Hello all! As promised, here are the pics of my fiberglass bumper project. I purchased these from Unlimited Products (www.up22.com). However, I must warn you, I've had to do alot of modifications to the fiberglass bumpers to make them look the way I want. I wound up using fiberglass mat and resin to attach the rear bumper directly onto the rear fender extensions. Thought it would be unique and stylish. The front bumper is laying on the trunk lid in these pictures. Also, I welded together a frame for my front bumper assembly, turnd out better than I thought. I'll post more pics when I assemble the front.
Good idea on the frt bumper frame. I know several people who just run a glass bumper. The treatment to the rear is very creative. Nice work.
http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?attachmentid=56440&thumb=1&d=1341802908 will the bumper/quarter tips be removable?
The quarter extensions unbolt from inside the trunk like always, only the fiberglass bumper piece comes with them. I'm planning on using more fiberglass and resin to afix nuts inside the bumper and run bolts from behind to further support the bumper.
making simple u shaped standoffs to glass into the bumper.. with a hole drilled on the flat to tack weld the nut.. works well and is simple to bend/hammer in a vice. And if the standoff height is considered.. you should have more than sufficient depth to avoid the bolt hitting/dinging the bumper and will likely give you a shorter bolt too. PS. you stole my idea. kidding. I saw that mod on the back of a Torino at a show once.. but never got around to prioritizing that mod over trying to go faster with most of mine. lol Always thought it would look cool on one of these cars too. It does.. and nice work thinking outside the box there.
That is cool. And that frame you made up front is probably every bit as effective as a stock front bumper.
Good idea on the standoffs. I welded some 5/16 nuts on some flat iron to fiberglass into the inside of the bumper. So really all I'd have to do is bend these to look something like this: Thanks for the help, that will keep the bolts from bottoming out into the fiberglass.:Handshake
yep.. that's it exactly. Although.. the nut doesn't always need to be below like that(especially since it's hidden). Just makes the standoff need to be taller to compensate.. or requires using a longer bolt to get enough threads in. just be sure they are tall enough.. and the bases tabs are sufficient in length to get enough glass at the base of the standoff(that's where you get your bond strength). Also be sure to really rough up the mating surface(including the standoff portion being buried) and solvent clean VERY good. I always prefer acetone as it can soften/reactivate the resin slightly and help with chemical bonding rather than just relying on mechanical bond only. Then the obvious.. and trust me here since I learned the hard way living in the rust belt most of my life.. stainless nut/bolt with a dab of low temp loctite. You could also use a stainless nylon lock not.. but very minimal heat needs to be used for the tack weld and only do 2 flats to reduce heat transfer while keeping a spray bottle handy for immediate cooling to avoid melting out the nylon and defeating the puprose of using it in the first place. You don't need large bolts and 1/4 inch should be more than sufficient for load carrying and ease of removal. With glass.. it's usually far better to have too many smaller clamping points.. than fewer large ones as the glass moves around and the resins shrink through the years. Be sure to post back and show us the final results. PS.. not that it's needed in this application.. you could also bend the standoff without tabs at the bottom of the legs and just run a flat piece for the base all the way across with tacks to each standoff leg. That will give you much more area under the standoff itself to glass in if the loads were higher than this particular mod will require. Keeps the torsional stresses which cause side to side movement down as well.
Thanks for the tips. I can't wait to get off work tonight and get started (if the wife will let me ). Maybe I can post pics tonight as well.
Front Bumpers complete!!! I finally got my fiberglass bumpers attached last night. Here are the pics: It's a little different than what is use to look like:
