jlsru

Well I guess I am finally going to have to install new bumpers on my 75 this winter as mine are cracked all to heck.Who has installed the flex bumpers?Are they hard to work with?What's involved with installation?

Thanks

Paul Borowski

Wayne, are'nt you tired of seeing my '75's rear TrueFlex pic yet??? :lolg: Am doing my '74's rear now. Gosh, is a '74 super simple back there compared to the '75-'79 rear :eek: I did major reconstructive surgery to the back of my '75 for it's rear bumper install. '74 was a piece o' cake :D

lyndave75

I put one on the back before painting. Fit was pretty good but bottom right corner needed some filling to flush out. :cheers:

jlsru

Paul.That looks like a great fit.What did you have to do?I do not want to do any painting on the body of the car as the paint is in great shape.Where did you buy your bumper from?

Thanks

burners

I installed a rear tru-flex bumper on my '78. It went well. The fit was a little off at the lower part of the quarter panel but overall it looks good. You have to drill all the holes to mount the tail lights, emblems and the actual mounting holes but it's not really a big deal. Mine had seams in the middle of each vertical side that needed to be sanded.

Paul Borowski

Wayne, I got a front and rear bumper from Toledo Pro Fiberglass(don't have his #, but you could find it on Yahoo Yellow Pages for Toledo,Ohio)for $322 FOR BOTH SHIPPING INCLUDED. The ones I got were "seconds". Ones that were slightly gouged & scratched that they CANNOT sell to MidAmerica, Zip, Corvette Central, etc.
The main thing I had to do with a sawzall is trim down the aluminum impact bar in between the tailights to the horizontal "peak" point, remove those black plastic taillight support pieces(these actually distort the bumper when trying to reuse these)and the small "rubber pads" behind the "bumperettes" had to be trimmed WAY down, but other than that, the results came out great. I have LESS into two bumpers than what most have into just ONE :D

KenSny

Paul, Did you also have to do what BURNERS said he did to the bumper. I was actually thinking of driving up there and getting a rear bumper rather than trying to repair the cracks in mine. Especially if there's not that much external modification (trimming/filling/sanding etc).

Paul Borowski

Ken, I definetly WOULD NOT repair cracks on an original bumper. It'd be a waste of time and paint work. I repaired my '75's rear bumper in '90, but it WAS NOT due to an age crack issue. These original bumpers are now 27/28 years old and are on "borrowed" time IF you have an ORIGINAL. Everything I had to featherfill and sand I spent less than a full day on it. I did NOT at all have to do anything to the paint OR body of the car itself. It came out very good, especially for a 144,000mi "driver" :lolg:

KenSny

Paul, That's kinda what I was considering. There are a few small cracks around the license plate "shelf" also. I figured that for the amount of time I would spend repairing it I could fit a new one. One final question: Did you have it painted on-car of off? Did you get the "gasket" (is that what it is) and new screws from one of the parts houses like Eckler's or Corvette Central?

SnoDrgn

My front is Truflex. Bolted right up with no modifications.

MAZ73

I put one on the front of my 73 last year with no problem. It was easier to conform to the fenders than the solid fiberglass one was.

DVG73

You are blessed :blueangel: My front is going to some elbow grease and Evercoat

AGVI

My front end is fibreglass, molded in...no problems except for that awful scraping sound when I enter/exit low driveways!!! :cuss

:D

rob75383

I am about a week away from ordering my flex-glass bumpers and misc. items.
I was gonna order them from Corvette Central, 'cause they've got the best advertised price. I'm definately gonna look into the Toledo shop and see what they have to offer.

My question is, is there any way to avoid the modifications you speak of??
I have spent a couple of hours (streched over a month or so) working out broken screws, scraping off corrosion, scraping rust off, and repainting with por-15.
I'd hate to have to chop all this stuff up to get the bumper to fit... why doesn't the stuff fit underneath if the molds are nearly identical to the factory bumpers?? I know the bodies were hand assembled and there are variances in the dimensions and fit, but wouldn't a replica bumper allow the alum. bar and plastic light brace to be used unmodified??



[Modified by '75 383 ElkGrove, 8:46 PM 10/2/2003]

Paul Borowski

Great, this is a pic I was looking for!!! The tailight supports on each side will distort and flare out the sides when you use these-believe me!!! Also in you pic those long vertical pieces which would be on each side of the license recess I had to shorten a few inches. The pads on each corner I shaved the rubber almost completely off. The aluminum piece behind the Corvette letters(looks like an "A" frame house)you do not need. I think where the problem lies is that GM got away with alot here-I mean the urethane bumper is very flexible and conformed to everything it was put over-now, here we are 28yrs later trying to put rigid or semi-rigid bumpers on these cars. Sometimes you car fits the bumper-NOT THE BUMPER FITS THE CAR. My '75 fit the bumpers really good, though some people have had horror stories about using these too. I thing the main thing is to be patient, pre-fit the bumper on & off checking what it's hitting OR not hitting. If you're lucky, your car will fit the bumpers better than mine. Hey, for $322 for both the front and rear, I thought I'd MAKE IT WORK!!! :yesnod:

rob75383

Thanks Paul,
I surely do hope that I don't have to mod the hell out of my stuff to get the bumpers to fit.
Is it really that common for the '75 year cars to go through all this to fit the bumper, because this is the first I've heard about it? I think the bumper and frame stayed almost unchanged from '75 - '77, so I would've thought that this would have been mentioned before.

I'm thinking that my best bet might be to buy about two dozen c-clamps and try to just clamp the bumper on to fit her, then, after fitting and clearancing, I can start to drill the mounting holes.

One last question Paul, did you ever fully pull the alum bumper off? I'm asking because in the Haynes book, the expanded assembly view shows about 3-5 shims placed between the aluminum bar and the enersorber shocks (I don't know the correct name for those shocks). I wonder if having less shims might give a bit more clearance, due to the shim's being about 1/4 inch thick.
I only had one pair of shims on her, but I also found a generous amount of fine white sand wedged in certain places under the plastic light supports. Looks like mine had been disassembled before and had some sandblasting done somewhere. I wonder if a previous owner had already done some modifications to get an aftermarket urethane bumper to fit.
It looks like it its unmodified when I compare it to the drawings in the Haynes book and the factory assembly manual, but I've never seen another 'vette with its skin pulled off, so I can't say for sure.

BTW, heres the number for Toledo Pro Fiberglass 1-800-762-8308
And here's their website: http://www.toledopro.com/

Paul Borowski

No, never really thought about it, but others have told me there is more adjustment than what I thought. I now know, especially with my '74(which is different back there)that horizontal bar is indeed movable. I really did'nt check, just made the modifications I thought I needed to do. It may be actually easier than the way I did it, but that's usually the case-I usually end up doing it the hard way :lol:

rob75383

Well, In my book, doing it the hard way builds character and patience!
I have e-mailed Toledo Pro Fiberglass with questions about the "seconds" you mentioned, mainly what kind of damage should I expect, and what should I use to repair the damage, epoxy sealer, gel coat, body filler, etc.
I also plan on driving with the unpainted bumpers for a long time, maybe even a yar or two, and I'm asking if I should rough up the gel coat, and spray primer, or if I should just let 'em be.