67-73 Abody frame Rail and Rad Support

[340sFastback]

I thought the front frame rails were the same except for 1967, they spaced them further apart?

When Hoosier Garage, youtube, repaired front rails on his Duster he said somewhere early '70s upper control arm mounts got a reinforcement. But I think geometry is same. Front bumper mounts prob diff on later cars but cutting welding can get around that problem. Overall I think they interchange '67-'76

 

[72bluNblu]

When Hoosier Garage, youtube, repaired front rails on his Duster he said somewhere early '70s upper control arm mounts got a reinforcement. But I think geometry is same. Front bumper mounts prob diff on later cars but cutting welding can get around that problem. Overall I think they interchange '67-'76

Front frame rails are basically the same overall from ‘67-76. In ‘74 the shock mount bumpers showed up and then went away, then came back again in ‘75. So there are bumper bracket mounting issues that come up depending on what year you have if you use one with a different bumper bracket arrangement.

Needles to say, if you can swap an entire frame rail the bumper bracket mounts are something you can deal with.

 

[Kern Dog]

I have wondered about the shock type bumpers versus the standard bracket bumpers on 1974 models. I thought it was likely a change that took place partway through the model year. I assumed that the later builds would all have the shock type since all 1975-76 cars had them but I have seen/owned early built cars have the shock and later builds have the traditional design. It has always confused me. I thought that maybe there were different assembly plants working on different mandates ??

 

[72bluNblu]

I have wondered about the shock type bumpers versus the standard bracket bumpers on 1974 models. I thought it was likely a change that took place partway through the model year. I assumed that the later builds would all have the shock type since all 1975-76 cars had them but I have seen/owned early built cars have the shock and later builds have the traditional design. It has always confused me. I thought that maybe there were different assembly plants working on different mandates ??

It was actually the other way around. The ‘74 model year started with shock mounted bumpers and only the single mounting hole in the frame. Then there was a production issue with the shock mounts, I’m not sure what it was. But sometime in December ‘73 (‘74 model year production) the change was made back to standard bumper mounts. The frame rails from that point until the end of the year had all 3 bumper mounts in the frame rail, for both standard and shock mount brackets.

The second picture I posted above, with all 3 mounting locations, is my ‘74 Duster. It had standard brackets and all 3 locations, and has a June ‘74 production date. So fairly late in ‘74 model year production.

 

[Kern Dog]

That explains the confusion....that later built cars had the old style mounts.
I was thinking that, based on how some things get mandated January 1st, that logically the later builds should have had what they would all eventually get. (Shock type bumpers)
The Superbirds had to be built before January 1st since bumper regulations would have put the kibosh on the nose cone, you know....stuff like that.