I took photo from my Ford Parts Interchange book and here are a couple of pictures. I have both 73 and 74 Ford Shop Manuals and will try and post a couple of pictures showing exploded views of Mav/Comet front bumper assemblies, the manuals actually show the Maverick body style. Comet page can not see the lower valance on the 73, Maverick page you can see the lower valance Check out the common part number D3DZ-17757-B/C So it is possible to have variations on bumpers, from the factory depending on where it was assemblied, parts availability etc.! Probably the same goes for 73 Comet front lower valance? On the Maverick page, #35 is the same as what is on the Comet page for 74-77 listing. Another thing, here in Canada there where certain Safety features that had to be met which US only cars may not have had and then there was a Transport Canada sticker placed just below the Data Label on the driver's door post indicating that it could be sold in Canada. Same as in California, certain emission standards had to be met, where other states did not have to have, do not know how relevant this was back in 73/74 though?
Im not convinced the Comet bumper is more pointed. The 73 Comet and 74 Maverick bumper in that illustration look pretty close to me. ..
Hard to tell looking at the illustrations, but it was more so comparing both the 73 Comet and 73 Maverick bumpers, see the difference?
That parts interchange book was printed with the most current replacement part number at the time of printing.... 1984. It is very easy to go online to Google images and come up with shots that look like they are from a factory brochure, showing 73 Comets with the mid-size Mav bumper. My guess is that picture of the 1973 Comet in the illustration very well could be a picture of a later year car. It looks all the world like a park bench bumper. I would bet the illustrator got confused in the details, and the person who proofed the printing wasn't well-versed enough in these cars to notice the error. Printers make mistakes (I'm married to one ....it's a running joke here ) The "D6 ..." part number listed for the 74-77s would be for the most current part stocked and would have started with the 1976 model year. A 1974 car would have had a "D4 ..." bumper. A "D6 would be similar, but with some revision, and OK'd by Ford to used on both models. I would bet that the pictures used actually show the difference in the slots, early vs late, and there is mis-identification here.
In the first picture from the Auto Interchange Systems....that picture is just plain an "error". That is NOT a 1973 front bumper. It is a 1974-1977 front bumper.
There is no difference between the two bumpers are the same, also there are no differences between a Canadian or American, Maverick or Comet, other than the speedo in later years. I've had them both.
I agree.. And I can't say I actually see a 73 ilustrated. I think he is aware of that. His last post was saying he means there is a difference in the 73 to 73 which are really different looking. We don't care if you have speedos in your later years!!
Ok, here are pictures of my 73 Comet, while the height of the bumper is smaller than what 74-77 are, it is still larger than the 70-72 bumpers. I just called mine "bench seat" for the fact that you can actually sit on it rather than on the earlier models, so if my bumper description upset a few of you, I apologize........ Bumper (17757), Reinforcement Assembly (17A792), Isolator (17C882) and then attached to the frame rail. See the lower valance, what Ford Shop Manual calls extension and where it is attached to the front/bottom of the isolator...... Earlier 70-72 Mav/Comets used 2 brackets/braces (one long, one short) per side attached to the frame rails then to the skinny bumper. Regarding the Parts Interchange Manual, that is what it is, an interchange book where one can swap other parts from various Fords. So may not necessarily be OEM factory installations, just shows what parts can be swapped around. It was published back in 1984 (no Google, had to do things old fashion way, research paperwork, parts manuals, micro fish? etc....) and I used it many a times back then when you could still get replacement OEM parts directly from Ford (for Mav/Comet). Book was great as all the Ford part numbers where there, I had an account and still do with Ford. Just too bad that in the early 90's Ford decided to get rid of any parts beyond a few years of their release to places like Dan Carpenter etc., to reduce their inventory cost...........
The only between a 73 Maverick and a 73 Comet, is what bolt holes. They used in the bumpershocks, Comets stuck out farther, and used a different rubber thing under the grill. I don't really get where any of this is going..its not like its anything new to most of us, other than the valance with the tabs...in my 25+ years of many Mavericks and Comets, I've never seen one like that.
Does it have to go somewhere? It's a discussion. I for 1 didn't know about such a bracket and have a 73 Comet so I am intrested in the developments.. I have an NOS valance I need to go look at now to see if it has them. I have always thought the valances were the same except for some notches in earlier years. I better not bring up notches..
Looks to me like when they moved the bumpers out on a Comet in 1973, that the bumper mount was going to interfere with the front valence. Looks like Ford notched the valance and added the bracket for the Comet.
It does look like a better way to secure it to the car. Without them, that is a pretty long run from the center bolt to the edges, being a thin strip of sheetmetal stuck out in the wind. Dyent, clean-looking Comet from what I can see in the pics.
