OK, so it is settled. We still need a source for quality reproduction steel front bumpers.

I should go talk to my uncle's brother n law.. He has a tool and die company and might be willing to make something reasonable.

Might call them tomorrow.. Biggest issue is I have no bumpers as a sample. The stamping would be cheap. The die is the money.. My guess is that the die would not have to be as robust as a die to run 100k parts.

Please do it. I'm tired of the blah blah about nobody being able to make a steel bumper with a chrome option.

Because of tbe thickness of the material, and material, you really cant do anything other than a fulk production die, hydrofor.ing will sasave so.e cost, but you are looming at a 85k tool at best. Also the parts may be cheap to stamp but will require fabrication and prep for final finishing. Paint is obviously less as you can hide so.e of your sins, but the metal must be polished before its chromed, so you will have a significant expense in tooling, production and finishing before you can turn your 1st dollar.
Talk to Mark Henery about finishing, i suspect even the stainless takes 3 hours min.
I was willing to undertake this, but not really feeling the suport to drop over 100k beacuse 10 guys want cheaper bumpers.
If mb911 wants to do these, Id certainly be willing to help consolidate and ship. As well at take inventory, but I can make a lot of orher parts for 100k.

Mark - That makes sense to me. So isn’t George having these made? If the quality is there it sounds like the place to go. These are clearly not cheap to make right.

I am not committing to anything here. Just making a call.. But even still I have nothing to show them.

There is no way I could take it on my self anyway.. I would need investors.. I also like the idea of just Raw steel and let the end user do what they want with it.

Fantastic !
From your inventory I would like to buy a good usable front bumper, painted or chrome.
Please provide pictures and price.

That's a great point. George you probably have enough bumpers for all of us to redo..

He sells Bumpers On E-bay all the time. Check out the pictures they
post of them and the asking Prices

Just checked.. Darn a bit much for cores for my car.. Mark Epstein has me covered though.. Now back to finding costs on dies..

My suspicion is that a person would sell 30 bumpers right away then sit on the balance for a while.. Much like my heat exchangers..

rcotten951 on ebay has a chrome front for 300 and rear for 55. $100 shipping each isn't cheap. It's actually really easy to ship bumpers and dashes. All the shipping stores only cary 4 foot rectangular boxes. Go to a ski/snowboard shop and get a snowboard box to fit. shipping should be about $50 x country.

Ben - yes, got you covered and your dad. These days it's cheaper to buy a rusty car and part it out than to buy used parts, piece by piece.

a good 914 parts car is a real bargain as expensive as the replacement parts are these days, however too many have been out in the weather and so hammered that nothing is good (like our 147 that have been out there so long, hardly a good part in them)

^ Was wondering if I wanted to buy that bumper on eBay until I looked at it.

The dings are a relative non-issue, and its backside looked pretty good. It might even be straight and fit the body well. Then I spotted the rust cracking through the chrome at the bottom. Might be a non-issue, but my search for a great 1970-1972 front bumper or a good core (or a new core) continues. Even if I find one and have it done, I am still a buyer for a new spare to hang on the wall. Seems like a good idea to me given how vulnerable these bumpers are.

Have parts, will trade or pay cash…

If I did want chrome bumpers, I would find a good core, send it out to the best bumper chrome shop I could find and let them do their thing. The way we take care of our cars now, a great chrome job should last a lifetime. Whether its $300 or $600 won't make much difference over the next 40 years but the best chrome shops are usually called the best for a reason. It's a labor intensive process to do it right.

totally agree, every original factory chrome bumper must be saved. We have made several GT chrome bumpers from smashed ones, sectioning them together and then having the bumper shop refinish then, have one on my 72 914-6. Looks great and I saved a salvage bumper rather than cut a good rechromeable one

Just to show a nice front GT. Great platers in Sandy
Bob B

Click to view attachment

He has a company in Vietnam that was making for Harrington, that has offered an exclusive for a specified period of time.

I figured easy enough to to a GB that I was setting up with another member that has contacts in Vietnam. Have a contract and everything, just didn't execute before AA did.

I did find out a die might be less expensive then I thought.. Might even have an investor.. Mark we should talk next week to see if this is worth doing.. We can definitely do this together..

For anyone here that might be interested in the Stainless Bumper option..
Here is a picture of a Harrington Bumper on the back of my car.
Yeah, I know it is a later bumper on an early car.. I don't care..
I have the original bumper put away and it will always stay with the car.
In case someone thinks these bumpers don't look right.. Here is the picture.

Personally, I'd wait till the "Exclusive Deal" with a U.S. Vendor ends and then
buy them directly from the manufacturer..

Oh, yeah.... That is a 914 rubber bumper top and it too is a reproduction item..
Superior to the original also..

Click to view attachment

we have our own molds at Harrington and with the rate we buy will always have a deal with them, plus stupidly the markup is so little that our accountant is always complaining.


Just the fact that they wanted to do the mild steel for the same price, and also that someone else over there took their molds and was trying to sell to someone else here tells you that something is going on over there.

They sent us some bumpers from another one of their 914 molds and they fit like CRAP!!! We spent a lot of time fitting them to different cars and trying to show how they were off, but it is hard without having a car to fit them on while one is making corrections, and I know that they do not have a car there.
Also I do not know if they are using our molds to sell to others in Europe, as quite frankly I do not trust them that much, like many other suppliers.
Finally we spent many many hours and dollars of expense sending bumpers back and forth until we got our mold correct, and got great bumpers

We are happy that Harrington made these as it is a much needed part for our 914 community and hope that others will make parts as well, but not duplicate what someone is already making. The market is too small and too many parts are needed.

To be clear I would not be duplicating a stainless bumper.. I was thinking raw steel for the end user to do what they like with them..

It maybe a pipe dream and never develop.. We will see.