I still haven't had time to put the new bumper on, but am planning on doing so tomorrow night and then heading to Cars & Coffee (Irvine) Saturday morning.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the update. If the fit is good I will order a set as well. Is there someone I should email to get the same bumper (no holes) that you did?

Cheers!

See you there. Last week it was really crowded, they ended up turning away late comers...

Dang Steve, I'm in OK through 9/7, but I hope to see it on your 2 914s for both the F & R sometime soon.

It's on the car and looks great. Fit is 100% and it looks great. I used my old rubber top and grills which are in fair/poor condition. Any small blemishes I pointed out while unpacking disappear when it's on the car and not inspected from 1 inch away. These bumpers are *really* nice.

And some quick photos with the car still in the garage:

> Who else is interested in a set but hasn't placed an order? Maybe we could haggle that price down a bit more with an order of 10 sets or something.

> If I see Steve's mounted & they're excellent, then you can count me as one if they'll do the discount + upcharge & maybe credit that upcharge out as below. I'll also want to pay them directly on my Visa, for the purchase protection & some airline points! biggrin.gif


I emailed a link to this thread to Harrington and they said "thanks for the feedback" and "a group buy or discount really is not available" (my words).

Personally, I think that if new vendors are providing good parts at a fair price I don't think we should beat them up on price so much. Just buy a good product, pay a fair price, and let them make a decent profit. Is saving a little money worth dealing with reshipping bulky bumpers/etc... ?

-Steve

For completeness, here is the email I received from Harrington - I don't think they'd mind me posting this and, Harrington/Vivian, if you're reading this, you're welcome to join the board and post as well if you want.

In all, they've been very responsive and easy to deal with.

A+++ seller would buy from again!!!!!

On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 4:49 AM, Stainless Steel Bumpers <shine@groupharrington.com> wrote:
> Hello Steve,
>
> I’m Vivian, Sales and Marketing Director of Group Harrington.
>
> Thank you very much for your feedback! I’m very glad to see that you are
> satisfied with your bumpers. They seem to gather a lot of interest!
>
> I can’t wait to see fitted on your car either.
>
> We will nonetheless make sure to improve the polish in the future, so the
> polishing marks don’t appear anymore.
>
> I saw that some members are thinking about grouping their orders to get a
> further discount.
>
> We already offer a £250 discount on these bumpers, so I’m afraid I cannot
> offer a lower price.
>
> The only lever we have would be to reduce the shipping costs by shipping
> everything to the same address at the same time; this would however not
> represent a lot of saving. The dispatch from the common shipping place to
> each member will negate the savings; collecting all the payments will
> certainly be quite nightmarish.
>
> I will however not charge any extra if some members of your forum want to
> order bumpers with or without holes. I invite them to order bumpers with
> holes, since we have them in stock.
>
> Feel free to contact me if you have any question!
>
> Best regards,
> Vivian
>
> Vivian Baretge
> Sales & Marketing Director
> www.groupharrington.com
> www.isettashop.com
> http://www.youtube.com/user/harringtongroup
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/21038833@N05/
> Tel: +44 121 288 1250
> Fax: +44 122 543 0271

Le Bao Quoc Thy
Sales Executive, Harrington Group
shine@groupharrington.com
www.GroupHarrington.com
www.isettashop.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/harringtongroup
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21038833@N05
Tel: +44 121 288 1250
Fax: +44 122 543 0271

Steve,

Thanks again for yourdetailed posts.

I am sold and will be contacting Harrington to order a set without holes - that front on picture you took convinced me it is the way to go.

Cheers!

It's nice to not only see an aftermarket part that loooks great, but also fits properly. I cannot tell you guys how any times ( virtually ALL of the time ) I have to modify aftermarket parts to properly fit a car. It makes no difference the make, model or nationality of the car. Anything non-O.E. never fits right. IMHO these bumpers appear to be worth every penny they ask for them. I just wish had I those pennies

And here the rear stainless steel bumper (L20E, no tow hook hole) next to a ~8 year old rechromed bumper (dirty L30 car).

-Steve

The only new fitment flaw I've seen is that the "wrap" on the SS is a bit shorter than factory, so there is a bigger gap between the car and the bumper.

It really looks pretty nice though, I'm just being anal retentive.

That gaps always looks iffy.

Steve - it's also the angle of that bumper face is a slight bit different - as seen in the wider gap at the top, unless there's some prior body work there that changed the body-gap's alignment.

Browsing the GroupHarrington site....we should all be 'impressed' that, as far as I could tell 914 bumpers ($1780 a pr) were the most expensive ones they make. Rolls Royce Silver Cloud bumpers were $1500/pr and VW beetle bumpers were $500/pr. Many other cars were about $1000/pr.

I think I'll have to increase the agreed value for my 914 insurance policy after I put the new bumpers on.

I just received my set of these, and I am quite happy...although it will be a long while before I can put these on... I have to keep working on rust repair with my restoration, I cannot wait!

This thread is worth a bump for a good product

Here is a shot of them on my '72. I went with the Steve Iverson Tow Eye Delete model.....

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Damn, that's one pretty bumper...& car.

Although I would rethink your wheel package!

So far those wheels have held up fine considering I only have less than 1HP. It is actually more like one jackass power when I am pushing it around the garage..

I love the look of those, I want some and those are great pictures as well.

phil

I will look for a shot of the front bumper - not sure I have one...

Found one of the front - not very good though:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I'm surprised to see they fit so well from what I've read about Harrington Group on thesamba seller feedback - bug guys complaining they didn't fit at all.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=258203

I have zero complaints about fit or finish.

I just got a pair of the original steel bumpers back from being triple chrome plated and they look just as good as these - well you can't beat triple plated chrome but I doubt anyone could tell the difference....

Mike - that's true....

Except that your SS ones should never rust (for the most part), whereas the (re-)chromed ones will eventually rust & pit - the timing of which depending upon how you use it.

Hopefully you got the old school full on copper/nickel/triple-chrome when your OE steel ones were replated. The best chromers I know say the secret to getting the nicest smoothest surface is to get the softer copper layer(s) dead smooth - even if requiring several layers & polished between - so you get a smooth substrate for the chrome layers.

As far as the 914 bumpers go, Harrington seems to have the fitment & finish down, plus they can add holes/braces for tits, do hole deletes, etc. The only thing "off from OE" is that the short 1/2" +/- return to the body insets at the bumper ends after the bend is maybe 1/4" shorter on the SS (see Steve's pix at the early posts here), but it's really not noticeable IMHO except for the most CW of folks.

Hi Tom,

You are spot on. I was planning on keeping the SS bumpers on the '72 but have decided to put them on my flared '74 and put the original steel back on thr '72 as it is very near a Concours restoration. The car with the steel bumpers will be a garage queen while the flared car sees about 1000 miles a year (fair weather driving).

Cheers!

Hey Phil - I think you saw Steve Iverson's red car FS &/or the orange one at the initial posts on here, when you were over here & went down to San Diego. If so, then you saw these on a 914 & didn't see the difference.

Cheers Mate!
Tom
///////

That sounds like a good plan mike, but I agree with black22's comment on the wheels!

....maybe a nice set of Pedrini's for the classic CW correct look, or maybe Mahle 4-lugs or Fuchs 2Ls if you want to stray a bit from CW perfection.

For a non-stock race look/use, I've always liked these....

Click to view attachment

I have a set of 5 four bolt Mahles that I am going to have restored and painted the correct gray color. I also have 5 steelies with hubcaps (as the car was delivered) just for CW fun.

Mike, IIRC I'm pretty sure Mahles were painted silver, not grey.

There's a wheels & tires nailed thread in Originality that has that info.

They should look good & will be light for street use with "modern" tires, then you can put some vintage 165SR15s on those steelies for the CW fun!

Also, I'd recco either Al Reed in Anaheim CA or Weideman Wheels up in NorCal for your wheel restos.

BTW - I've found out here in the "peoples' republic of CA" with the air/chemical regs., that rechroming with the 3 layer process to CW standards runs about $800-1000 at each end, so the pricing on these SS ones are a good deal and the differences won't be easily detected.

Rich Bontempi at HPH or someone up in the SF Bay area also sells a USA made SS bumper for 914s at about the set price from Harrington, but I don't know anything about the differences. You'll see his ads on CL in NorCal, as I get them on the 914club's CL alerts about every week or two.

Happy & Merry
Tom
///////

Yes you are right - silver is correct not gray.

I have some 165R15 Hankooks on the steelies now - they look so odd. I have 245/60s on the rear of flared car and they look normal to me.

Not as symmetrical as the shots of the rears which, with the addition of the reflection of your floor and the colour of the car combined to make some very striking images.

Tom, my trip to the US in May was a bit of a blur, we packed as much in as possible but I can't recall the car you refer to.

Maybe you mean at the swapmeet at Slits' place in Riverside? I bought a front and rear set off a member then. It was a red 72 which the owner had driven there and we pulled the bumpers straight off the car there and then.

I've forgotten the owner's name. Unfortunately the rear bumper I bought was damaged in transit when we shipped our container back here.

phil

Phil - it's the 914s at the start of this topic by the topic starter. I thought you had looked at his red 73 2.0 as a possible addition to your container going back home to OZ - but maybe not - or at least we talked about it with John at the Chinese dinner.

Mike, those Hankooks are good for street, but if you can afford it for CW - the Michelin XZX 165SR15s which were one of the original factory tires, now still available from Lucas Tires in Long Beach CA/Ohio (Longstone UK's local guys are Lucas & they can get them for you).

http://www.lucasclassictires.com/
http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page/165SR...elin%20XZX.html

I kinda like the classic look of 165/80R15s & 185/75R15s on 914s, and the 165s didn't handle too bad in Dunlop SP57s or Semperit M401s back in the day, while getting 30+ freeway mpg! And I know that you can recall those old school days, your being only a tad younger than me!