1971 vs 1972 - differences / changes
 

After a conversation with my old man (who owned a '71 and two '72s, along with lots of parts, and got me hooked on these cars in the first place!), I got to wondering - what differences do YOU use for identifying a car as a 1971 or 1972 at a glance?

Here are the ones I usually look for:

- Grilles. (Super easy one... '71 has less/larger vertical fins, and no horizontal bars)

- Woodgrain panel near passenger's knees. ('71 had silver block letters, all caps; '72 had gold script, mixed case, "cursive" letters)

- Speedometer. (120 MPH speedo w/ seatbelt nag light will be surely from a '72... but anybody know when, exactly, it started? Some say "all '72s", but I recall reading it was a mid-year thing)

- Taillight bars. (Not a super good indicator. I'm fairly sure the '71s didn't have them - but then, their absence may just be because someone forgot to put them back on!)

I'm guessing there could also be some number of paint colors that didn't cross over, though I've never dug that deep. I do recall reading in an old Chilton's manual that the 350 was no longer available in '72, nor was the 4-speed.

What other things can you think of?

- Taillight bars. (Not a super good indicator. I'm fairly sure the '71s didn't have them - but then, their absence may just be because someone forgot to put them back on!)

Didn’t know that the bars were removable. I thought that the bars were molded into the 72 taillamp lenses. The complete 72 lenses could be used on a 71 if you weren’t concerned about appearance. I believe that 70 models also had the bars while the 69 didn’t. Same interchangeability between 69 and 70 if appearance wasn’t important.

Tail lights had a silver surround in 72.

My 72 was built in Oct of 71 and has the 140mph speedo, there was a mid year change to the 120 with the addition of a seat belt warning light.
Also the little tail light separators are removable on a 72 only held in place with longer screws.

71 grilles are the first thing you see at a glance. Took me forever to find a set and had to settle with an eBay purchase with some dings but the 72 grilles (which were plenty) are just ugly!

different steering wheel ( i believe )