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Hey, I've been thinking about this for a long time. I cant make up my mind about moving my bumpers in on my 74 cuda. I'm still in the middle of the restore, and I'll need to buy new bumpers sometime soon. Pretty sure I will nix the rubber bumperettes in place of the smaller ones in the rear, and none in the front. Just looking for your opinions. PS. Just making a driver.
Thanks.



I did to my 74 Cuda exactly what you are thinking of doing to yours. I drilled a new hole in the front bumper brackets to pull it in (there was one factory hole on each side of the brackets that lined up so only one hole per side needed to be drilled), and took the front bumperettes off. On the rear, I fabricated some bumper brackets by using a torch to heat and bend some quarter inch steel bar, and drilled the mounting holes. It did take a little trial and error, but not too much. I then went with the small chrome bumperettes from a 70 Cuda. I think it looks much better this way. The only problem with doing it the way did is that you can still see where the old bumperettes mounted on the bumpers - there are some indentations from the edges of the old bumperettes in the bumpers, and the chrome on the bumpers is much nicer where it was protected by the bumperettes. However, if you are getting new bumpers this shouldn't be a problem. I believe I also had to drill new holes in the rear bumper to mount the 70 bumperettes, but the bumperettes covered over the old bumperette holes, so the old holes are not visable.

You can also just get 70-71 Cuda bumpers and brackets, I believe they mount right up with no fabrication needed. They are much lighter - the later bumpers have a heavy inner bumper - but those inner bumpers can help reduce damage if you get in a wreck. I was in a wreck in the late 90's that probably would have totaled my Cuda if not for the inner bumper, and it did total the Toyota that caused the accident. That's something to keep in mind if you're just making a driver and aren't too concerned with the added weight.

1974 'Cuda 360/TKO 1990 Ram Van 1998 Neon