated correctly or anything, I just want it to look right.

Thanks

[burdar]

The headlight buckets are separate pieces in 70-71.  You will need those and will probablly need to modify the fenders in that area.  The hood latch area will also be different.  I don't know if you will be able to use the 72-74 style hood safety hook or not.  You'll need the anodised headlight surround pieces and a new front hood molding. 

There is a member here that just got done doing this.  He has a thread in the restoration section.  He'd be the one to talk to.

[Challenger6pak]

To give the 73 the exterior appearance of a 70 you need 70-71 headlight buckets, the 70 grille, the 70 headlight bezels, a 70 style hood latch or the inside hood release, 70-71 front fender marker lights, 70-71 rear marker lights, 70 tailight panel and taillights, 70 rear bumper filler, 70-72 front and rear bumper brackets, 70-71 front and rear bumpers, 70 exterior door mirrors. You will have to modify the side marker mounting location to mount the 70-71 style marker lights. I have welded the section in from a 70-71 parts car. If this is for the 73 you are planning to sell, you won't get your money back for the conversion.

[Katfish]

A lot of work, but it can be done.  Check here for parts

http://www.beaparts.com/list_items.aspx?body=E&cat=E&subcat=37

[dalevt]

Thanks for the info.  I've decided to leave the 73 grille in it after reading this.

Thanks guys,
Dale

[72rtchallenger]

i did it to my 72 and its not to bad ,,just takes a little time and work,,of course i dont care about resell value and i really dont think it lowers the value as alot of people like the look of the 70 better and would pay more for that instead of buying a real 70 that will always be a higher in value anyways,,unless its somebody wants numbers matching,,but that doesnt matter if you dont have the numbers matching motor an tranny,,that would have been the only reason not to do it ,,and if you just do the grill only its not to hard to swap back to the original,,the marker lights would be hard to put back,,the rear panel would have to be cut out to put back but if you save the old one it can be done,,of course on my 72 the bumpers didnt have to be changed,nor did the mounting brackets,the hood latch is different but not the safety latch,,you will need the 70 style hood moulding

[lahatte]

I think if you want to put a 1970 grill in a 1973 challenger you will need a set of earlier bumper brackets, and a bumper.  I'm more familiar with the cudas, but if the 73 Challenger bumper has a couple of bolts on the top side, that could be a problem.

Clay

[mopar12372]

grill, headlight bezils,70-72 bumper brackets. fill in side lights /done .

 dont understand whats hard about it?