Bumpers for 69 cuda seems to have been a budget concern

[Sbgcl]

Hello fello mopar nuts. I have a 69 formula s barracuda i am resotoring. I love the car and its uniqueness but one thing that really bothers me is the bumper design both front and rear. It seams like the designers really dropped the ball here. I'm hoping it was purely because of budget. it seams early on Dodge and Ford had it right. They new how to integrate a bumper flawlessly into a quarter panel or a fender. They also new that the bottom of that bumper should at best meld into the lower valence panel. In any event im hoping to make a custom correction on my 69. After some research looking for bumpers on different vehicles which would get this look without too much modification I found that the 70 Mustang bumper would work for the rear and the 70 challenger bumper would work for the front. I tried this transformation in photoshop. See the attached photos.

 

[A56]

Have to admit they look good. I guess the "without too much modification" statement depends on brackets and sheet metal carving. Post a picture of your car as is. Does it require extensive "restoration work"?

 

[Cuda Al]

I wouldn't say that Chrysler dropped the ball on anything. The bumpers on the 67-69 Barracuda were quite sleek and modern for their day. Yes a few years later there were trends to stylize the bumpers more. Your concept goes even beyond that and is inline with the popular custom trends which can look great if done right.


Alan

 

[66fs]

I like them the way they were. A lot of trouble for no gain.

 

[Super-Cuda]

Very creative thinking!

For me, the center sections seem to work quite well. I would weld the bolts to the backside and fill the bumper bolt holes.

They start to fall down though on the ends that do not flow into the taillights in the rear rendition and the fender pockets in the front picture.

Great starting point though.

 

[Sbgcl]

I don't have photos of the car yet. I bought the car about 20 years ago. It was a drag car with a full roll cage and a tilt fiberglass front end. Availability for new parts back then was scarce so I got some inner fender wells and fenders from a texas bone yard and was able to get the rad support back to about 8" of frame locally. Started the restoration 2 months back got the rad support grafed to the frame, changed a piece of frame under the master cylinder and changed the torque box right next to the frame. Fabing everything myself as all of these parts are now super expensive. Went with the 66 mustang rotors to get the 4.5" bolt pattern. The car had the larger torsion bars and the 6 ply leaf springs that they used on formula s. Rebuilding the 8.75/742 have a 340 with a 18 spline hemi 4 spd . I do have a photo of the wheels i will share