johnwhoss

I got into a little mishap and need my front bumper replaced on my '77. The shop that is doing the work was going to put on a GM urethane bumper and add flex additive to the paint. Should I use the GM urethane bumper or go with the aftermarket flex fiberglass bumper?

Thanks!

'75

I went with the flexi glass bumper. 1, its less expensive and 2, it won't get wavy looking after a few years. The only draw back is that it will sometimes take a little fiberglass work to make it fit perfectly.

swtato

I went with tru flex and like the look much better and the paint matches perfect, vs urethane has a slight different color when painted. I think I saw you car in a lot of Space Center the other day, is that where you work? What happened to your car?

johnwhoss

Hi Mike!

I was driving it down Nasa Rd 1 and the guy in front of me stopped suddenly for a yellow light. The ground was wet and I just touched the brake pedal and the car locked up and I hit the guy at ~3mph. The bumper is toast. It's up at Richie Collision north of town. Every time I think I'm making headway on this car something happens! I work at Lockheed on Nasa 1 across from JSC. I followed the progress of your paint work on the Houston C3 site...it looks great!

hicswa

Danny

taylorsk8

3 mph hey. That sucks cause the rubber came from a 5 mph safety rule. Guess 30some years makes the glass weak.

T

johnwhoss

yeah....I just knicked the left front bumper. The bumper caved in and the fiberglass next to the headlight cracked. The left grill and turn signal are busted too. It didn't take the bump too well! There's a lot of little parts in there like metal bracings that need to be replaced. The initial repair estimate I got was $7800! I could almost buy another C3 or C4 for that amount! I have Hagerty insurance and am waiting word from them on how much they'll pay. We have an agreed replacement value of $15,000.

swtato

$7800 that sounds way out of line?

Ron R

Yeah something isn't right there unless they're re-painting the whole front end of the car, which isn't necessary unless you have a candy paint job or something.

Get a parts list of everything that has to be replaced and price it out on one of our vendor sites. That way you'll see how much is parts vs. labor. Unless you damaged the headlights and that whole system I can't see more than $2k worth of stuff being replaced.

johnwhoss

They're replacing the left front panel that is cracked, not just patching it. That's the big expense, having to remove the broken panel at the seam and install the new one. Apparently there's a metal brace under the fiberglass that goes the width of the front end in front of the headlights that they're going to have to replace, as well as all the little bits and pieces. And they're prepping and repainting the whole left quadrant and blending it into the hood. They're using GM parts wherever it's possible...the GM bumper costs $800 for the part alone. I have a copy of the detailed estimate and a thousand here and a couple of hundred there really adds up! This is a lot more than I thought it would cost but this is Richie Collision, the best Corvette body shop in Houston.

I'm still undecided about whether to use the urethane bumper or the flex-fiberglass bumper...

swtato

There are a lot af braces and supports underneath the bumper, some may not be used if you go with a tru flex since some of the bracing is there to help support the urethane.

I am real happy with the tru flex. I like the smooth look and how it holds the true color with paint. The downside is it does not give as much as the urethane. That is ok for minor buumps if they happen but in a collision, it would not really matter.

Jennifer@KeenParts.com

I can tell you as a vendor that we sell at least 20:1 (if not more) Tru-Flex bumpers over the original urethane style. I do stock both, but customers always end up happy with the way the Tru-Flex one fits and how much more durable it is. The added bonus is that they are cheaper than the original urethane style.

Kevin
www.KeenParts.com
800-757-5336