Been surfing through pictures to get a couple good shots of the front and rear valance for the 74' bumpers, i have a set of the bumpers, but no valance, and am going to fabricate them, but need some good pictures to see what i'm getting into, and moreover to see if it's worth it. Can do sheetmetal work no problem, just need a reference and some dimensions on the stock, so that i can maintain the stock look. Can't be harder than doing rear quarters for a 73' Gran Torino from 1/8" sheetmetal from scratch i'm hoping. If someone can possibly measure theirs from top to bottom, and the width, that would be great, so i know about where i need to be as far as sizing, don't want to build it too "deep" under the front and am aiming at getting the angles right for the rear. Also noticedc my bumper shocks form the 76' bumpers the holes seeem to be mounted WAAAY too low for the 73 bumpers, they dont' even come close to matchign up with the tail-panel, how do the rear valences attach in rear typically?
Are you swapping to the small bumpers? All 74 thru 77 bumpers are the same as far as I know, so you must have 73 back bumpers. The 73 back rear bumpers don't use shocks, they have brackets that bolt to the body under the tail lights. The rear valance bolts to the body just under the bumper, and at the bottom corners. The fronts on a 70-72 use brackets that bolt to the bottom of the frame rails. The 73 is a one year only midsize bumper that has it's own brackerty. The front valance bolts to the bottoms of the front fenders where the small extensions are and to the bottom of the headlight buckets. Hope this makes it easier to understand, study a few pics of the early vs the late cars and you'll see what I'm talking about...
I think... possibly? that mine are the 70-72? they aren't as wide as the "medium" bumper, and the front, is no thicker than a 12oz soda can... if that? For rear, it has a set of mounts on the bumper... simple looking mount to bumper, and a u bracket with the two flat ends holes on each side to mount rear, the holes line up with the bumper shock holes, but that causes the bumper to sit incredibly low. the front bumpers look like the early 70-72 now that i've seen some of them, but i don't want to drive the car without somthing to protect the bottom of the radiator, rear needs to be mounted about 3 inches higher than the bumper shock holes on a 76" to get the bottom middle of the chrome rear, to line up with the bottom lip of the back panel, leaving a 3" or so flat metal, and exposed gas tank... no way that could roll form a factory like that definately needs early style rear and front valences. Other question, i don't hacve my quarter extensions on car yet, but they seem to be too long by about 1.5 in with the small bumper mounted where it looks like it's going to need to go. Front mounts are a swooped large plate on each side, that thin out and connect to the front bumper, and there are two smaller brackets that come out of the corners at about 45 degrees to the car from the exterior of the front bumper corners? I'll take pics in the morning and post so that you can see what i'm working with. When i got the bumpers, the rear had a black rubber trim all the way across, stripped it off (was shot to hell) and have the longer holes to attach new rubber strip to, once i get the rear rechromed, but i would like to get it mocked up so i can get the body sanded and ready to paint while bumper is being rechromed. Amazingly they are both straight and no bends, dings or dents... just the rear was pitted a bit, and has to be sanded down to remove the pitting and then smoothed. Does this help at all to give an idea of what i am working with?
They are definately not antyhing like the huge ass bumeprs that were on the maverick when i bought it... i swear it feels like i gained 2" of ride height... after nearly breaking my arm with the back bumper to get it off the car and remove the bumper shocks. Front is also psychotically heavy compared to the new ones... can carry both in one hand easy... the old bumpers look nearly identical in dimensions to the ones on Thomas's mav in his thumb new ones look exactly like the ones on the black and yellow mav in your sig 84stepside
