72 bumper on a 74 HELP!!!??

[cosworth]

Im putting 72 bumpers/front clip on my 74 duster. I finally got the old bumpers off this afternoon and went to mock up my 72 bumpers and brackets. Im having issues with it... Its obvious that the outer brackets do not have a mounting hole and the inner holes on the main brackets appear to be where the shock goes through. But on the sides of the bumper it looks like its too far from the body.

Has anyone done this before and shed some light on this???

 

[cosworth]

Does anyone have a 70-72 with the rear bumper off that can post a picture of the rear bumper mounting locations?

 

[Kern Dog]

Hey there. I had a 74 Plymouth that was the inspiration for my screen name. I backdated the car to appear like a 71 Duster 340.
For the front, I had to make my own way to secure the bumper brackets. The 67-early 74 used captive nuts welded to the inside of the frame rails. The late 74 thru 76 cars used that shock absorber style. I made a steel plate with 2 nuts welded to it and slid it inside the frame rail, then welded the plate in place with 4 plug welds.
For the rear, I just welded over the huge hole that the shock passed thru, then drilled holes where the 70-73 brackets were mounted. Yes, there was a gap between the sides of the bumper and the quarter panel. there were gaps in the 70-73 models too, but the earlier cars had a flange on the quarter panel that extended rearward to block off the gap. I didn't notice it on mine until I went to mount the bumper. Of course, this was after I had painted the car. If I were to do it again, I'd fab up something to fill the gap so that it looks like the 70-73 cars did.

 

[cosworth]

Thanks for the information, I didnt even think about there being a flange as a "filler" till you said it. I haven't made my way to the front just yet. My front bumper is a non shock type so I might be alright there.

 

[Kern Dog]

The 74 model year was a transitional year. All of the 74s had the shock absorber larger rear bumper, but not all of them had the same design up front. The FrankenDuster was a later 74 build, so it had the impact design on both ends. I had another 74 that was a December 73 build car. It only had the shock/impact style out back.