Bumper Woes........

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pastortom1

pastortom1

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OK....I bought a front bumper from a FABO vendor........He assured me it was being taken from a 74 Dart Sport.......Got the bumper, chrome was pretty nice....that's why I bought it........

Problem arose when the bumper bolt placements turned out to be ALL WRONG.

The vendor put $50. back in my account, BUT the bumper is still seriously screwed up......... I thought I could just fabricate a new extension for one side of the mount.......oh contraire'..........ALL of the bolt locations are off, making the bumper useless without the correct mounts off that car....the spacing is off lengthwise as well as widthwise, and 2 are diagonally off.

I'm going to ask him for the mounts, BUT don't know what the outcome will be....car could be crushed for all I know......

Does anyone have a good idea about these bolt patterns for the front of the Dart Sports? How many different patterns were made? Could you tell what I have if I post a photo???
 
A pic is worth a thousand words...... My guess is it's a '74 duster bumper, they look kinda the same at a glance, but are totally different. If you post a pic I could identify it right away as well as a lot of other members can.:dontknow:
 
Here's the driver side half.........

What is it???? Supposed to be a 74 Dart Sport. It ain't. :read2:

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Tom,

I have a 74 Dart Sport. The brace is currently on the car. The chrome bumper is still is the wrapping when the chrome shop sent it back to me after they rechromed it. I haven't a clue what your picture is, but I can post pictures of what the 74 Sport is supposed to look like. I bought the car new in 1974. Tell me exactly what pictures you want - mounting brace, bolt location, chrome bumper front or back, front bumperettes, etc.
 
1974DartSport said:
Tom,

I have a 74 Dart Sport. The brace is currently on the car. The chrome bumper is still is the wrapping when the chrome shop sent it back to me after they rechromed it. I haven't a clue what your picture is, but I can post pictures of what the 74 Sport is supposed to look like. I bought the car new in 1974. Tell me exactly what pictures you want - mounting brace, bolt location, chrome bumper front or back, front bumperettes, etc.
Click to expand...

The same pic you see here would be great.......drivers side, showing the bolt patterns..........Thanks............. Doc :read2:
 
well i went outside and took a pic of the bumper on my all original 74 sport just for you lol. and i can see the holes are different

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Yeah, that's the one I took off the car...........

The one in the pic is the one I purchased from the FABO Vendor.......I sent him an e-mail last night asking for the mounts........no answer yet.
 
remember, they went from ridgid mount bumpers to shock mounted in 74.....but, i have seen 74 darts/dusters with or without the shock mount style that were all original....i know that both diferent mount style used different hole patterns..
 
Yup.......My 74 has no shock mounts.........only on the rear.........

But the bumper he sold me doesn't appear to be from one either........
 
I believe it's a 75-76 bumper for a duster...looks the same for a 76 sport.
First pic is a 76 duster
Second is a 75 duster
Third is a76 dart sport

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.............AND THE MAN WINS A CIGAR!!!

That's definitely the one he sold me.........Now, since he's not answering so far, I have to locate a proper set of brackets....OR, I have to fabricate from what I have..........

I'd rather just bolt a set up in there.........But they have to be without a shock system............:angry7:
 
Dougster and I were talking about this very thing a couple of weeks ago and here is what we came up with:

Smooth front bumper with solid mounts:
70-72

Smooth rear Bumper with solid mounts:
70-73

Ridged/pointed front bumper with solid mounts:
73-74

Ridged/pointed front bumper with shock mounts:
75-76


Ridged rear bumper with solid mounts:
74 only??? ok so 74 seems to be a strange year. Could be solid or shock mounted

Ridged rear bumper with shock mounts:
75-76

And apparently with the shock mounts, you get different mounting holes in the bumper....sucky crash rules changing from year to year.. :angry7:
 
pastortom1 said:
.............AND THE MAN WINS A CIGAR!!!

That's definitely the one he sold me.........Now, since he's not answering so far, I have to locate a proper set of brackets....OR, I have to fabricate from what I have..........

I'd rather just bolt a set up in there.........But they have to be without a shock system............:angry7:
Click to expand...

Cuban?????
Well, the guy may not be calling you back because he's trying to figure out what to do about it....
ok so if you have the brackets for the old bumper and the backing plate from the new one you could weld/bolt the brackets/plate together and have a legal bumper with no extra holes. Fabricating bumper brackets seems to just be extra work that no one will ever see...
It's getting harder to find out what is actually "stock" on these cars after 35yrs, especially when the stock items aren't consistent ( 1974 )
 
Well, I don't have the inner brace........too heavy to ship.......didn't need it........had one..(we thought)......

....If he doesn't answer me, and I don't know why he wouldn't (but he doesn't seem to be yet), I'll have no choice but to bolt the braces up on the car for reference and parameters, and stand on my head a little makin' a pattern........I suppose I can do it, but it's so stinking hot here right now I don't even want to THINK about it.........

....Maybe if I could get my wife to stand over me with the water hose while I'm on the floor..........hmmmmmm............
 
Well, at 53 years, I can't wait any longer to hear back from the guy who sold me the bumper........SO, I took the situation in hand and did a decent mod on the thing.........

Instead of welding new bracket extenders (because the old brackets actually pointed in the wrong direction for a good weld...you'd have to be here I guess...), I opted to use just 2 of the old brackets, and eliminate the entire cross brace as well, ending up with a much lighter and cleaner install than stock........I plugged the extra bolt holes with new bolts (2 to go...ran out) and now I'm modding a set of front guards to hide the NOS chrome areas on the front........Have to cut and weld a bit to do what I'm thinkin'........

While I was in there, I goofed on the guys who change my oil....put "Hurst" stickers inside the brackets.......They'll probably wonder where you get such stuff........

I guess I'll survive........and the front end sits a little higher now with that "beer belly" gutted out. :toothy10:

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