With mounting the front bumper what do you do? like with the mounting system for the big bumpers? just heat them up and cut them off?they just pull out?? I got lost when looking at the donor car in the scrap yard. Also, does the rear bumper and lower valence all tie in with the rear? aside from the quarter panel extensions?
Bumpers The archives give you detailed info on the swap. Both front and rear bumbers are held on by huge brackets from '74 and up. The '73 front bumper is held by a large bracket as well and the rear for that year has slightly different brackets that put the bumper a little farther away from the car. '73 brackets are unique to that year only. The '73 rear bumper is the same as '70-'72. '73 front bumper is unique to that year. The '70-'72 and '73(rear only) bumpers can be put on after unbolting the original brackets and bumpers. The gravel pans will fit although drilling is required. The '73 front gravel pan is unique to '73 as well. The front fenders for 70-72's are different but can be modified to fit the closer fitting smaller bumpers of '70-72. If you convert to a '73 front bumper there is no notching needed. The filler panels between the bumbers and the body are the same '70-'72, and unique in '73. The toughest part is the rear as holes need to be cut below the taillight panel and brackets installed. Experienced advice here, take everything off of the donor car. I bought the whole car to make sure we did it right (my body/paint man did all the cutting). The one thing that you should buy aside from maybe rechromed bumpers, is the brackets that reinforce the area that the rear bumper mounts. The same brackets were used in 60's Mustangs. Call a Mustang parts dealer such as Mustangs Unlimited or one of the other 943 types of parts dealers and tell them you need those bumper brackets that are in the trunk welded to the floor. Measure your hole distance to make sure you get the correct ones. I think that I had about $18 in mine and it beat trying to cut the welds out for the flimsy ones. It's probably crazy, and I just thought about it. I threw away a good set of battering ram '74 bumpers to convert mine to '73 bumpers and I have a heck of a lot of time and money in a bumper swap. $200 donor car-'73 Maverick $65 tow bill to get it home $18 plus shipping for brackets $300 for rechromed bumpers from Bumper Boyz (I have had 3 rears, I will never buy from them again) $100 est. for extra time charged by my paint/body buddy David That's a lot of cash, I never thought about it before. Plus I had to haul the junker off. Good Luck- Seth
I see someone else had problems with Bumper Boyz, too. I bought a rear bumper from them, all the chrome flaked off within about 3 months. They didn't derust or copper coat, just put the nickel and chrome right over the bare rusty metal. They said they would replace it if I shipped it back to them and paid the shipping for the new one. Yeah, right!
Bumper Boyz I just bought a rear bumper from them about 3 months ago. In my opinion it looks awesome - both the chrome side and back of the bumper. I bought it at the Lowes Motor Speedway swap meet - it looks alot nicer than another Chrome dealer that had a Maverick bumper as well.
Bumper Boyz I bought mine at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, a year and a half ago. After checking in out, I rewrapped it in the original packaging, had my car painted a year ago this past fall, put the bumpers on last Dec. and found flakes in Feb. as well as two copper colored areas. After I sent it back, they took about 6 weeks to send me another, probably mine, except this one arrived twisted like a pretzel. Another 6 weeks later the replacement (maybe the same one) arrived. I am not 100% satisfied with it either, it has some rough areas in a couple of places and another small flake at a bolt hole. Seth
I think we've gotten off track... but as far as the mounting brackets for the big bumpers, will they come totally out and have the frame there to drill to for the other bumper?
That happens.... The swap that I did involved '74 bumpers converted to '73. The front was a bolt off swap. Same bolt holes for the '73 brackets that were intended for the '74. The rear you have to cut or drill holes AND use either fabricated or purchased brackets to reinforce the bottom of the taillight panel. The bumper would just hang there and probably bend the panel without this. The '73 and earlier rear bumpers are not bolted or attached to the frame as the '74 and newer cars are. Your lower gravel pan and the bumper will fill in all areas around the OLD rear bumper mounts. PLEASE note that there are differences in the fenders for '70-'72 cars. They are notched where the front bumper hugs the gril line out to the fenders. The '73 and up fenders are not notched because of the bumper being extended away from the car.
