JohnnyRingo

I am needing to replace the frame on my 74 4speed. I have a 75 4spd parts car that has a solid frame and newer suspension/fiberglass spring. I have truflex bumpers on my '74. Wanting to know if the front and rear bumper supports on a 75 will work with my '74 truflex bumpers. I know technically they are different but will they work. The front bumper supports on my 74 have a good amount of rust and thought this would save some time/money. My car is not all original so keeping it that way is not a concern.

Artsvette73

I know the front impact system and supports are diffrent. I am not 100% sure on the rear.

JohnnyRingo

I do realize they are different, I was looking at my parts and illustration manual. I would just like to know if the truflex would fit on the 75 bumper supports. I was looking around and the front bumper supports for the 74's are real pricey. Dang urethane bumpers! Mine might be salvageable but they are completely coated with rust and starting to scale. So I thought It might save time/money to go with the 75's supports.

gbvette62

I think it will be easier to use the fiberglass bumpers with the 75 supports, than to adapt the 74 supports to your 75 frame. The 74 and 75 frames are different in the front and back. The only area I can think of that would need some work would be the license area of the center front support. 75-79 front bumpers have bumperettes on each side of the front license. 74 bumpers do not have the bumperettes. The center section of the 75-79 front support has a panel for the license that has 2 reinforcements that go behind the bumperettes of the 75-79 bumper.

You will have to leave the supports for the tail lamps off the rear inner bumper, if you want to use 74 lamps.

gbvette62

This is the center section of the 75-79 front support that will not work with the 74 bumper. This piece only bolts to the support, so it should be easy to eliminate. The 75 bumper is closed off behind the front plate, while the 74 is open. You'll have to fabricate mounts for the 74 center grill or license plate bracket to fill the openning in the center of the 74 bumper.

BBCorv70

If you change out the frame you'll end up with the serial # from the 75 on your 74?
Don't know whether DMV will hassle you on that later on. They looked for at least 2 matching serial numbers on my 70 when I went to register.

Just a thought..

Artsvette73

QUOTE=BBCorv70;1574889484]If you change out the frame you'll end up with the serial # from the 75 on your 74?
Don't know whether DMV will hassle you on that later on. They looked for at least 2 matching serial numbers on my 70 when I went to register.

Just a thought..[/QUOTE]

Probably thousands of vettes out there with diffrent frames. If done right the DMV police would never know

76vette1

I thought about that too. So I cut the number out of the old frame, had it nickel plated and mounted it on the new frame

JohnnyRingo

I might do that, I know the MO dmv is not very strict as far as the frame number goes. I got to looking some more and I may be able to clean up my bumper supports. Not looking forward to the swap but I think it will be well worth it.