Hey all, as i look and look for a 71-72 Riviera, I'm finding tons of 73's. Now I'm not really a fan of the 73's front or rear, but the interior is the same and I have a lot of the parts from my old 71 still sitting in my garage. What would it take to make the back end of a 73 into a 71 or 71? I would imagine its just the trunk lid and bumper but i've never seen the back end of the 73 disassembled so i really have no idea. Thanks all. BTW, i still have my 71 trunk lid, so no worries there.
Off the top of my head the tail lights are incorporated into the bumper in the 73. The trunk lid doesn't wrap down around quite as much which would not match up with the quarter panels if you put a 72 lid on a 73. Thats probably just the beginning. Of course with some creative metal work anything is possible, but I'm not sure the effort would be worth the end result. When it comes to the 73, I'd much rather have the front of the 71/72. I could live with the rear on the 73. Decent 71/72s are out there, just be patient. Its worth the wait to get a 71/72.
I think the rear of the 1973 Riviera looks much better with the 8 rear lights and the reversing lights in the bumper:
It almost looks like you could just switch tail lights, bumpers and trunklids. But finding those parts isn't easy either. Also, it looks like their is another inch of space between the side marker light and the bumper on the 73. I think the 73 rear end is handsome in its own way. I would even go so far as to say it looks sportier. Its the front end I can't stand. Maybe if someone removed the bumper filler, moved the bumper closer and split it in the middle it would look good.
First the entire bumper was moved to the chassis, leaving out the 5 mph shock absorbers. In 1997: ^ Click for a bigger photo :Comp: Later I decided to go for a split bumper. In 2003: I still have the original bumper and all the parts to bring it back to stock :TU: !
I found an old scan I posted on this board when someone asked about my front bumper(s) To bolt the 1973 Riviera bumper closer to the chassis: Leave out the energy absorber (orange in the scan), grind off the white area from the blue bracket, and bolt the blue bracket directly to the green bracket :TU:
Erik, I am getting ready to split my bumper. You wouldn't happen to have a copy of where to cut the bracket? Thanks,
Frank, cut them off so you can still use these two bolt holes: The white area of the bracket needs to be removed so you can bolt the brackets together.
As a biased '71 Riv owner, sorry, but you cannot make a '73 front ever look good, period. I cannot find it now, but I once had photos of a '73 that someone transplanted a '71 front end on to. Looked damn fine. I do appreciate the tail of a '73, it is cleaner, maybe sportier. Just remove the awful rubber bump strip and weld up the holes in the bumper. It'd be a lot of work to transplant a '73 rear onto a '71, including a new fuel tank (center fill) that OPGI sells actually. My two cents worth.
