So the worst part of my 442 is the lower front fenders have some rust on the bottom,
are alot of 70 owners switching too 71,72 style fenders with crush points?
i assume this would be a good thing anyway for safety.
one of the members has two NOS front fenders locally

 

Other than catching crap from people who will point out you have the wrong fenders, there's no issue. The factory superseded the 1970 fenders with the crumple zone style in the parts book as soon as they came out.

 

You might consider having your fenders repaired by a skilled fabricator before just changing them out. (Especially if the current fenders fit nicely). You’re already obligated to paint the NOS fenders, surely the repair costs would not exceed the expense of the fenders. I actually took crumpled fenders off of my car for flat edges. The spare fenders in my attic are 70’s in need of minor patches that I sought out.

 

They make nice patch panels for the lower fenders, they fit nice and will do you well. I used them on my 70..very pleased with them.

 

I bought NOS fenders for my car back in the 90s because of rust in the lower portion behind the wheels, and the passengers side didn't fit properly due to the upper rear bracket being welded incorrectly. There was a LONG discussion about this a few weeks ago.

 

I bought mine thru the dealership I worked at in 1991 and they fit fine. Unfortunately, defective parts get shipped to retailers all the time. I would bet they had a full shift of production that the fenders were wrong, and they were sent to the warehouse anyway. Or they were not aware of the assembly error until after the fact.

 

I figured the incorrect brackets were the reason they were not used on the assembly line and were sent off to where ever body panels get sent as replacement parts. Probably why they were available as NOS parts 20 years later.

 

Very possible. My experience with parts production(glass and stamping facilities) showed me that production managers get bonuses for quantity of product shipped, and they would ship defective parts to meet quota's. By the time the parts got returned, many of the managers had moved onto different positions, so they never lost money for shipping scrap.

At the dealership, they had a room full of defective parts that a corporate warranty specialist would sign off on, then the items were then scrapped. If you were there on the right day, you good get some very usable parts out of the dumpster for personal use