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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ GT Racing Fiberglass Front Bumper

Posted by: dbledsoe Oct 7 2005, 07:58 PM

I'm doing a change out on my 75 FRONT BIG RUBBER BUMPERS to a GT Racing fiberglass front bumper. The question is, how the heck do I mount it? What does/should it attach to? I have never seen a pre 75 bumper mounting system so have no idea what one should look like. I have read reference to "dog bones" here but have no idea what they are.

Does anyone have any pics of the glass mounted front bumper that shows mounting points. Certainly I can figure something out but your experiences would be greatly appreciated (what I'm likely to come up with may not be sufficient to hold the bumper for more than a few hours of running, and that ain't good because mine is a street car).

Posted by: Phoenix-MN Oct 8 2005, 06:56 AM

Here is how the mounts are on my 916 style front bumper

Attached image(s)

Posted by: Mueller Oct 8 2005, 07:51 AM

Once you remove your stock bumper and associated hardware, you are going to need to drill 4 holes. The new holes will (should) be where the earlier style bumper was attached to.

See the pic from http://www.pelicanparts.com, they also have an exploded view for the rear as well (early and late style)

user posted image

For your stock bumper, there are a few metal tabs that need to be removed, you can drill out the spot welds with a special drill bit (Bullet Bit tips work in a pinch)

Do a trial fit 1st before removing the tabs, some people report that they help in holding the new 'glass bumper up. (more than likely it'll be the top tab that helps)

The hard part is figuring out where to place the 4 new holes, what I did was install 4 studs into the 'glass bumper and put the bumper up against the car where it looked like it belonged, the studs "scratched" the paint at the location for drilling.

To make the install a little easier, I installed studs in the brackets on the new 'glass bumper. Much easier than trying to get a bolt thru the sheetmetal, the dog bone and then into the bracket.

Oh yea, item 5 is the "dog bone", it's rubber with metal inserts.

Posted by: dbledsoe Oct 8 2005, 09:13 AM

Paul/Mike,

Thank you very much for the pictures. They're a big help!

Don

Posted by: smg914 Oct 8 2005, 11:50 AM

Unfortunately, as you found out, the fiberglass GT bumpers from GT Racing are sold without mounting brackets installed. The brackets must be purchased separately and you have to figure out how and where to install them. This isn't going to help you now but there are other vendors that sell GT bumpers with the mounting brackets already installed which sure makes the project easier.

Posted by: Bleyseng Oct 8 2005, 01:18 PM

look inside the fender at the bumper reinforcment plates. They have holes already in the stamping so that is where you drill for the new holes.
the fog lite holes are a different problem....

Posted by: brokenmoped Oct 8 2005, 05:08 PM

QUOTE
Unfortunately, as you found out, the fiberglass GT bumpers from GT Racing are sold without mounting brackets installed. The brackets must be purchased separately and you have to figure out how and where to install them. This isn't going to help you now but there are other vendors that sell GT bumpers with the mounting brackets already installed which sure makes the project easier.

What are some websites where you can find the Gt bumper that include the brackets. I'm looking at number 88 on the 914 catalogue on the GT Racing site...Anyone know any other vendors?

Posted by: redshift Oct 8 2005, 05:24 PM

AIR (www.americaninternationalracing.com)

and...

http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com/PORSCHE914.html

But all that crap is just 20 year old AIR catalog reprints... I can't figure that out..

M

Posted by: brokenmoped Oct 8 2005, 05:31 PM

Thanks Miles.

Posted by: neo914-6 Oct 8 2005, 09:05 PM

Gettydesign has http://www.gettydesign.com/tips.html

Posted by: dbledsoe Oct 8 2005, 09:09 PM

QUOTE (smg914 @ Oct 8 2005, 11:50 AM)
Unfortunately, as you found out, the fiberglass GT bumpers from GT Racing are sold without mounting brackets installed. The brackets must be purchased separately and you have to figure out how and where to install them. This isn't going to help you now but there are other vendors that sell GT bumpers with the mounting brackets already installed which sure makes the project easier.

SMG914,

Thank you for the information. My GT Racing glass front bumper isn't a GT model (it's a standard 914 bumper in glass), but I suspect that makes no difference in what is supplied by GT Racing and what's required to mount it. There are brackets, if you can call them that, molded into the bumper but they don't mate up with anything I can see. I suspect, as a minimum, the dogbones would be required to even get close to them fitting. Ahhh, such has been life for me. Live and learn the hard way.

I'll make this bumper work, somehow, but if you can provide the name of another vendor with a properly made front bumper I would appreciate it because I have another 914 I plan to convert to glass bumpers.

Thank you for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

Don

Posted by: smg914 Oct 9 2005, 11:00 PM

Don,

It's been my experience that none of the fiberglass GT bumpers available today fit properly without some sort of modification. Even the factory fog light grills don't fit these bumpers without modification. I think the molds being used today for the fiberglass GT bumpers are molds made from old molds that were made from older molds, so what you get now are bumpers that are not quite up to specs.

For my 914-4 race car I bought front and rear GT bumpers from Auto Atlanta which had the brackets already attachted. They didn't fit perfectly but the car had some front end damage from a prior shunt which was part of the problem. For my 914-6 race car I bought the GT bumpers and the seperate brackets from GT Racing. I paid a body shop to attach the brackets to the bumpers using fiberglass. Even these bumpers had to be modified to fit the car properly.

Some problem area are: The top edge of the FG bumper and the very front of the trunk lid tend to overlap when you bolt the bumper to the front of the car. The 2 holes inside each fenderwell where the bolts go through to hold the front bumper on don't line up properly. Also the brackets don't seem to protrude enough to meet the front panel where they attact to the body. The dog bones would help this issue. Sometimes it takes a lot of bending, pushing, pulling, cutting and sanding to get the FG bumpers to line up.