"Rascal" The 1976 Plymouth Feather Duster

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:thumbup: Glad to help.
Be careful with the carriage bolts if you might consider disassembling the bumper from the reinforcement frame. I've often had problems taking them apart even after soaking them with penetrating oil.

i would like to pull the bumpers in for tighter fit so they dont have such a droopy look to them
 
:thumbup: Glad to help.
Be careful with the carriage bolts if you might consider disassembling the bumper from the reinforcement frame. I've often had problems taking them apart even after soaking them with penetrating oil.

i would like to pull them in for a tighter fit so they dont look so droopy and sad haha any ideas how id go about that?
 
I've heard of people somehow compressing the shock brackets or replacing the bumper assembly with a regular bumper & brackets, which would require drilling mounting holes.
Then you have to consider the bumper filler & how it would look without it. But I'll let someone who knows more about it to offer their suggestions.
 
Good luck with your Feather! I had one a few years back that I saved from the crusher. PO had hit a deer and it took off the passenger side fender and door. It was a real sweet car after I fixed it, great gas mileage, plenty of room inside too.
 

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so i was tearing up my carpet to fully address my floor board rust and see how bad it truly is and it turns out what the previous owner described as a few small holes and safe to drive with turned into almost no floor at all. shocked i didn't die driving it home haha
 

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i would like to pull them in for a tighter fit so they dont look so droopy and sad haha any ideas how id go about that?

The easiest way to pull the later bumper in would be to make a new set of bumper brackets. I know, doesn't sound easy, but I think you'll find messing with the shock mounts is a real pain.

The other thing to consider is that the bumper is wider than the back end of the car. Sucking it into the car will not give the same clean look as the earlier bumpers because the bumper will still stick out past the quarters, and if you pull it in you'll have to figure out a new way to fill in the gap. It will be a smaller gap, and the stock filler won't fit.

The easiest thing to do would be to get ahold of a 70-73 bumper and brackets and ditch the shock mount bumper entirely. Even with the aluminum bracing I bet the earlier bumpers are still a weight savings, they're about 50lbs lighter than the steel shock mount version. Mounting the early bumper is pretty easy. The reinforcing panel for the bumper, even on the later cars, still has a hole for the outer bumper bracket mount, you just have to drill it through the lower tail panel. But the hole is there on the backside. The problem is that the inner bumper bracket mount hole falls right in the middle of where the shock mount passes through the lower tail panel. So, you have 2 options- 1. weld a plate into the lower panel and drill a hole for the mount or 2. make a bracket to bolt to the frame and bumper bracket. That's what I did on my car, but I'll probably just weld it up the next time I have my bumper off. I have the entire write up in my build thread on page 3, scroll down to post 70.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=198098&page=3

Before

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During
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After
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Cool project - like the 'feather'. Looks like your cluster was swapped with an older one. '76 should have lights for seat belt and EGR.
 
One of the extra parts i got with the car was a grill so i painted that black to add some cleaner lines and better overall look. and im not sure y the last picture is so small..it was taken with the same camera as the other two.
 

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Got an awesome wheel as a gift from my buddy Cj Watts to replace my bus driver steering wheel.
 

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as you guys have seen my car didnt have much of a driver floorboard and my passenger side had a few minor holes. i pulled the carpet to discover some holes in the back as well and the metal was worse than it looked and needed to be replaced thank you to JS Customs metal and fab work is amazing i highly recommend his work!
 

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Cool project - like the 'feather'. Looks like your cluster was swapped with an older one. '76 should have lights for seat belt and EGR.

I kept looking at the instrument cluster pics, and wondering what didn't look right. I had a Feather Duster for a daily driver back in '99-'01. I'm almost positive mine only had a 100 mph speedo, too. Good luck with your ride. I miss mine, but it was way too rusty to save.
 
Hes starting to come together little by little! got some new wheels and tires (cant remember actual dimenstion of too of my head but they are about and inch to an inch and a half wider than stock(that are much safer and better looking than what i had. gave it more of a 70s street machine look. still saving for some major repairs coming this fall. sorry the updates are spotty and spread out but stay tuned!
 

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had a change in jobs and with college i havent had a whole lot of extra money to put into Rascal or the time to work on him unfortunately :( but thats all changing soon! the of us have been together about a year and have improved a lot even though it may not look like it on the outside. all new brakes new floor some wiring plugs wires master cylinder ball joints a few more and we are proud to have brought home the Mopars Unlimited Seattle Chapter Most Improved car of the year :)
 

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Always nice when hard work is noticed & appreciated. Congrats! :thumbrig:
 
Hey guys its been awhile but great news! Rascal was leaking through his pivot seals and yesterday i was finally able to get that fixed! no more leaks! sorry i failed to get pictures of getting them in the car and the before but please enjoy these pictures haha i added some standard gasket silicone the Styrofoam that presses against the car just as a last resort leakage prevention
 

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Feather Dusters are great. I have one now. Will be following you lrogress. For bumper brackets I just bent some aluminum l brackets and bolted it to the frame so I could get rid of those heavy bumper shocks.

Have fun!!

Andy
 
not build progress but definately progress in the coolness category if you ask me. i was browsing the internet looking at 76 feather dusters reading articles etc to pass some time and came across an old picture of my car on google images! i dont know the exact year but i believe its late 70s early 80s based off the info from the previous owner on when the car was parked. i know its mine because the picture came off of a website that a member of the mopar club im a part of owns ironically but if you look closely you can see the same dents in my passenger fender and door. I had no idea this guys website existed or this picture but thought it was neat and worth sharing. Its even pre rust!
 

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Whats up Guys! ive been vacant and unfortuntely so has my build progress do to college but im back and in full swing ive got the car going in for sheet metal work this winter and lots of upgrades coming this Spring! here is some minor progress new t handle, new ash tray, and got carpet in my car!
 
Thanks! I thought ,we lost you....!
i can proudly say NOPE YOU DIDNT LOSE ME!!! just had life and adulting get in the way a little bit, but all is good! i got a hood scoop, minor cosmetic changes (little paint touches), some custom switches, and much more coming up here soon! i will definitely be active again but car updates will be few and far between since im losing him for the winter due to new quarter panels!
 
i can proudly say NOPE YOU DIDNT LOSE ME!!! just had life and adulting get in the way a little bit, but all is good! i got a hood scoop, minor cosmetic changes (little paint touches), some custom switches, and much more coming up here soon! i will definitely be active again but car updates will be few and far between since im losing him for the winter due to new quarter panels!
Good to see you,back....
 
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