Yes! The story of the battle within GM over the discontinuation of regular bumpers is epic. The old styling guys vs the plastic fascia guys.
The fact that you were told to slow down makes sense actually because one side was actively trying to build a case to move to all plastic which at that time was still too expensive to produce domestically, however, once you make the metal plating process as inefficient as you can you then build a case for a styling change. In the 1970's plastic was still too expensive for GM to mass produce.
On the Camaro and Firebird GM fixed the cost and environmental issue by moving the front and rear fascia production entirely to Ramir Mexico where they were made, painted and then shipped just in time for assembly in the US.
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