I am beginning to think about munting the rear bumper on my brother's 74 Duster. He wants to use the rear bumper from a 71 Valiant. The 74 rear bumper was damaged in an accident and the 5mph shock absorbers were dead. The shock absorbers have been removed and the 74 bumper is long gone.

The 71 bumper mounts do not line up with the bolt holes in the Duster body.

Would it be possible to use 70-73 Duster bumper brackets to mount tge 71 Valiant bumper to the 74 Duster body? Or do I need to start fabricating an adapter?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Reed,

The 1974-1976 Duster rear bumper shock absorbers are unique to those years...1973 Had a one year only mounting system, and 1970-1972 used a system similar to the late-60's A-bodies....

Not sure if the coupe bumper will fit the space quite right on the duster.

That being said, if you aren't worried about tearing up the car from an impact...I was devising a set of aluminum tube style replacements for the bumper shocks by using plates and pipe to replicate the shape and mounting dimensions of the shocks and bolt everything up at less than 1/4 the weight...

You could probably be able to get some rems at the scrap yard of 2" pipe and some plates/angle and weld up an adapter setup that will use the original mounting points and something that will bolt up to the new bumper...if you drop the gas tank, you will have lots of room to mock up the parts and tack them together, then you can remove them and fully weld them....

Good Luck.

Tanks for the info! Welding up a plate-and-tube mount sounds like a good idea (except I can't weld aluminum). My brother really likes the Valiant bumper because it has the reverse lights in it, so we are going to try and fabricate a way to mount it. I hadn't though about welding up some combination of plate and tube to mate up to the bolt holes in the frame. Since it sounds like we will be fabricating stuff anyway, I might as well give that a try. Looks like I will need to learn some welding skills after all!

The back end on this car was hammered. An accident on each side. I am not worried about making modification. We already removed the original 74 taillight panel and welded in a Demon taillight panel. Welding in the Demon taillight brackets is the next item on the agenda!

Another issue is that when I was removing the passenger side shock, one of the mounting bolts seized in the captive nut and the nut broke free from its welds. I ended up cutting the bolt but now I have the partial bolt and the formerly captive nut rattling around inside the passenger side rear frame rail. I will probably end up drilling a big hole in the frame to get the nut out and figuring out a new way to attach the new bumper mount.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

I was thinking you'd do it in iron since you have the welder and still be lighter than the shocks....

Which passenger side shock mount had the captive nut? The rear shocks use a stepped stud that has a removable nut on the trunk side and on the shock side at the upper mount...if both sides are free, you can push or tap it out from the trunk to the garage floor...

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. When I said "shock," I was referring to the 5mph rear bump shock absorbers that mount to the frame, not the shock absorbers that mount to the rear axle and damper the rear springs. The rear axle mounted shock absorber mounts are fine.

Here are some pictures of what I am working with:

Here is a view from the rear looking forward. The large reversed "D" shape hole is where the 5mph crash shock passed though. The two holes on the side of the frame rail facing the gas tank are the mounting bolt holes for the crash shock. The rearmost hole that is slightly larger and has clean metal is the one that had the captive nut that broke free. My finger is pointing at the captive nut and remains of the bolt.



Side view:





The driver's side looks the same, but in reverse. The smaller holes with the thread in them on either side of the "D" were also used to mount the crash shocks.

I like the idea of using pipe and plate to fabricate some mounts. I don't want the bumper falling off. I will probably drop the gas tank again (but I will empty it first this time!) and spend some time cleaning up the rust and the frame rails.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

I would replace those rear shackles. They look a little rusty, and when they break you can get some interesting movements from the rear end when cornering.

Probably not a bad idea. I will do that before the car gets driven again. Right now, it just sits in the garage.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

In a pinch I would just drill the hole even through the other side of the subframe rail and bolt it through with washers...DO NOT torque it so tight you deform,crush, or collapse the rail. If you can get a spacer in to prevent crushing the rail that would help....

Not a bad idea. Actually, I found a factory hole in the trunk floor that opens into the inside of the frame rail (rustproofing access hole?) and I might open that hole up a bit bigger, re-weld the captive nut, then close the hole back up again.

I am putting great stock in my ability to learn how to weld decently, but where there's a will, there's a way!

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Reed,
The 71 bumper will look a lot neater. Its smaller and tucks in really nice. Someone on For A Bodies that did this posted pictures and fabricated a bracket to make it work. Will pass along the link.

Thanks!

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Here it is!
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/sho ... umper+swap

Thanks Valleyant! Page 5 had EXACTLY what I needed to see to figure out how to do this modification on my brother's Duster. I will need to do more fabricating since I stupidly tossed the original shock bumper mounts, but if I can figure out how to make half-decent welds, I think I can fabricate these brackets.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Awesome! glad to help...