I am restoring a 1971 442 equipped with front bumper guards. the car has a build date of Feb 11 1971. Sonetime in the Febuary march time frame, olds moved the bumper guards from a ourboard loacation to closer togetheras the initial location did nothing to protect the front stone shield.
I have info in cars built the first week of FEb that have the gurads in the outboard position but by early March they were located inboard.If you have a 442 ,Cutlass or Wagon built in late Febuary with bumper guards on an origianl bumper please let me know your built date and guard location. This will also benefit future restorers.

 

Actually this is an old topic. Have a look.
bumper guard location 71/72 ?

 

Have read through those but has not answered my question of the changeover date.

 

OK, here's the trim tag on my 1971 Cutlass wagon. It has the bumper guards far apart. It also has the 1970 style fenders on it that are without the crinkle bumps. Allan... we were going to do something with that once.

Looks like it may not answer your question, but does add confirmation that they were in the outboard location first week of January.


P2220292.jpg

 

I looked at a lansing built 1971 442 ,3rd week of February build (02C) and it had outboard guards. A head on view of the car puts the guards almost perfectly center with each grille pod. When the relocated them it was noticeably more inward toward the beak of the bumper as you know. It also has flat fenders and the car is a survivor paint specimen. My father has a 71 442 also from lansing with a feb build and it too has flat fenders. I know they were original to the car when I stripped them. No guards on that car though. My other 71 442 has the inboard guard location but it is a real late build of july 23.

 

From looking at several Lansing built cars I see that the outboard guards were on cars built to third week of March 1971.
I have not seen any cars after that date yet with factory installed guards.
A service bull item dated May 7/71 advises that dealer installed guards be placed inboard.
I would suspect factory jobs got the corrected location jut prior to that.
Paul