1974 Duster rear impact bumper(remove,reinstall bumper without it)

Anyone removed the impact bumper and reinstalled the chrome bumper without it.
Would like to know if there’s a kit out there.
I saw one that was done it looked really clean and got rid of the rubber insert.

I did one back in the mid 90's. If I remember correctly, I took all that mess off, and used bumper brackets from a 73 Duster. Sorry to be of no more help than that....but it's been a while!

There’s a few ways to go about it.

You can go about draining the oil out of the shock mounts and collapsing them to move the bumper in. That gets rid of the plastic filler, but the bumper is still pretty large and it overhangs the rear quarters, so you can only move it in so far.

What I did with mine was remove the ‘74 bumper and shocks mounts completely. I converted it to use a ‘70-‘73 rear bumper and stock ‘70-‘73 bumper brackets.

Initially I did this with a set of brackets I made to support the stock bumper brackets.
My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head

Eventually though I welded up the holes in the rear panel for the shock mounts and got rid of the extra brackets. I also added the filler tabs like the earlier cars had to hide the gaps on the side.

My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head

I put a bumper off of a 71 valiant onto my 74 duster. Used the valiant brackets. Kim

oldkimmer said:

I put a bumper off of a 71 valiant onto my 74 duster. Used the valiant brackets. Kim

Click to expand...

67-71 Valiant rear bumpers are the same as 70-71 Duster/demon rear bumpers.

You still have to come up with a way to mount the earlier bracket, one of the mounting holes for the earlier bracket is right in the middle of the large “D” shaped hole where the shock mount brackets pass through the lower rear panel. There’s no frame tab on the end of the frame rail on the inside of th rails on the 74+ cars because the shock mount is there instead.

72bluNblu said:

67-71 Valiant rear bumpers are the same as 70-71 Duster/demon rear bumpers.

You still have to come up with a way to mount the earlier bracket, one of the mounting holes for the earlier bracket is right in the middle of the large “D” shaped hole where the shock mount brackets pass through the lower rear panel. There’s no frame tab on the end of the frame rail on the inside of th rails on the 74+ cars because the shock mount is there instead.

Click to expand...

Sorry to dig up an old thread. Read through your bumper swap thread a while back, but I thought all that was required to swap bumpers was to weld up the holes where the shock went through and drill the hole? Is there an additional frame tab that needs to be fabbed up?

440fury said:

Sorry to dig up an old thread. Read through your bumper swap thread a while back, but I thought all that was required to swap bumpers was to weld up the holes where the shock went through and drill the hole? Is there an additional frame tab that needs to be fabbed up?

Click to expand...

There is some additional work that has to be done, depending on how you go about it and whether or not you want it to look factory.

So this is the what the bumper mounting panel looks like on a '74, big hole for the shock mount to pass through


This is one of the holes that has to be drilled out for the 70-73 bumper bracket. You can also see that the hole is already located, and that hole is in an "L" shaped tab on the frame rail


Here's the other issue, the '74+ cars used a plastic filler, so there was no "ear" on the quarter to hide the bumper gap like the earlier cars, the plastic filler did that job


So the quarter is smooth, with screw holes for the filler


The first time I did this I just made a new bracket that replaced the shock mount, so I didn't fill the holes for the shock mounts and I didn't do anything to the frame or quarter.


That works, but you get this gap...


The second time around I welded up the holes in the tail panel and added the inner hole for the 70-73 bumper bracket.
l

I also ditched the brackets I made up before and made up an "L" bracket to weld to the end of the frame rail like the factory had on the earlier cars




And I made up the "ear" that came on the end of the earlier quarters to hide the bumper gap. Again I made this looks somewhat factory, it's not perfect but from the outside it looks close




Now, how much of that you do is up to you. You can do it like I did the first time around, which actually didn't require any modifications to the car beyond drilling the one hole. The brackets I made used the original shock bumper mounts and I could have re-mounted the shock bumper if I wanted to. Or you could do all of it like I did the last time around, which was to basically make the car look like a '70-'73 car did from the factory with the frame tabs, filled holes and ears added onto the quarter and tail panel. Or some combination of the two. You could skip the frame brackets and just weld up the holes, but then the inner bolt for the bumper mount wouldn't have much support. And the bumper gap can remain unfilled. Or you could put a piece of weatherstripping there. The factory '74 filler won't fit though.

72bluNblu said:

There is some additional work that has to be done, depending on how you go about it and whether or not you want it to look factory.

So this is the what the bumper mounting panel looks like on a '74, big hole for the shock mount to pass through
View attachment 1715375640

This is one of the holes that has to be drilled out for the 70-73 bumper bracket. You can also see that the hole is already located, and that hole is in an "L" shaped tab on the frame rail
View attachment 1715375668

Here's the other issue, the '74+ cars used a plastic filler, so there was no "ear" on the quarter to hide the bumper gap like the earlier cars, the plastic filler did that job
View attachment 1715375643

So the quarter is smooth, with screw holes for the filler
View attachment 1715375639

The first time I did this I just made a new bracket that replaced the shock mount, so I didn't fill the holes for the shock mounts and I didn't do anything to the frame or quarter.
View attachment 1715375669

That works, but you get this gap...
View attachment 1715375645

The second time around I welded up the holes in the tail panel and added the inner hole for the 70-73 bumper bracket.
lView attachment 1715375644
View attachment 1715375641
I also ditched the brackets I made up before and made up an "L" bracket to weld to the end of the frame rail like the factory had on the earlier cars
View attachment 1715375642

View attachment 1715375646

And I made up the "ear" that came on the end of the earlier quarters to hide the bumper gap. Again I made this looks somewhat factory, it's not perfect but from the outside it looks close
View attachment 1715375638

View attachment 1715375637

Now, how much of that you do is up to you. You can do it like I did the first time around, which actually didn't require any modifications to the car beyond drilling the one hole. The brackets I made used the original shock bumper mounts and I could have re-mounted the shock bumper if I wanted to. Or you could do all of it like I did the last time around, which was to basically make the car look like a '70-'73 car did from the factory with the frame tabs, filled holes and ears added onto the quarter and tail panel. Or some combination of the two. You could skip the frame brackets and just weld up the holes, but then the inner bolt for the bumper mount wouldn't have much support. And the bumper gap can remain unfilled. Or you could put a piece of weatherstripping there. The factory '74 filler won't fit though.

Click to expand...

Would you happen to still have the brackets you made the first time? If you do, do you want to sell?

cpearce said:

Would you happen to still have the brackets you made the first time? If you do, do you want to sell?

Click to expand...

I’m pretty sure I have them still. They’re nothing fancy, and not as strong as the other ways of doing it. But if you’re interested in them shoot me a PM.

Thank you for the detailed pictures blunblu! I'm going to get some measurements this weekend and get some weld-in brackets drawn up in CAD.

440fury said:

Thank you for the detailed pictures blunblu! I'm going to get some measurements this weekend and get some weld-in brackets drawn up in CAD.

Click to expand...

No problem!

The outside of the rail has the bracket, you can see it in the picture where I showed the hole on the backside that can be drilled out for one of the earlier bumper mounting holes. My bracket was basically just a copy of the factory piece. I just made mine with a cardstock template and a bench vise.