No Bret, you're not fickle, design-wise the look of the rubber bumpered B's - mainly from the front - is aesthetically more pleasing in many ways. It gives a more elongated visual flow and actually incorporates the wrinkles in the hood into a legitimate element of the design. I never could understand the early 70's front grill treatment that totally ignores this element - like they were just too lazy to change the die and stamp them out- this is the look you get with converted RB's. Many other advantages of later cars could be pointed out(and some mechanical disadvantages) but it is really funny to see the bias of the 'purists' in the hobby against the later cars - maybe because down deep they realize that style-wise it is analagous to comparing a '55 Chevy to a '73 Camaro. Nostalgia from having owned one back then, the ease of dealing with 1950's era mechanics and more power (wasn't it nice to live in a time when we didn't even ask where the gas was coming from as we gulped it down at 35cents/gal.)are mainly where the mantra 'chrome bumpers are best' comes from.(Yes, mine's a '79 -'One with real rubber bumpers'- and I've owned: '56 Austin-Morris, '60 MGA, '60 Sprite) Put a '67 and a '79 side-by-side and ask anyone who has no connection to the connundrum of early vs. late model, who doesn't know the difference between rubber and compact dung, which car they prefer for it's styling and the vast majority will choose the newer car - with the older one being 'cute' and 'classic' looking. Point being is, buy what you want and drive what you like for your own reasons, the satisfaction being the in-escapable joy in owning and mainly driving LBC's - they're all classics! You just don't see too many people trying to glue the front end from a '53 Vette on to their Stingray. It's like the elderly (in her 80's) lady said to me the other day at the park - she was admiring the car and asked if it was mine, then she told me about owning a '57 MG back in her day and how much she enjoyed that car. As we parted she told me, with a certainty - as though it was my duty - "Now you enjoy that car!"
Tim Matheis