73 VS 74 Duster Front Bumper Differences.

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Moparaley

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Buddy of mine with a 74 Duster swapped his original front bumper as a core for a rechromed one with a California rechrome shop a few months ago. He just tried to install the purchased one and found that it would not fit his 74. He called the shop and they promptly blamed him for the issue saying he gave them a 73 and they gave my buddy a true 74. I see in my interchange manual that till mid November of 73 , for the 74 model year, they used the 73 bumper. His car's build date is 4/74. Well after that. It appears the rechrome guys gave him a 73 and took his 74. Anyone have this issue in the past or know the mounting differences between a 73 and 74? I owned this car for a few years and the previous guy had it a long time. I know this is the original 74 my buddy sent the rechrome guys. Car has never been hit in the front.

Thanks!
 
What is not fitting, I took a front bumper off a 75 Duster that had the shock absorber impacts and used it on my 73 duster that did not have them.
I just unbolted the chrome bumper from each one and it fit ok considering my car had been lightly hit in the front.
 
sireland67 said:
What is not fitting, I took a front bumper off a 75 Duster that had the shock absorber impacts and used it on my 73 duster that did not have them.
I just unbolted the chrome bumper from each one and it fit ok considering my car had been lightly hit in the front.
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The bumper bracket as it angles out to each corner does not bolt up. It is off a bit. By how much I will have to get that info.
 
There is a difference. Not sure what the year break was, but here's a couple of pictures. The first one is the bumper off of my '74 Duster, which has a build date of 6/74. The next one is from eBay, the seller states it is also a '74 Duster bumper. As you can see, the outer bolts for the brackets do not have the same configuration. Not sure why that changed, because the rest of the bumper looks the same. My bumper was NOT a shock bumper, I don't think that started in the front until '75.

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72bluNblu said:
There is a difference. Not sure what the year break was, but here's a couple of pictures. The first one is the bumper off of my '74 Duster, which has a build date of 6/74. The next one is from eBay, the seller states it is also a '74 Duster bumper. As you can see, the outer bolts for the brackets do not have the same configuration. Not sure why that changed, because the rest of the bumper looks the same. My bumper was NOT a shock bumper, I don't think that started in the front until '75.
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Does your 74 bumper have the Chrysler part # stamped on it anywhere?
 
Sorry, I sold the my bumper after I converted my car to a Demon. I checked to see if the # was in any of the pictures I took of the bumper for my sale ad, but it wasn't.

I'm assuming your buddy needs a bumper that's configured like mine? If he needs pictures or something to send the shop I have higher resolution pictures. You can PM me with an email address and I can email the larger pictures. At least that way he could email the shop a picture of what he needs.

Seems pretty silly of the shop to send him anything other than a bumper that was exactly like the one he sent in though. Doesn't really matter if it's a "true" whatever, if the bumper that came off the car was one style then that's the style it needs to be.
 
72bluNblu said:
Sorry, I sold the my bumper after I converted my car to a Demon. I checked to see if the # was in any of the pictures I took of the bumper for my sale ad, but it wasn't.

I'm assuming your buddy needs a bumper that's configured like mine? If he needs pictures or something to send the shop I have higher resolution pictures. You can PM me with an email address and I can email the larger pictures. At least that way he could email the shop a picture of what he needs.

Seems pretty silly of the shop to send him anything other than a bumper that was exactly like the one he sent in though. Doesn't really matter if it's a "true" whatever, if the bumper that came off the car was one style then that's the style it needs to be.
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Pics would be great! My email is [email protected]


Thanks !
 
72bluNblu said:
My bumper was NOT a shock bumper, I don't think that started in the front until '75.
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My Duster was built mid-November '73 and it IS a shock bumper. Can't tell you how much I wish it wasn't.

I have not been able to find a rhyme or reason to which cars got the shocks and which didn't. Seen it all of the place, 72bluNblu's later '74 doesn't, my early '74 does, a buddy of mine had a '74 without them, seems like I've even seen them where only one end of the car has the shocks (but I could be wrong about that).

But either way, I would bet the '73 fits a '74 if it came with brackets, but doesn't fit if it had shocks. So, I would bet he got a bumper for the shocks and needed one without, and the bumper shop is clueless that there is a difference.
 
A '74 with a shock bumper in the front?

Never even heard of one. Every '74 Ive seen has had the standard front bumper and a shock mounted rear bumper. Not saying it didn't happen, I haven't seen them all and Ma Mopar did some weird stuff, but...

Are you sure it's factory? One thing I have noticed about all the '74's I've seen is that they had the captured mounts for both the standard brackets and shock mount brackets. Meaning, a shock mount bumper could be installed with no changes to the car other than the bumper and plastic filler piece, the frame is set up for either type.
 
72bluNblu said:
A '74 with a shock bumper in the front?

Never even heard of one. Every '74 Ive seen has had the standard front bumper and a shock mounted rear bumper. Not saying it didn't happen, I haven't seen them all and Ma Mopar did some weird stuff, but...

Are you sure it's factory? One thing I have noticed about all the '74's I've seen is that they had the captured mounts for both the standard brackets and shock mount brackets. Meaning, a shock mount bumper could be installed with no changes to the car other than the bumper and plastic filler piece, the frame is set up for either type.
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It's got a hole in the frame for the bracket mount, but no captured nut. If it did, I would have swapped it years ago, but I hate to think of the work it would take to open the frame so I could add the nut and then fix it.

Pretty sure it's factory, been that way since I drug it out of the junkyard way back in the early 90's. Pretty sure it had been drag raced at some point in time (had to fill holes in the cowl from hood pins), so I doubt it was replaced to make it faster. And based on the lack of a captured nut, can't see it being something that was just swapped.

I can say I am pretty sure the car was hit hard at one time, so anything is possible, but it didn't look like they replaced a frame rail or anything.

Pretty sure the Car Craft article about the '74 Duster 360 shows the filler between the bumper and body and vertical holes for the bumper mounts on the end. Almost certain it had the shocks, but it also seemed like a pre-production model since it had one sport mirror and one regular one.

Maybe the very early '74 Dusters got shock mounts and they ran into problems so the later cars don't have them the rest of the year?

I asked Daniel about his Duster 360 in my 4 speed thread and we talked about this some, there, too. I don't think the plant it was built in matter either, based on what was said there.

I can get pictures of the frame rails on my car this weekend, if you want.
 
That's interesting stuff there!

My car is a St. Louis, MO built car, but it doesn't sound like that matters. The fact that yours doesn't have the captured nuts for the non-shock mount brackets is a pretty good indication it came that way, although I suppose anything is possible. Mine has captured nuts in both locations, so either bumper can be mounted.

The November build on your car matching with the interchange listing for the '74 bumper listed by the OP above makes me think you're right about the shock bumpers. Early '74 cars (August to November) got the '73 bumpers as described by the interchange. The changeover happened in November, but some kind of issue came up and they went back to the standard brackets, only, they had already made the assembly line changes on the bolt locations on the bumpers, or for some reason it was easier to change the brackets than change the bumpers back. And the rest of the '74 cars got non-shock brackets but with the "new" outer bumper.

I wonder if they intended to retro-fit the later '74 cars with the shock mounts when they were ready? If that's why they installed the nuts for the shock mounts on the later cars even though they sent them out with non-shock mount brackets? Or why they changed the mounting brackets instead of just moving the bolt holes and using the old style brackets?

Ma Mopar never fails to entertain. :D
 
All I know is I wish mine had the brackets!

I've saved a set of the brackets just in case I ever really get ambitious. Right now the only thing I did was swap the beam behind the bumper for an aluminum, and the last owner (buddy of mine) slid the shocks in and welded them so the bumper doesn't stick out so much. Still too wide for the car, but it's better.
 
...............My factory 1974 360 4 gear car came with the shock bumpers front and rear....My buddies 73 duster does not have any bumper shocks.....kim.........
 
72bluNblu said:
That's interesting stuff there!

My car is a St. Louis, MO built car, but it doesn't sound like that matters. The fact that yours doesn't have the captured nuts for the non-shock mount brackets is a pretty good indication it came that way, although I suppose anything is possible. Mine has captured nuts in both locations, so either bumper can be mounted.

The November build on your car matching with the interchange listing for the '74 bumper listed by the OP above makes me think you're right about the shock bumpers. Early '74 cars (August to November) got the '73 bumpers as described by the interchange. The changeover happened in November, but some kind of issue came up and they went back to the standard brackets, only, they had already made the assembly line changes on the bolt locations on the bumpers, or for some reason it was easier to change the brackets than change the bumpers back. And the rest of the '74 cars got non-shock brackets but with the "new" outer bumper

I wonder if they intended to retro-fit the later '74 cars with the shock mounts when they were ready? If that's why they installed the nuts for the shock mounts on the later cars even though they sent them out with non-shock mount brackets? Or why they changed the mounting brackets instead of just moving the bolt holes and using the old style brackets?

Ma Mopar never fails to entertain. :D
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Thanks for the info.
 
I figured something out with the shock type bumpers. Yes they stick out a little further, but when your car is parked inside it keeps people further away from the front of your. Protects it! So there is a plus side to the beak.
 
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