This weekend I've been mainly making bumpers........ (I'll add more pictures when they are finished)
Bumpers on a track car might not really be essential - it's not supposed to be a contact sport but I think the de-bumpered look is a little bare and unfinished
The full size bumpers I had with the car are a little beaten up in places and also horribly rusty with chrome peeling in areas - they also had rotten rubber over-riders as well as a rubber trim on the front edge that was hanging off in places so that had to go
So I planned to quarter bumper them - so chopped out the middle section of both. Then I mig'd up the holes that I wouldn't need all the existing fixings to the brackets that hold them to the car were seized solid and so I chopped off the nuts and then found some M8 coach bolts in B&Q that would provide the new fixing bolts for the mounts.
What I didn't want to do was end up with quarter bumpers that looked chopped ie a flat plate on the cut end that finished it off badly
So I took some inspiration in Alf's (ABS Club member and serial Opel restorer) old car
Here you can see he's cut them a little longer and then curved the ends round at the cut to finish them neatly (I have a sneaky feeling he's welded up the mounting apertures/holes on the front end too)
My issue was I'd removed the wings and chopped of the front of the car so garden table and chair was employed to make a dummy front so I could check, measure, measure again and then cut with confidence
With bumpers just laid in place (not in the right place I hasten to add but I couldn't be bothered to fix them on properly for the umptenth time!!)
And a better shot of the profile (well nearly finished profile - some dressing up of the welds required)
And inside edge showing holes welded up (used by the bolts for the rubber trim)
Alf ran a full size rear bumper but I'm adopting the same chopping technique on the rear to finish the bumpers just after the rear light cluster ends
Lesson to you all if you going to car shows where the car is going to get papped remember to shut doors and boots as it spoils the lines on the car if you leave them open
My initial plan was to drill a new mounting hole for the bumper support on the back panel however that proved to be difficult due to the light cluster supports inside the boot but luckily I could reverse the existing centre mounts and then hide it all under the curved end.
The rears are finished just forgot to take some pictures
So there you have it a weekend spend cutting and welding
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