What the rubber bumper is going on in 74

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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Ok, so I made a comment in a thread about a Mexican 74 duster having the oil can bumper mounts on the front bumper. Before that I was happy thinking that 74 had the conventional bolt to frame type and only 75+ had the new four the time oil can mount.

So I go take a pic of my 74 duster to show the OP of that thread the difference. I have 2 74 dusters in my yard and to my surprise, they are different.

Here is where there is no rhyme or reason .... maybe. The brown car with the older type mounts is a later sequential number than the blue car.

The brown car is VL29G4B44
The blue car is VL29C4G20

So the slant six car with the earlier sequential number has the latter style of mount

What was going on in 74?

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Yeah my 74 had the oil can bumper, but also has the conventional mount holes. Evidently some had both mounts. Probably had parts for both on the line some days, some days not, lol.
 
I have heard from more that one person about this. Apparently some had the shocks on the bumpers others didnt in 74. I was talking to guy who had a 74 duster he bought a 74 parts car just for the bumper bracket (non shock) and the bench seat.
 
I know I have seen a number of 74s with 75 grilles.
At first I thought it just got switched but after seeing more than 7 examples of supposedly original 74s with 75 grilles.... well, who knows
 
if I remember correctly there was a mid year hood change on a b/e body that added crush ribs. I guess they had their reasons.
 
tonysrt said:
Just a thought, maybe cars were made at 2 different plants.
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4B (1974 Hamtramck)

& 4G (1974 St. Louis) so they were. ;-)

Mid-model year changes also took place though & would not be plant specific.
 
Could the requirements for cars sold in some states be more strict, therefore the 'newer' oil can style mounts? States such as California?
 
Production started for the ‘74 models with all of the cars at all the plants getting shock mounted bumpers. Then, sometime in mid-December of ‘73 there was some kind of production problem with the front shock mount bumpers, and from mid-December~ish ‘73 to the end of production of the ‘74 model year in July ‘74 the ‘74’s went back to a standard mounted front bumper. Those cars have frame mounts for both types of bumper, so, three threaded holes. The early ‘74’s only have the frame mount for the shock bumper, a single threaded hole.

That also means there are two different ‘74 front bumpers. The design is the same, but the holes for the bumper brackets are in different spots for the shock mounted vs the standard mounted bumpers.

I’ll link a thread with a lot more info here in a minute, a bunch of us with ‘74’s had a thread going that listed production dates and bumper types to come up with that info.
 
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Ok, so, here's the thread that talks about the bumper changes in '74 and has a bunch of different owners with plant/production date info. It's not a "bumper thread" specifically but it has some of the good info, post #124 has most of it
How many CURRENT owners of real '74 360 Duster 4 speed cars on here?

Here's another one...
73 VS 74 Duster Front Bumper Differences.

And here's some pictures of the different frame rails that go with the bumpers. ‘67-73 cars only have the front two locations (standard bracket mounts), early '74 and 75+ only have the shock bracket mount, and mid-74 until the end of '74 has all of them like shown. This is actually my '74, with a production date of 6/74. It was a standard mount bumper, and you can see it has all 3 mounts so either style bumper bracket can be used.
img_1917-jpg-jpg-jpg.jpg

Here are the other styles of rails, the later one is labeled incorrectly, it should be early '74 and then 75+ for the shock mount only
86e40791-500a-46b0-bb15-09b67c32d86d-jpeg.jpg


That gets to be an issue with front clip swaps if you put an earlier front clip on a later car. If you have a shock mount front bumper it gets more involved because you have to install the mounts for the standard mount bumpers too, you can't just bolt them up because there's no mount there.

Here are the bumper differences too, for the '74 folks. You can't just buy any '74 bumper, you have to make sure it's the right one.

Shock mount '74
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standard mount '74
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I'm no help but I realy like the teal and black car.

Is that original and if so, you got the paint code?
 
Cope said:
I'm no help but I realy like the teal and black car.

Is that original and if so, you got the paint code?
Click to expand...
Not original color but as pictured is exactly how I bought the car.

Looks to me like a semi custom job from the early 90s. I think someone had fixed it up to be a hot street brawler with a 340 (faded 340 graphics on the hood) it had a scoop on it at one time.

I bought it as a faded mess with rat poop and no driveline. Car is a parts car for the gold one.
 
My 74 dart sport 360 had a bracket mount front bumper, I wonderd why someone changed it from shock mount but apparently it was stock then?

IMG_20171227_122705.jpg
 
Yea, the bracket mount bumpers look better because they are tucked in closer to the body. Good job 72blunblu
 
My 74 duster had the shock mounts front and rear. I took the 74 bumpers off and installed 71 valiant bumpers. There were factory holes in the rails to use the 71 mounts on the front. Onvthe rear I’m not positive but I think 1 hole lined up. Kim
 
oldkimmer said:
My 74 duster had the shock mounts front and rear. I took the 74 bumpers off and installed 71 valiant bumpers. There were factory holes in the rails to use the 71 mounts on the front. Onvthe rear I’m not positive but I think 1 hole lined up. Kim
Click to expand...

Do you remember the production date for that car?

I’d be interested to know. The cars I know of that came with front shock mounted bumpers only had the mounts for the shock, they didn’t have the standard mounts. And on the flip side, the ones I know about that have both the standard and shock bracket mounts (3 mounting holes) came with standard brackets.

Obviously there was a switchover at some point, and a car with all three threaded holes can have either bumper type.

As for the rear bumper, as far as I know all ‘74’s had shock mounted rear bumpers. The mid year switch was for the fronts only.
 
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