73-911 bumper

[solid lifters]

Need help, none of my reference books specified.........were the original stock front bumpers steel or aluminum on the 1973 911s please.

Thanks so much
mb

[962porsche]

1973 was the change over year so you have to have the production date to know . the early 1973 cars were steel the late cars were aluminum .
you can tell just by looking at them the later ones are much bigger bumpers to meet the FED crash laws .

[solid lifters]

Thanks 962 for that information, I really appreciate the help.
mb

[joefrantz]

Are we talking production year or model year?

All model year 73 bumpers were steel.

Fronts were either 'S' type with the small spoiler lip across the bottom, or the standard version without the lip.

Vertical overriders or bumperettes were included on most, but some cars came without them on the front. I'm not sure which way was standard. The bumperettes may have been an option, or the clean version may have been a bumperette delete option.

All '73 rear bumpers were the same style. They were steel and consisted of three sections, two 'corners', and a recessed license panel in the middle. Vertical bumperettes or overiders separated the corners from the center panel.

I think the center panels may have been available in aluminum at one time, but I'm not sure if that availability extended to '73.

In addition, any cars sold in the US after 12-31-72, were required to comply with the new federal crash protection regulations. For '73 Porsches this meant the front and rear verical overriders were larger, and primaily made of rubber (where they had been steel prviously). The bumpers themselves were still steel.

Model year '74 was the beginning of the aluminum impact bumpers and short hood body style that continued through '89.

Porsche traditionally started production for the next model year in August, so the first production dates for model year '74 cars would have been in August of '73.

So, the model year is the determining factor.

If your car is a model year 1973, it would have been delivered with steel bumpers in the longhood body style. If it's a model year 1974 - 1989 , it would have been delivered with the aluminum impact bumpers and short hood body style.

To further confuse things, there have been two fashion trends in retro fitting bumpers and hood styles.

In the 70's and 80's a lot of early long hood cars were modified to the short hood , impact bumper style in an effort to make the cars look more current.

More recently (past 10-15 years) the long hood style has become more desirable for some people, resulting in short hood, impact bumper cars being converted to the earlier long hood style.

So, now it's possible to see virtually any bumper style on any car, but the above described model year breakdown is how they were delivered.

[frankc]

One other slight difference on the '73 rear bumpers is that the mounting bracket was re-enforced for additional impact protection. See the thread below for details.

What is different about '73 rear bumpers?