Narrowed, Shaved, and Tucked 75 Dart bumper mod.

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4mulaSvaliant

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Hey guys and gals. Been a while since I have been active on the forum. Been keeping busy with other projects and have just been driving the Valiant.

Anyhow, I recently had a guy (now a friend) referred to me for some metal work. Initially he wanted me to make replacement panels for the plastic "filler panels" between the bumper and the body. He had hoped I could shape some new ones and then he could remedy the unappealing gap left from the dry rotted parts gone missing and or broken and in disrepair.

After he paid me a visit I suggested rather than putting a band aid on it, lets modify the bumpers to clean them up a bit. I was happy to hear he was willing to trust me even though I could tell he didn't quite see my vision.

I took a look and was very surprised how ill fitting these bumpers were to begin with. I understand they were given room for travel due to the hydraulic action they are designed for, but had never stopped to see just how big the gaps were.

Its at this point I decided that in the front, I would split the bumper in the middle and narrow it, keeping the peak and angles as they should be. The next absolutely "offensive to the eye" item was the license plate mounting area. To me it just looks horrible, but that's my opinion. (We all know what that's worth!) :)

Aside from that, the bumper then needed to be tucked in closer to the body. See below for pictures of the front.

Here are the original gap pictures. All stock of course.

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Ill stop here and make a new post with the modification pictures to the front bumper, then move on to the rear.

Anyhow, just figured there are some here who may like to see this. :)
 
So as mentioned before I needed to split the bumper at the peak and narrow it.

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Also it was at this point I marked out plans to "shave" the plate mount area as I hated it! LOL

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Removed roughly 1 1/8" from the center. Here it is tacked bacl together to check fitment on the car and make sure it is fitting the body lines as well as still clearing the fenders at each side.

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Here you can see I intentionally left a strip[ along the bottom. This was to have a place to tack weld to keep all the proportions the same as well as have a good base to keep shape to when making my filler panel.

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Had to see how well it was going to shape out! :)
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Here you can see the plate mount cut out and sonn Ill be making replacement pieces.
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Now I have a roughed in piece and you can see where I am headed. :)

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Test fitting to see if the "look" is what i want or do I change it up a bit..... I liked it and proceeded! :)

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Now that i knew I was headed in a direction I was happy with I needed to shape the rest of the pieces. :) This is the roll that goes under the bumper.

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Coming together!

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And now for the final look and modification of the mounts to hang the newly modified bumper where I would like it to sit. :)

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A few spacers to get it just right while modifying the mounting brackets!

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Much tighter fit than before but not super close.

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Finished shaved bumper.... :)
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Here is the section removed, all bumper bolts shaved, "bumperette" holes shaved, and all prepped for body and paint work.
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Good Job! I'm a big fan of this type of mods. Plus you saved some weight getting rid of the hydraulic bumper mounts.
 
Nice work, but in my opinion you exaggerated the beak look. I think it would have looked better had you left the license plate area alone.
 
Great work! I love the much cleaner look. Just close enough. Can really see the difference when you go back and look at the "before" pics.
 
:D Looks great! Hopefully this will be polished and re-chromed? If you paint it, all that work really won't show. (Plus, I don't like painted bumpers)
 
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!? You just ruined all that fine work the Chrysler engineers put into those amazing 5 mph bumpers!

Just kidding, looks awesome. Like 69_340_GTS said, hopefully it ends up being rechromed, as I am not a big fan of painted bumpers (this coming from a guy with painted bumpers).
 
I like how it's tucked in now. Even like it being narrower. Just don't like the cow catcher look to the bumper.
 
When we re-fitted our front bumper, I realized how poorly these are centered... so to me this is a nice modification that adds a unique look and is a better fit/finish than the original. We are also missing the filler pieces.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you did the back bumper.
 
Cool man, nice job.. For me it doesn't make enough of a difference to go through the hours and hours of work it would take to get there.. If I wanted a 69', I would have bought one.
 
Thanks all. As with any modification, its not for everyone. The customer is more than happy with it and that of course is all that matters. With these types of things you of course need to play off the cues you already have and can not change. In this case, the grill is that piece. He has no intentions of changing the grill, not to mention the trouble that would actually add. :)

Id say time I have in the front bumper is about 7 hours total. I enjoy this work and of course make a little loot to spend on my cars so...

As for the fog light suggestion... Funny that's mentioned. Because when this guy came to me he said "I want them like yours" and I asked.... "Fog lights and all?" (Hoping that's not what he wanted)
He fortunately did NOT want the fog lights as well. I am happy that's the case since I am the only one around here with a mod like that to their A-body.

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Ill post up the rear bumper pics in a few. :)
 
So in the rear it was a little more cut and dry really. I knew it needed to be narrowed, but all of the different lines and curves needed to work well together without many hours of work. So I did find that these bumpers are absolutely offset in their design. I found this when I went to remove the same amount from both sides. It turned out one side was longer by roughly 3/8".
That was 3/8" wider from the center to the "peak" at each side. (The "V" where the quarter panel peaks)

Anyhow, here we go.. Huge gaps of course!!!

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So in order to not distort the curves and make more work for myself, I made my cuts inside of all of the detailed curves. This basically allowed me to just move them back, up, and inward.

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I cant remember exactly how much I removed from each side but it was roughly 3/4"

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So after I had narrowed the bumper as much as I could (and still keep it lined up with the body lines) I wasn't happy! I had narrowed it enough for the "peak" at the tail light housing to match the peak in the bumper. I wasn't so disappointed with the gap that was to the outside of the body as much as I was with the giant hole directly under the tail light at the peak. You can see the hole here...
You'll also notice the gap or overhang past the side of the car. That was actually necessary because the bumper wraps around the body itself and is very close to touching the body on either side of the car.

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SO.... The hole.... I decided that the biggest eye-sore was the fact that you could see right through to the ground. A quick remedy that worked out quite nice was to make a filler panel across that gap.

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So final fitment! Here is the end... Shaved all bolts and filled any remaining holes. Beat a few dents out and had to generally "tweak" the bumper for a good fit.


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New "tucked" side profile...

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Here you can see how ill-fitting these bumpers are from the factory... Look at the rear bumper hanging off the side of the car! Crazy!
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And I of course had to get a few shots of the A-bodies together!

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Hope ya like em!
 
Nice work! Makes me want to finish rounding the corners on the "Snow Plow" Duster....
 
The final results look great. I thought maybe you were going to cut the back bumper to match the rear quarter panel on the side....so that it would have to wrap around. :) Don't know if that is possible or not...I guess anything is possible. Then it could of tucked in.
 
Nice job. Any pictures of what was involved in shaving the bumper bolts?
 
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