dmrodco

anyone have any tips on how they installed these and made them look good ? :party:

74-Roadster

Fiberglass bumper covers are aftermarket items. To make them line up and look real good, most, if not all need some fiberglass rework. I had to build out one of the sides on my nose alomost 1/4" to get it to line up to the body. The front clips on a Corvette is basically put together by hand so no two are actually the same. Makes it kinda hard for an aftermarket part to bolt on without any modifications.

dmrodco

My new ones line up pretty well just wondering how to build up the little wowie that is in the front bumper it matches the one in the fender it doesnt fit well enough for me I want it tighter :party:

SnoDrgn

:withstupid: I had to cut and paste my front so bad that it wasn't even worth it by the time I was done. My rear needed to be modded as well. :cuss :leaving:

Corvette ED

I ordered a flexiglass rear bumber for my 75 from Ecklers on Saturday at Carlisle. I hope it will fit without to much hassle.

Nomad78SA

I installed front and rear true flex bumpers. Mine was a big hassle as well. Both ends required much reworking to get them looking good. Hope yours fit much better than mine did

Big Fish

Mine was over an inch out of focus in spots. I can't remember how many hours I had in it, but a lot! Looks great now. I got the mating surface pretty good by covering the front of the fenders and surround with wax paper, then applied a generous amount of mat and resin to the bumper. I then clamped it in place to sort of mold itself to the car. Once cured the clamps are removed and the edges sanded. Forget about the factory retainers, they won't work with the F/G bumpers. I made some using 3/16 X 1-1/4" fender washers and 10-24 X 1-1/2" screws (all stainless of course) Silver brazed the screws to the washers then cut a straight edge on the washer as close as I could get to the screw. Tee style retainers are also available, but I don't think they will work as good as the ones I made without some type of trimming.

DVG73

Fish,

What resin did you use?

Big Fish

The resin I used was just the normal off the shelf stuff you can find at any auto parts store. I did not mix it real strong with hardener because I wanted a little working time to get the bumper clamped up. Here is a picture of the work in progress: http://home.earthlink.net/~steverieb...s/vette37s.jpg

Here is a link to a company that specializes in fiberglass resin and supplies: http://www.tapplastics.com/techinfo/index.html

I swore I will never do another one of these bumpers as long as I live. The urethane bumpers will bolt right up. Occasionally you hear of someone who was able to bolt their glass bumper right up, but not too often.

fauxrs

As has been mentioned above - it is a very hit and miss proposition and many aftermarket bumpers will not fit without modification.

I got lucky, my rear cap with requiring only a 1/16th inch skim coat to get it to align with the body, I have heard stories of the 1" out which is just too agregious, makes it very difficult and by that time you are building it by hand seems to me - anyway - the flex glass ones are supposed to be a bit easier than the regular glass ones (like mine) Although I would worry about glassing onto a flex bumper (for fear the repair, being less flexible) might pop off under odd circumstances.

Corvette ED

Why can't they make the bumber to the same spec's as the the original? You can take a OEM GM bumber out of the box and bolt it on without trouble. How can this aftermarket crap be off by so much.

Big Fish

The reason why there is a problem is these cars are hand made and there are variances when they leave the factory. There are also those cars that have been in accidents and repaired. Even though they might look good they may not be the exact same shape as the original. Because the F/G bumpers have no give, things will often need to be modified, where the original urethane bumpers will conform to fit (still available from GM at the best price). The only major dis-advantage is they will show a ripple.

Frank75

I had a spare urethane rear bumper which came with my car - it fit well after adjusting the mounting hardware (the whole 5-mph shock thing). The front was a flexiglas which I ended up gluing in place using epoxy (to fill gaps up to 3/4" or so). After smoothing everything over I cut a new slot about 1/8" deep using a hacksaw blade. Looks OK when painted but you gotta wonder...