I am kind of tired of my 1974 bumperettes being so tattered and can't find new ones and have been toying with the idea of putting older bumpers on it.

The car is basically a stock 1974 2.0 appearance group car. It is a street only car and is only occasionally driven (unfortunately).

I dug around my attic and located front and rear chrome bumpers that seem to have good chrome and more importantly (to me) no holes for bumperettes.

So without further rambling, should I keep the original bumpers on the car or should I back-date it?

back date it and sell me the '74 bumpers

the bumperettes seem to do more damage than good if you tap or get tapped....on my '74 the bumpers on the front and the rear are tweaked beyond repair behind the bumperettes......I'm going to be looking for good chrome bumpers in the near future since my '73 has terrible chrome bumpers (someone sanded the chrome which is now rusting...the front one is bent)

the bumperettes unbolt, so you could remove them, install a couple of chrome plugs and see if you like the look....

I'm thinking of rechecking the chrome on the "old" bumpers I have up in the attic and cleaning them up. Then I won't have plugs in whatever I put on the car. I was looking through old pictures I took and I should have both front and rear without holes.

I just don't like my bumperettes. The rear ones are OK, but the front ones have some small splits in the rubber from an old wound.

Do it!

And post more pics.

I would let go the feeling that those bumperete things bother you and get more into the feeling of making tight corners over the speedlimit without a squeal. Man thats a beautiful car you need to find more time to use it...... My car needs to be on Pimp my Ride or sumtin. Some pepole wont even ride with me. Those that do see why I luv my 914.

I tried to zoom in the picture with your nice teener and take a closer look at the bumper. For me, it seems to be a '70 bumper with subsequent installed bumperettes
I can't tell it for sure, though it seems to be - look at the borders from the license plate area, they look pretty sharp (which was only used at the '70 model)

So, this is my suggestion:
if this is actually a '70 bumper, use your bumpers from your attic - you'll like'em more
if I'm wrong and it's an original '74 bumper, keep on searching for new (or at least good) bumperettes

anyway - really nice looking car

I don`t like the bumperetes ether,of course a`72 doesn`t have them.

On most cars, I prefer the clean lines of early bumpers.

But there's something about that silver/black combination on your car. The bumperettes finish the "flow" of the look of the car, going front to back.

JMO,
Lawrence

I can't stand the "tits" switch out to the early ones for cleaner lines.
Geoff

Simply remove the tits....use roundhead bolts for the holes. Hopefully the tits have not been tapped and crunched the area underneath.....otherwise GPR does a nice job on refurbished early bumpers.

I personally like them without the bumperettes. Especially the front. It looks so much cleaner without them.

That is definetely a 1970 rear bumper on the silver car. Get rid of the tits. The car will look much much cleaner from every angle without them.
CCLINBUMPERKING

go rubbers, dont leave home without it!

I don't like the bumperettes, I'm going with the older bumpers on my 74. I think the car looks cleaner without them

Seems to me you can have it both ways. Put on the early bumpers you already have. Save the '74 bumpers in case you change your mind, or a future buyer is a purist like me who will want the originals.

However, if the rear is a '70 with bumperettes added, no reason to keep it. You can probably sell it to someone who needs it for a six restoration. No problem to fill the holes if rechroming for a restoration, or use chrome plugs in the short term.

Well the original bumper is exactly the same shape as the others I have, so I am guessing that they all non-1970.

I cleaned up the bumpers I have and found the following:

Front bumper (1):

Good chrome, but has some minor dents. Would be totally acceptable to mount on my car as the car is not concours and never will be.

Rear bumpers (2):

(1) Nice straight bumper with no dings at all. Has some pitting/rust under the chrome at the two curves on either side of the license plate. Some previous owner drilled two small holes near the license plate for some type of badge. (A hood crest seems to line up with the two holes)

Without Bumper top

(1) Good chrome, but with some minor dents. I hate to try to remove the dents for fear of making it look worse. (I hate that kind of body work as I suck at it {bondo is my friend})

With Bumper top.

I think that I will be reusing my existing bumper tops with these early bumpers.

I am going to find out about cost to have the straight rear bumper dechromed/rechromed.



Where can I find the chrome toe hook plugs???

You are right. The last pic makes it clear that your rear bumper is not a '70. Since you got'em, put 'em on. Keep the originals just in case. Straighten/re-chrome is as much as $500 where I live.

What the heck here is my to bits
get some glass bumpers...they are a lot lighter
you can paint them any color you like
the "rubber" part never gets old and ratty
the biggest issue is fittment
unless you want the extra protection...
good luck
steve

QUOTE (xsboost90 @ Jan 2 2005, 10:25 AM)

go rubbers, dont leave home without it!

You mean the rubber baby buggy bumbers!

Howard has some nice fiberglass bumpers on his car. Maybe he can chime in on this?

Well I finally (at about 1:00 A.M. last night) got around to swapping out my rear bumper.

I really like the cleaner look of the early bumpers. One of the reasons I had been holding off was I was fearing the removal of the expensive-to-replace rear bumper top. Luckily, I got all the nuts removed without breaking the studs off. I cleaned up t he threads and coated them all well with grease.

I swapped the front bumper out when I installed the 3.2 this past Spring/Summer. It had a virtually new bumper top so I had little concerns with that one.

I'll take some pics tonight.

Eventually, I may want to get the bumpers rechromed, but for now it looks good to me.