68-72 front bumper mounting

[74customnova]

Ok, here's the deal, i have a 74 nova, converting the front end to 68-72, does anyone have their front bumper/parts off etc... so they can see the actual frame rails where the bumper brackets mount to, ok on my nova, their are NO slots for the brackets...their's three holes, but they don't match up at ALL to the 68-72 bumper brackets so i need to know the dimensions of those slots and where their located on the frame rails, anyone with a blue print of it etc.. would be awesome, PLEase help before i start drilling holes and make some frame rails look haggard. , also
got a mystery rear end that was told it was from a 75 nova, the code on it's
FC 6k 273 , yeah weird looking i know, it doesn't match up at all to 75 nova rear end codes according to my chevy by the numbers book,

[68chevyll]

I always thought the slots were in all frames from 68-74. I guess not. Later.


Mark!

[Ray_McAvoy]

Hi 74customnova,

I always thought the front bumper mounting holes on the 68-74 subframes were the same too. But I took a look at the subframes on a couple of my parts cars earlier this evening and you are right ... 74's ARE DIFFERENT.

My 73 parts car has a hole and two angled slots on each side while the 74 has 3 holes. I don't have a 68-72 to compare with, but I have a feeling that the holes/slots in the 73 subframe are the same since 73's used similar design bumper brackets.

If you can't find any reference material with the dimensions/locations of the slots, you could loosely bolt the bumper brackets to the bumper and with the help of a friend, a floor jack, etc. line the bumper up in position with the front end of the car. Use some C-clamps to temporarily hold the brackets in place and drill the new holes. I would recommend drilling the new holes in the bumper brackets rather than the subframe. That way, you'd only mess up the bumper brackets (rather than the subframe) if you accidentally got the holes in the wrong places.

[Nova_Guy]

Send Drive_WFO a PM. He did that swap on his car, he could probably steer you in the right direction. Ask him for the name of the blacksmith that helped him out.

[strtlegal]

since we are this subject, i had to buy a new bumper and used inner brackets for my car..well i go under there and see two slots but it seams only one of the slots on the brackets line up with the fram slots..

can anyone shoot some pics..i really didnt get a chance to mess with it alot but anymore info would be great thanks!

[jmcleek]

To all that is making this swap, when I did this swa.p I made a trip to the junk yard and made a template of that part of the frame rail, taking note of all holes in the front part of the frame rail. There is a larg hole that is in all 68-74 frame rail in the same spot(centered about 3 an 3/8 back from the front edge). there was two slotted holes(1 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch ,angeled in oppisit directions) and one 1/2 inch hole. The holes used was the 1/2 hole and front slotted hole.

[72Orange]

I took pictures when I took my front end apart so that I would know how they go back together. Here's the driver side.

[72Orange]

And the passenger side

[72Orange]

both sides