Eliminate rear bumper rubber filler on a 74 Duster
Adding the earlier bumper is the better way to go. And I'm not just saying that because that's what I did. :D
The '74 bumper is massive. It doesn't weigh twice what the early bumpers weighed, it probably weighs 5x as much. The bigger issue is that even if you re-do the brackets and bring the bumper closer to the car, the bumper is still wider than the back end of the car is. It's not as obvious with the rubber filler in there, but if the shock mount bumper is probably a couple inches wider than the quarters are.
As far as the side gap on the quarter with the earlier bumper, my initial how-to was a little misleading (thanks for all the love guys! :cheers: ). The "indent" for the bumper is the same on both the early and late quarters. The difference is that the earlier quarters came together with the tail panel there with a flange, where the later ones just have a flat overlap. So the earlier quarters have a built in filler panel. It's really not that noticeable unless you really look for it. Also, I didn't realize there's a little rubber spacer that's supposed to sit on top of the bumper between the tail panel and the bumper. My bumper is set to be almost flush with the bottom of the tail panel.
These pictures explain it better. Just find a used early bumper and brackets. It can be pretty close to a bolt on operation depending on how you do it. And you'll probably knock almost 100lbs of the car.
Here's mine - '74 Duster with a 71/72 bumper
And the real deal, a couple of '71 Demons
Adding the earlier bumper is the better way to go. And I'm not just saying that because that's what I did. :D
The '74 bumper is massive. It doesn't weigh twice what the early bumpers weighed, it probably weighs 5x as much. The bigger issue is that even if you re-do the brackets and bring the bumper closer to the car, the bumper is still wider than the back end of the car is. It's not as obvious with the rubber filler in there, but if the shock mount bumper is probably a couple inches wider than the quarters are.
As far as the side gap on the quarter with the earlier bumper, my initial how-to was a little misleading (thanks for all the love guys! :cheers: ). The "indent" for the bumper is the same on both the early and late quarters. The difference is that the earlier quarters came together with the tail panel there with a flange, where the later ones just have a flat overlap. So the earlier quarters have a built in filler panel. It's really not that noticeable unless you really look for it. Also, I didn't realize there's a little rubber spacer that's supposed to sit on top of the bumper between the tail panel and the bumper. My bumper is set to be almost flush with the bottom of the tail panel.
These pictures explain it better. Just find a used early bumper and brackets. It can be pretty close to a bolt on operation depending on how you do it. And you'll probably knock almost 100lbs of the car.
Here's mine - '74 Duster with a 71/72 bumper
And the real deal, a couple of '71 Demons