Has anyone come across a bolt-on European style front and back bumperettes that does not require body modifications and filling holes left behind by the L style bumpers? Ones that actually look good too, obviously.
Thanks in advance.
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I'm pretty sure Kirk Evans made the only ones that were bolt on... and some people like them, some people don't. I ended up just making a smaller version of the L bumper with different angle, and I'm pretty happy with it. Here's a couple pics with it compared to the L and the pre-L bumperettes.
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I considered using pop in plugs, intentionaly having them contrast.
HOWEVER, bodywork was done (just one of the many things the body shop decided to do)
the word I got was the Harrington Group bumpers required extensive work to get symetical and fit body lines (I suspect to increase billing)
I'm in the camp of not really liking Kirk's bumperettes (he makes great products and good quality) but these just look like someone hacked the oem L bumper off in the middle. My solution was to use the leftover holes to mount small PIAA driving lights on the front and additional LED brake lights on the rear.
Joules, would you post photos of the front and back of yours so I could see how they look? Thanks!
Joules, thank you for your photo. Last night I did a preliminary quick check behind my bumper and I do not see the larger hole where you have a small light installed. My car is a European one that was imported to the U.S. and not sold by a Lincoln/Ford dealership (as I outlined in another post titled History of Chassis 02778) , so I think maybe originally it had the bumperettes and when transformed to the GT5 body in the 80s, this larger L-bumper was put on. Heaven knows why. If that is the case, then I imagine it would be much easier to take off this big bumper and install "eyebrow" bumperettes without having to do body work and fill in the larger holes, which don't seem to be there on my car. I won't know for sure until I remove the entire bumper, which I hope to do this week. Really crossing my fingers on this one.
Can you post a photograph of your front bumper?
Larry
My 74 Euro Pantera was delivered from the factory with small chrome bumpers. Later the car was privately imported to the US in the mid 80's and they had to put big bumpers on it to get it into the country. Their bumper conversion pretty much looked like factory work except that the two holes for the small bumper remained. I brought the car back to small chrome bumpers two years ago. Here are a couple of photos that might help with your effort. I had to weld over two small holes along with the large hole for the shock.
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I could not find a hole to the left of the clear lens, where folks say there should be a shock.
Hard to tell from the photographs, but I think your bumper is fiberglass. The stock bumper had a urethane coating. What style is your bumper?
if it is fiberglass, it may have been mounted in some manner without using the normal large shock absorber mounting holes
Larry
They may have skipped the shock. You can bolt the big bumper directly to the car using two or three bolts on each side. There is a fair chance that is what they did.
That’s what I was going to suggest. If the bumper is fiberglass, and like mine, it doesn’t even have a provision for the large shock absorber that requires a hole through the body.
If the bumper is stock, it still has three studs on each side that are used to fix the bumper to the body.
So it is possible to mount an L style bumper onto a car without having the big holes in the front
Let us know what you find out once you get your bumper off. You’ll probably still need bodywork to fill the three holes on each side!
Rocky
