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Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster?

Posted By: RapidusMaximus

Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 06:55 PM

I would like to remove the 5mph bumpers and related shocks from my 74 and 75 Dusters, my questions is do non-5mph bumpers and mount brackets bolt on or do you have to fabricate the mounts? Does anybody make a "conversion" bracket/package? Thanks
Posted By: mod5v

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 07:54 PM

You can just remove the guts(that's what I did) or figure out a way to compress the shock and weld it up. Only thing is with the later bumpers they are a little wider than the early units. Still looks way better than stock.

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Posted By: shanker

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 08:08 PM

I'm going to be doing the same thing..

I was going to custom fab some brackets out of the pile of OE brackets stacked out back, remove the iron from the rear of the bumper, weld in the studs & grind down smooth the face of them, section the bumper to bring it into the side of the car, then have it re-chromed.

I'm planning on doing this for the front & rear...hopefully a nice subtle modification that will appear stock when complete is what I'm shooting for.

The plastic filler panels on those cars are all warped and look like hell.

The cheap option would be to buy 70/71 bumpers & brackets and bolt them on and remove the filler panels, but it'll be obvious and the front pumper won't match the curves or the edges of the grille.

if you have a 74/75 Dart Sport, that was the ugliest front grille ever made and I don't think that 70/71 Dart bumpers would even remotely look good..

Another option would be to find a feather duster and rob it's hood, decklid, and bumpers.
Posted By: Bolig

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 08:14 PM

All I did on the front bumper of my wife's '75 Dart Sport was drill a hole in the "shock"/tube, drain the oil, compress the "shock" to where I wanted the bumper, and rewelded it.

I used a '72 bumper on the rear, but had to modify the brackets (cut/weld), to fit.
Posted By: Kern Dog

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 08:58 PM

On my 74 "FrankenDuster", I used 67-72 front bumper and a 73 rear. The car came with the same "shock absorber" types so I did the following:
REAR: New AMD bumper with stock brackets. I welded a .120 wall steel plate over the HUGE hole in the panel that the shock absorber used to pass through. Holes were drilled for the early bumper mounts and the bumper was fitted like stock.
FRONT: Used 1970 bumper and brackets. The frame rails had the HUGE threaded hole for the shock absorber type bracket, but also had the two holes for traditional mounts. The two holes had no threaded nuts, so I made a sheet metal plate with nuts welded to it and slipped it in through the end of the frame rail, then plug welded the plate through 4 5/16" holes that I drilled in each frame rail.
The early bumpers are smaller, lighter and just look better to me.

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Posted By: Kern Dog

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 09:00 PM

#2

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Posted By: OldMoparMan

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 10:00 PM

I did mine by removing the oil "drilled and drained" and internal spring then pushing the bumper into where I wanted it. Next I welded the tube together and now it's a solid bumper in close to the fenders.
Posted By: RJS

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 10:10 PM

I did my 74 Dart Sport years back by removing all that extra crap and slotting the bumper bracket holes to push bumper back. Eliminated 75lbs. especially with the fiberglass bumper.
Ron

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Posted By: John Brown

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/15/14 11:26 PM

What's the matter....

You don't want to have a bumper that looks like a park bench?
Posted By: RapidusMaximus

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/16/14 01:00 AM

Quote:

What's the matter....
N
You don't want to have a bumper that looks like a park bench?



Yeah...a big heavy park bench that seats about 3
But seriously, thanks for all the tips, I'm a newbie to this "late model" stuff and I'm going to put these Dusters on a diet...don't these things have heavy crash bars in the doors also?
Posted By: shanker

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/16/14 02:03 AM

Quote:

Quote:

What's the matter....
N
You don't want to have a bumper that looks like a park bench?



Yeah...a big heavy park bench that seats about 3
But seriously, thanks for all the tips, I'm a newbie to this "late model" stuff and I'm going to put these Dusters on a diet...don't these things have heavy crash bars in the doors also?




yes they have supports in the doors, but not enough in weight savings to go thru the labor hassle to cut one out..

if you want to lower the weight of the doors, get some early model doors...
Posted By: Kern Dog

Re: Removing 5mph bumpers and shocks from Duster? - 12/16/14 04:41 AM

"if you want to lower the weight of the doors, get some early model doors... "

The 67-72 doors use a different door panel, different inner latch, the inner stamping is different too.
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