26lbs off the nose Bam !

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Johnny Dart

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Bumper off my 73 Scamp project.
Took it apart, and there is this huge steel plate that weighs 17lbs on its own. Must have been a new safety thing in 73. Add the bumperetes, and it's at 26lbs!!!! Adios, see you later. Soon I will take look at the back bumper and see what Chrysler has cooking back there. :welcome:

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I had a 77 Aspen RT and always thought that the bumpers were huge and I could probably save 100 pounds per end by getting rid of some of that stuff
 
Bumper off my 73 Scamp project.
Took it apart, and there is this huge steel plate that weighs 17lbs on its own. Must have been a new safety thing in 73. Add the bumperetes, and it's at 26lbs!!!! Adios, see you later. Soon I will take look at the back bumper and see what Chrysler has cooking back there. :welcome:

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I had that on my 74 Duster heavy sob
 
Im gonna do the same to my 75 dart eventually. Im also gonna delete them 75 shocks and do a solid mount I just gotta figure out how to fab it up. My plan is to use bumper brackets like you have pictured and fabricate it to work. One of my shocks are compressed so there is a large gap on one side and not the other. It's hard to see in photos but in person it's really noticeable.

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I got a '73 Duster rear bumper sitting in the driveway. Damn thing has to weigh close to 100 pounds all by itself. It's got some interior structure that's a carryover from some Chrysler battleship design program, or it may possibly be a New Yorker frame rail shoved in sideways.

The front bumper on my '72 Dart has double the brackets it really needs and still weighs only about 40 pounds
 
Im gonna do the same to my 75 dart eventually. Im also gonna delete them 75 shocks and do a solid mount I just gotta figure out how to fab it up. My plan is to use bumper brackets like you have pictured and fabricate it to work. One of my shocks are compressed so there is a large gap on one side and not the other. It's hard to see in photos but in person it's really noticeable.

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Look into drilling the shocks, and letting the gas out ?
I remember reading about this trick.
Read first before you do it. :)
 
I certainly see Johnny's point in doing it since he races his car a LOT, but I don't see the point in doing this to a mostly street car at all. That is, not unless you want to be looking for more of some already hard to find parts. That crash beam can stop a LOT of damage from happening in a slow speed crash. You'll be pissed off when you wipe out the nose of your car at 15 MPH.
 
I always thought those low impact bumpers were just hideous.it must have been an insurance thing because I can't see it was saving any lives.
 
I always thought those low impact bumpers were just hideous.it must have been an insurance thing because I can't see it was saving any lives.

It was all part of the slow speed crash deal. The beginning of the "car designed to crash" era. They ultimately evolved into cars that save lives.
 
I certainly see Johnny's point in doing it since he races his car a LOT, but I don't see the point in doing this to a mostly street car at all. That is, not unless you want to be looking for more of some already hard to find parts. That crash beam can stop a LOT of damage from happening in a slow speed crash. You'll be pissed off when you wipe out the nose of your car at 15 MPH.

Then you might as well take every 1972-down bumper off and bolt on a 16lb piece of steel on the inside of it. Because as you know, none of them had them. :rolleyes:
 
Then you might as well take every 1972-down bumper off and bolt on a 16lb piece of steel on the inside of it. Because as you know, none of them had them. :rolleyes:

Just makin the best of what ya got, ya know?
 
you ca
I had a 77 Aspen RT and always thought that the bumpers were huge and I could probably save 100 pounds per end by getting rid of some of that stuff
you can swap out that front bumper with 80ish ford fairmont front bumper, its aluminum and cant hardly tell the difference other than that and the weight difference!
 
The front 5 mile impact bumpers were required in 73 and the rear ones in 74 so the rear bumper of your 73 is the same basic bumper used from 1970 to 1973 (with exception of twin or single rear light set up) so you won't find a big piece of steel to throw away under your back bumper.
 
Then you might as well take every 1972-down bumper off and bolt on a 16lb piece of steel on the inside of it. Because as you know, none of them had them. :rolleyes:
Not sure what shipping would cost but maybe RRR would like them for his car.:poke:
 
It had everything to do with saving insurance companies $, and very little to do with saving Your ***, not that it didn't help some at low speeds.... The premise being premiums would go down if street & lot parking incidents didn't always cause paint & body damage. "5mph" was the standard for no damage requiring repairs or major parts replacement, something tells Me the savings/premium ratio made the ins.co.s a bunch of $$$,.........
 
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