Rubberized

I have a 1970 ’Cuda with the rubber front
bumper. A friend of mine just bought a
GTO with what seems to be a similar front
bumper, he says it is called “Endura.” Is
mine rubber, Endura, or what?

It isn’t rubber, at least in the technical
sense, and Endura was just Pontiac’s
trade name. The material is a polymer
that does act like rubber in many ways,
a proprietary polyurethane compound.
Chrysler called it by a clear, concise,
technically descriptive name: elastomeric,
a polymer with viscoelastic properties:
viscous and elastic.
Still, many Mopar guys simply say:
“rubber bumper,” which tends to ignore
the fact that, at the core, is a standard
steel bumper, with only a skin of the elastomeric
material.