Bumper interchange

[supertruck]

Wondering if anyone has installed a 74 front bumper on a 73 Dart Sport. My 73 is in bad need of chrome. I have a 74 that's almost perfect. I know the mounting holes are different but I can modify the 73 mounts to work. Just wondering if the dimensions of the 74 will work with a 73 grille and fenders.

 

[MoparMike1974]

The physical shape of the bumper should be the same. 74 used the funky shock mounts so it will likely have different mounting holes.

 

[72bluNblu]

The physical shape of the bumper should be the same. 74 used the funky shock mounts so it will likely have different mounting holes.

Not necessarily true. The ‘74’s only came with shock mounts from when production started in August of ‘73 until sometime in December of ‘73. After
that, from sometime in December until the end of the ‘74 model year in July ‘74 they had standard mounts again. Some kind of production issue.

But even the non-shock mount ‘74 bumpers were different, the mounting holes on the bumper itself were in a different spot. I’ll see if I can dig up my old posts with pictures of the configuration.

Either way, the holes for the ‘74 bumpers are in a different spot. If you have a non shock mount ‘74 bumper, you can use the ‘74 mounts on your ‘73. If it’s a shock mount you’ll just have to sort out the different mounting holes.

 

[supertruck]

Thanks guys. Looking at the two, I can see the mounting holes are spaced differently. And the 74 bumper is an early model, not the later shock mounted. Easy enough to weld up some new mounts onto the existing ones. Just trying to avoid the extreme cost of a good rechrome.

 

[supertruck]

A little update to the bumper issue. The chrome shop called just now and told me that my 73 bumper is full of holes and the cost to repair and re-chrome would be much more than I planned on. Looks like I'll be taking them my 74 bumper to have it re-chromed instead. I'll either do some fabrication on my 73 brackets or try and find a set from a 74. Probably easier to rework mine since shipping on a set of mounts would be a expensive, if I could find some.