I had them deleted on mine '72 when I ordered it and it wasn't suppose to have a vinyl top, but was ordered as a demo, heads were shaved to 11.75-1, build date was April of '71, got it in November of ,71. It had mostly '71 parts, whole driveline plus extras. Those sly dealerships hopping up their demo models was par for the Big 3. Columbiaparts.com has bumperettes I believe. I have a set of OEM '73 bumpers from a parts car. Brackets for bumpers on late '72 on, were longer and had another bolt in the frame and bracket, can use them for pre'72 by cutting off the second hole. Don't ever use a bumper jack as it will bend the bumpers.....always, any style.

Ive used bumper jack (using proper slot) for years with no issue. Is the reinforcing bar behind bumper missing on the bent bumpers??

Another winter has come and gone and no real new progress as the last month, when weather was nice enough to work on cars, I was recovering from knee surgery. Ready to continue on now though. If I haven't mentioned it before, I am a chronic DIYer. OK, I'm cheap! I am building my own exhaust system from straight tubing. I bought 2 1/2" pipe from NAPA and took it to Mieneke Mufflers and had them make some key bends. When I went to pick them up, they explained that the tubing I brought was too thin to get the "U" bends for over the axle without kinking. What they did was sub my pipe for some heavier gauge stuff they had. I took in pieces that were just the right length to make the bend and I planned to tack and weld on the tail pipes once I knew where I wanted them. They used a full stock length (I think 8') pieces X 2 and let me keep the excess length. Cool Beans!!
I using magnum exhaust manifolds and rather than buying the flared head pipe sections and mounting flanges, I decided to make my own. Simply flaring the 2.5" pipe on the ends like a bell proved to be too loose for the ball end of the manifold. I cured this by rolling the flare back sharper to make the mounting surface tighter. Not as much surface area as stock but I don't think they took a 2.5" pipe as stock. Just hoping they are round enough and flanges are rigid enough. Considering welding some truss like gussets on them to help with that. Here a couple shots of the flanges and flares. I will mount on the engine first before I cut to length and determine where the first bend will start.

Went with an all aluminum radiator (old one wasn't worth refurbing). Also going to run a thermostatically controlled electric fan.

Update: Close to finishing up exhaust. I fabricated hanger mounts to bolt in place of the factory shipping tie-down brackets on the rear frame rails

mounted:

Then, I made the pipe hangers to work with universal rubber biscuit style hangers:

Another view:

And the passenger side:

Next step is to re-attach the valance so tailpipe locations can be established. Should be fun I will be making cut-outs for the yet-to-be-determined exhaust tips as well as covering the cut-outs for the soon-to-be-history "Nader" bumper pads. I also have to do some ironing out of "storage dings" Sorry in advance, neighbors. Its gonna get noisy!!

Body work continues. Goal: re install glass before first snow

Ready for spot putty but Gonna get some paint in the frame. I'm not putting plastic over the hole again this year

Those exhaust hangers are cool! I've never seen anyone do that before. That's pretty slick. I'll have to remember that one. Good job!

Thanks, Darren! I wanted something I could pick up at any parts store and install without modification. Turns out the universal rubber biscuits are virtually identical to the stock ones on my 98 Ram! I'm pleased with the results. Among my other hobbies is blacksmithing and fabrication. I like seeing what I can make myself rather than have to spend $$$ on stock parts. Allows more for LOL

Scott

Started putting color on: Main idea here is to get the rear glass back in before winter, so while I would like to paint as much of the car as possible, the top is the only real area ready for it. I ran out of primer so this is all I was able to coat so far. I am doing the "Paint Job on a Budget" plan and one of the bennies of this method no worries of paint dust and wasting a lot of paint in the wind. I figure the spray bomb primer I was using negated this benefit so I'm going to roll the remainder of primer as well as the finish color. I have been following the budget paint thread for several years now and while most have had good results, I was really pleasantly surprised with how good it looks albeit this is just the first coat. I was especially surprised at how well it leveled out. At first I had a fair amount of orange peel and I expected it; the main gripe about the method from antagonists is orange peel and the required sanding and leveling. My paint was pretty self-leveling, but again, its just the first coat.

Scott

One more. If the final work turns out satisfactorily, I suppose I will be obliged to add to the Budget thread

Just read through your build thread. Nice work. I wish I had the fab and welding skills that a lot of you guys on here have. I will be following this one for sure

Thanks for your interest. I hope you are patient as I, as winter has reared his ugly head once again and work is slowing down. I put the trim clips in today and went and bought butyl tape, but I don't think its going to be warm enough to put glass back in for awhile. Looking like another winter of duct tape and plastic

Scott

Good work! It seems to be never ending details until you get to do something significant doesn't it? You are a lot farther along than me. Keep it going. I hope you have some place inside for the long cold winter to work on the car.

Well Its been a while since I updated this thread but progress has been made. The engine is ready to start and we made an attempt last Sunday, but no joy. Without re typing all the gory details I'll just offer this link to the thread about it.

P.S. Where'd all my pictures go??