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The first front-end design
for the Wagoneer used two round headlights, two smaller openings with cover
plates, and a grille design commonly termed the "Rhino Chaser" grille, a
forward-slanting grille consisting of vertical slats that carried up into
the bulge of the hood. This grille was a contemporary adaptation of the
grille style used on the earlier Willys Wagon and Pickup, and the design
cues of this grille have been incorporated into the 1999 Grand Cherokee,
with its angled vertical chrome slats. The bumper was a 3-piece chrome unit,
above which sat turn-signal bezels that would remain with the Wagoneer to
the very end.
In
1966, the Wagoneer received a unique grille to distinguish it from the
pickups and panel-trucks, which retained the "Rhino-chaser" grilles through
1970. This would be a common practice, for the non-Wagoneers to receive the
front end style of the earlier Wagoneers when the Wagoneers were themselves
restyled. This second-design front-end incorporated a horizontal grille with
vertical bars running between the two round headlights. The former opening
for the grille in the "peak" of the hood was now covered by a filler plate,
to emphasize the horizontal styling elements without requiring a change in
the actual sheetmetal stampings.
Used for three years only,
this stamped metal grille retained the horizontal dimensions of the previous
design, but added cornering-lamps on the leading edge of the fenders, while
retaining the 3-piece bumper.
In 1974, the Wagoneer was
heavily revised by AMC. In addition to the suspension, axle and brake
changes (6-lug rims and front-discs on Dana 44 axles were now standard on
the Wagoneer), there is the more visible change to an eggcrate-style grille
with integrated turn-signal lamps. The hood continued to use a filler plate
in the peak, and a new styling cue was the addition of separate side-marker
lamps on the front fenders.
1979 marked a major change
for the front-end styling of the Wagoneer. The turn-signals returned to
their location on the valence panel, but all-new was the one-piece chromed
aluminum bumper (later accented with rubber rub-strips) and two square
headlights. Also new was a contoured grille that returned to a somewhat
vertical theme by protruding outward and upward into the peak of the grille.
Also notable is the plastic air-dam that would now hide the front spring
shackles and divert some air from flowing underneath the truck. This
front-end style continued intact with the first two years of the changeover
to the Grand Wagoneer model. A variation of this same grille was used on the
Cherokees and pickup models in 1979, but in 1980 those models received a
vertical chrome-bar grille, thus retaining the Jeep tradition of unique
front-end styling for the Wagoneers.
The final Wagoneer (now Grand
Wagoneer) front-end design retained the one-piece bumper, separate
side-marker and rectangular headlights of the previous design, but moved
away from the "sculpted" grille to a flat black plastic grille divided into
three horizontal bands by two chrome strips. A raised portion of the grille
occupied the space created by the "peak" in the hood that was retained from
the original 1963 design. A final design touch was the vertical hood
ornament that was expected on the kind of luxury vehicle that the Wagoneer
had grown to be. This front-end design was now employed on the J-series
pickup, however, laying to rest the tradition of Jeep reserving a unique
grille-style for their top-of-the-line model, the Wagoneer.