Front Trunks... Revisited, Front support shelf? Options

[Steve Snyder]

All,

In preparation for re-installing my front trunk lid release cable, I was checking out the parts cars on the lot (to make sure I ran the cable correctly), and I noticed an interesting thing. My car, a 1974 2.0L (non-LE) has a support shelf between the headlight buckets (pictured below) that was not present in any of the other cars I looked at ('70, '72 & '76).

When I looked up the nailed "Front Trunks" thread on this forum, there are several cars pictured with the same support shelf, and they are all 1974 MY. Was this design confined to the 1974 cars? Was it in '73s? It seems like it would be desirable from a rigidity perspective.

*NOTE: Ignore the battery/battery tray in the picture... this is a driver restoration.

(IMG:http://p914.com/p914-resources/p914-images/914-74-FrontTrunk.jpg)

[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

a neat thing to know is that the 70 71 body structures were identical, the 73 74 body structures were identical and the 75 76 body structures were identical. The only odd ball is the 72 and actually there were two different bodies for the 72 models! anyone know the difference in the 72 bodies?

[Richard Casto]

a neat thing to know is that the 70 71 body structures were identical, the 73 74 body structures were identical and the 75 76 body structures were identical. The only odd ball is the 72 and actually there were two different bodies for the 72 models! anyone know the difference in the 72 bodies?

I will take a wild guess....

70 71, no front trunk crash reinforcement, no adjustable passenger seat, tail shift linkage mounts on the firewall
72, add adjustable passenger seat
73 74 front trunk crash reinforcement, change to side shift linkage mounts on firewall.
75 76 delete front trunk crash reinforcement and other changes for new bumpers

In short the 72 was the only year to have tail shift firewall + mounts for adjustable passenger seat? This is just a guess as I have no clue how the fixed position passenger seat attaches to the body. For all I know it was the same for all years.

[Pat Garvey]

a neat thing to know is that the 70 71 body structures were identical, the 73 74 body structures were identical and the 75 76 body structures were identical. The only odd ball is the 72 and actually there were two different bodies for the 72 models! anyone know the difference in the 72 bodies?

I will take a wild guess....

70 71, no front trunk crash reinforcement, no adjustable passenger seat, tail shift linkage mounts on the firewall
72, add adjustable passenger seat
73 74 front trunk crash reinforcement, change to side shift linkage mounts on firewall.
75 76 delete front trunk crash reinforcement and other changes for new bumpers

In short the 72 was the only year to have tail shift firewall + mounts for adjustable passenger seat? This is just a guess as I have no clue how the fixed position passenger seat attaches to the body. For all I know it was the same for all years.

The 72 started life as a 71, in that the passenger seat was fixed and the seatbelts non-retractable. Not sure at what point in 72 that things changed, but by June the moveable passenger seat & retracto belts were in place. Like earlier years, the 72 model has it's production quirks, though not as many as the earlier years.
Pat