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Keep the bumper strips or not?

Scott Kiger

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This car was a strangely optioned early 68 RR for sure. One of those was these rubber bumper strips on the front bumper. I don’t think they look the best but are unique. Would y’all put it back this way or do away with them? Like I said it’s weirdly optioned. Light package with turn signal indicators, rubber bumper strips, Air conditioning on a four speed car with no power steering or power brakes, no decor package but deluxe interior. All in a coupe version of the car. Most I want to put back exactly like it is but I am struggling with these bumper strips
 
Are you sure it came with that bumper? Maybe someone replaced it with a satellite bumper.
 
If it’s like the 66/67 bumpers, they are specially stamped for those rubber bars with contouring and bolt slots for the bars. It would be pretty difficult to make them look right if omitted. If you have the build sheet you should be able to determine if they were original to the car.
 
Are you sure it came with that bumper? Maybe someone replaced it with a satellite bumper.

No I am not positive on that at all honestly. It looks original though. I don’t much care for them though. I will have to get new bumpers anyway. I love all the quirky options it has but this one. Lol
 
I really like the strips. Not sure on the logistics of restoring those/finding new ones or the hassles of mounting to new bumpers though.
 
I used to have a 70 r/t se charger that I picked up back in the day for $800. It had a fender tag but no build sheet. So I knew it was a real r/t se... and it had a go wing when I got it but I was pretty sure it didn't come with it new in 70. Plus I put cruise control and a woodgrain steering wheel with parts I got at the junkyard. I still remember the vin number. XS29UOG118943 My point is that many parts of the car can be added replaced or changed in 54 years....
 
Anything that's unusual on the car....I like to keep it and the strips don't bother me at all. A buddy of mine had a Satellite with the low end base interior including the rubber floor mats. Whoever ordered that car wanted the body trim and didn't care about the interior. My 66 Belvedere I 2dr sedan came with factory AC and auto trans but that was it. I'm still kicking my butt for selling the AC system.
 
Anything that's unusual on the car....I like to keep it and the strips don't bother me at all. A buddy of mine had a Satellite with the low end base interior including the rubber floor mats. Whoever ordered that car wanted the body trim and didn't care about the interior. My 66 Belvedere I 2dr sedan came with factory AC and auto trans but that was it. I'm still kicking my butt for selling the AC system.

Yes this car was a little different. It’s a 383 with a four speed with factory A/C yet it didn’t come with power steering or power brakes. They opted for the light package so it has turn signal indicators yet they didn’t pay for the decor package. They opted for deluxe interior though. Also the rubber bumper strips are there. Didn’t go fancy with wheels as it came with steelies, dog dishes, and red line tires. Plus it’s a post car. Just an odd package overall.
 
For those who like the bumper strips, at least on the 68 up there may be some repro or NOS ones around. I restored the ones on my 66 that were badly cracked up. Mine were probably in about as bad of condition as you will find.
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Later, Fran did tip me off to a set of NOS front ones I still have squirreled away.

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Your car is such an oddball I’d leave them on there.

I see those strips in NOS on eBay every so often. I think they look great.

Salesman and customers didn’t know all the option groups back then.

It has been 55 years and parts get swapped. Even entire interiors. Didn’t like what was in it, or it was trashed, found a swap car with a great interior but it was the deluxe one, swap it in there anyway.
 
Your car is such an oddball I’d leave them on there.

I see those strips in NOS on eBay every so often. I think they look great.

Salesman and customers didn’t know all the option groups back then.

It has been 55 years and parts get swapped. Even entire interiors. Didn’t like what was in it, or it was trashed, found a swap car with a great interior but it was the deluxe one, swap it in there anyway.
Heck, I swapped an entire interior from a 70 Duster into a 67 Dart in the mid 70's....and was surprised that even the rear side panels fit the Dart. All I had to do was remove the perforated 'cut outs' for the window cranks in the Dart. Everything else was a bolt in. Swapping stuff was happening pretty early....at least in my world. :)
 
The weirdness of it is the main reason I bought it honestly. Like they made a total of 1159 1968 roadrunners with air conditioning. I have no idea how many of those cars were four speeds vs automatics though, or coupes vs hard tops . It doesn’t break it down into that detail that I can find. I would think using deductive reasoning that most of the A/C cars were probably hardtop automatics though. To me that just makes sense. I mean this car had to be hell to drive back in the day with manual steering and a big block four speed anyway. That is one thing I will change. I will keep the original manual steering box but I will have power steering on it. I dont want to be tired from just going to a cruise and back. Lol
 
They drive pretty nice with manual steering and 4 speed. Have you ever driven one?
I guess it depends on what you grew up driving, or if you’ve had shoulder problems.
 
I drove a bib block E body four speed once and as long as you were moving it was fine. Trying to maneuver into parking spaces and such was a different story though. I would be fine driving either way but I want my wife and my daughters to be able to enjoy it after I’m dead and gone and they won’t be able to with the manual steering
 
I love ‘em, I think they are unique and Mopar styled right, but hated the condition they are in (in this pic) but happy I found new ones a couple weeks ago from Detroit Muscle and will install soon
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my first car was a 68 rr bought in in the year 1970 for 1600 dollars, i remember reading back in the day that all the first 68's were post car's mine was.chrysler under estimated how many they were to sale and ran out of the post sedan's and the later run of the 68's were made from satellite hdtp bodies that might explain some of the satellite stuff on the rr's
 
my first car was a 68 rr bought in in the year 1970 for 1600 dollars, i remember reading back in the day that all the first 68's were post car's mine was.chrysler under estimated how many they were to sale and ran out of the post sedan's and the later run of the 68's were made from satellite hdtp bodies that might explain some of the satellite stuff on the rr's

Mine is an early 68 post car also. December ‘67 build actually. I don’t have the correct Inland shifter for it, but if I can find a nice handle I want to put the Hurst that Brewers sells that mates to the Inland handle. That way it looks original but still shifts nice. Just need to find the handle though.
 
mine was a factory hurst shifter. all i can say is if youv'e ever shifted a 383 at about 6 or 7 grand you would throw that inland shifter in the scrape pile where it belongs
 
mine was a factory hurst shifter. all i can say is if youv'e ever shifted a 383 at about 6 or 7 grand you would throw that inland shifter in the scrape pile where it belongs

yeah I don’t want to run the Inland shifter. Just want it to look correct is all. If I can’t find the handle I will just run a Hurst handle. I have a B body no console handle here but it isn’t round like the original would be.
 
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