1973 bumpers: significantly lighter than '74+?

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MRGTX

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I have been plotting to order up fiberglass front bumper for the Dart for a while now...I kept hearing how much weight there was to save off of the late A-Body cars because the bumpers had the extra support built in and weighed a lot because of it.

Honestly, despite having climbed all over this car for the past two+ decades, I never gave the bumpers much thought but when I was hitting the bolts with some penetrating oil in prep for removing them down the road, they didn't look as I was led to believe. There didn't seem to be some massive chunk o' steel back there at all.

Sure, the bumpers are made from pretty heavy gauge sheet metal but could it be that there isn't as much weight to save on the '73s than there are on later cars?
 
It's not the bumper itself. '73 & '74 with standard bumper brackets have a reinforcement plate sandwiched between the bumper & standard brackets that can be removed. The '75-'76 "shock absorber" bracket type bumpers have a very heavy reinforcement that can't simply be removed because the "shock absorber" bumper brackets bolt to to it, not through it. Only the '76 Feather Duster & Dart Lite bumper assemblies are closer to the older style "channel" brackets because their reinforcement is made from aluminum.
 
Yup it's not in the bumpers it's in their mounting brackets. To remove the front plate you have to separate it from the bracket and remove two bolts and the heavy plate is gone.
 
I remember the first time I picked up my 74 bumper.lol If its not 150 lbs with the brackets I'd be surprised.
 
It an A body, but on my ‘79 Magnum, the huge bumper has a steel bumper shaped box behind it. They also attach to a shock absorber. It’s huge!
 
It depends! But yes, the '73 bumpers are lighter, especially the rear bumper because it's the same as the '70-72 bumpers.

'74 was weird, the cars started off with shock bumpers front and rear. But by sometime in December they went away from the shock mount bumpers in the front and back to a standard, non-shock mount bumper.

The '74 non-shock mount Duster bumper weighs about 60 lbs with the brackets. The shock mount bumper would be significantly heavier (100+ lbs overall). The '73 front bumper would be the non-shock style, so, I would expect it to weigh about the same, so, 60 lbs roughly. Dart Sport would be a little different, but not a bunch.

The '74 rear bumper, with it's shock mounts and heavy reinforcing core, was over 100 lbs. I weighed all that stuff out because I sold and shipped most of it, but I can't seem to find my notes. '73's used the same rear bumpers as the 70-72 cars, and they weigh less than half that amount.
 
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