Is it original!!????!?!?!

i have a 1974 maverick that was produced at one of the ford plants in canada. when i bought it, it had not only had the original fenders which were NOT notched (i specify so i dont get confused), it also had the slim front AND rear bumper. not to mention the metal trim piece tht goes in between the bumper and grill (which is also original due to matching paint). i have been asking oaround here unofficially but now i need more imputs and opinions. are my bumpers original?? i had a man tell me tht in 1974 they started using the stone guard bumpers in america but kept using the slim bumper in canada for the year 1974 only. this makes sense because the u.s. put up new safety laws about tht stuff but canada didnt, thus its safe to say that there is some possibility to this but i have no idea. i couldnt dig up a single picture or article anywhere on the subject and so i come to all of you. can you help me out?

 

Like I said (and a few others) before, there is no difference in a Canadian or American built Maverick, 80% of the Mavericks produced in Canada were built for export to the United States.
If your car is a 74, (the vin starts with a 4) from the factory it had the big bumpers.
I have a Canadian built 74, and it has the big bumpers....
Look at my signature, the white car is inside the St.Thomas Assembly Plant where Mavericks were assembled in Canada, 15 minutes from my house.

 

Here is what I would say. I looked at your pictures. Your car is soooo far from original, no way can anything be ascertained by just "looking" at it.

Your car has an LDO interior. That means that the YELLOW paint is NOT original to the car. Even without seeing the interior, I could tell, just from the shade of yellow used, the car had been repainted.

Bottom line: All 1974's had BIG bumpers. If yours is a 1974, the bumpers have been changed.

 

I have small bumpers on my car yet the fenders are not notched.

There's another way to mount them without notching the fenders, it's not the concourse way to mount them. But I think they look better aesthetically and that's why I didn't notch the fenders but instead notched the stone guard.

 

Looking at your picture all they did was hack the end pieces off instead of notching it like I did.

 

From that picture.....looks like the car was originally a brown color, like this.

 

maybe i shouldve been more clear on the colour. i know exactly what the ORIGINAL paint colour is, its cinnamon and its the inside of the fenders tht show it. nothing has been "hacked" off of the fenders, its just the way the pic looks. i honestly dont care if its factory or not, i like the look of it very much, i just want to be sure. ill post pics in a bit

 

Yes nothing was hacked off. As Maverick75 stated you can put the small bumpers on a car without notching the fenders. Your fenders are probably original but somebody added the bumper and gravel guard and notched the gravel guard.

 

What was meant by "hacked" was that an early small bumper stone guard has to fit through the notch in an early front fender so it fills in the upper area of the small bumper as it wraps around the fender. What has happened with your car was no one notched the 74 fenders so when they added the small front bumper, they simply cut off the ends of the stone guard to fit inside of your fenders. I've added a couple of pictures of my original 1970 parts so you can see what it all should look like

 

which part is the stone guard?

 

That is the thin yellow piece in your photo mounted at the top inside edge of your front bumper. It is the piece that I was saying sticks through those fender notches and fills in the gap behind the bumper. That is also the piece that would have to have had both ends cut off to fit inside your later model fenders due to you not having the early notched fenders. You can see the un-altered piece in my photos.

 

This piece

 

aaahhhhh yes, the answer to all my questions! i looked at it and it is indeed cut to fit in the fenders. thank u all for helping me out on figuring this out, im quite content with it not being original. i didnt like the large bumpers anyways haha! ive gaind a good bit of knowledge from all of this so thnks again for ur alls help. ill still post pictures for u to look at

 

There are a lot of ex-big bumper cars out there now converted to small bumpers. Later fenders can be left alone like yours or there is a nice tricky way to notch them so you can use an un-altered stone guard. Either way it is done, it can look good. I'm glad you understand the differences now between early and late model front end parts. You can do a search on any subject on this forum and find a lot more information.

 

Hell, I think my stone guard might be one of the few parts that ARE original on my Maverick - build it the way you want to