[Murray Brown]

Has anybody out there ever attempted to remove the "shocks" that are with the front and rear bumpers of a 1974 GTO or Ventura or Nova (sorry for the 4-letter word) to bring the bumpers in "closer" to the car's body?

[Murray Brown]

Has anybody out there ever attempted to remove the "shocks" that are with the front and rear bumpers of a 1974 GTO or Ventura or Nova (sorry for the 4-letter word) to bring the bumpers in "closer" to the car's body?

[UnchainedGTO]

Murray,
If you remove the shock the bumper will be up against the fascia. I have not measure, but the front body filler panel that goes between the bumper and the fascia is not a wide as the length of the shocks. You would have to create a spacer of some type.

Unchained

[Ken K]

I don't know about a Ventura but I did that modification to a 73 Gran Prix. It only brought the bumper in about 2 inches. I cut the back of the shock off with a cut off wheel, it's full of oil. After I cut the back off you can compress the bracket. I then welded it up. I cut a big chunk of bracing right out of the center of the bumper and left just enough to mount to the brackets.

[Murray Brown]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by UnchainedGTO:
If you remove the shock the bumper will be up against the fascia ..... you would have to create a spacer of some type.Unchained<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Understood. And that is also part of the plan .... getting rid of that horrid plasticy piece that can NOT be found as a replacement part anywhere.

[74GOATBOY]

That bumper filler is tough to find on short notice, I agree. But I have seen about 4 of them sell on ebay in the last 2 years. An NOS one sold for $150, but the others usually fetch $40-$70. Those in good shape always seem to come from up north where the hot sun doesn't fry them into misshapened pieces of twisted plastic.

[Gooatee]

I am looking into this after the first of the year! I want to try a couple things! One is to rid myself of the rediculous shocks and the other is to lighten the car by either reducing or removing the heavy steel backer! I have seen fiberglass bumpers and may even go that route for the front but, I have not seen anyone offering to chrome the fiberglass and I like the looks of the car with chrome bumpers! I am not so concerned in removing the filler panels as mine are still in good shape for the most part! I may look into making aluminum brackets that will replace the shocks and backer panel and keep the bumper mounted in the same location to still use the fillers! Any insight on this subject that will help all of us better this setup would be welcome! I, will also post results as they are achieved!

[74gto]

Guys, guys, guys!!! I'll save you all a bunch of headaches. I know this will be harder to do than say, but here goes.Find a 73 Ventura in the boneyard. There were no 5mph shocks in 73. You will have to take the inner bracing out of your 74 front bumper and you can use the 73 front brackets that bolt right up to the frame.If memory serves me correctly, you will have to drill 2 holes in your bumper and get some chrome bolts for the bumper to bolt it to the brackets. I think you may also have to drill out the frame or ream the existing holes. Forgive me as it's been quite a few years since I've done this. The rear bumper can be done one of two ways. You can take the 73 bumper brackets and , again having to gut the bracing out of the bumper, bolt it to the 74 bumper. Also have a few holes to drill to mount the brackets to the bumper. The other way is to take a 73 bumper with the brackets, and moch it up off the back part of the frame brace, mark where the brackets go, take the bumper down and weld nuts in the correct spots to bolt the bracket to the frame. The bolts go throufh the bracket into the rear frame in 73. so you are duplicating the 73 setup. I know there are slight differences between 73 and 74, so use 74 rear bumper if you are after correct look. I think that the filler should be retained as these cars look silly (IMHO) with the bumper silling right next to the body. E-mail me if you have questions, or as Goatee says, make some brackets to bolt the bumpers to the frame. You won't believe how much weight this takes out. You also may need to JB Weld some tabs to the backside of the bumper to hold the edge of the filler panels in.