Hi – I have seen a few ’53 hornets with a red upper strip on the rear bumper, like in the attached photo of mr mcqueen’s old hornet sedan - most don’t seem to have this red stripe?
Any info on this would be most appreciated, including if this is painted, tape, etc!
Thanks for looking!
Red reflector tape added to bumper. A little more protection from cars following during night driving.
As Lee pointed out, added as a precaution for safety, but not originally painted or have a decal in the indentation from the factory, was just chromed. These were also basically "flash" plated when new. The way they were mounted allowed dirt and other debris to go between these and the body. We have found it to be very common to find pinholes in most of these, even ones from a good climate. Its also common to find them damaged from the rear horse collar making contact with them.
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