After hearing that the earlier bumpers are really preferred to the heavy 5mph bumpers that came with my 75 914, I bought some expensive chrome early bumper.

I forgot to ask........will they fit?

What hardware will I need?

should I leave the old ones on and resell the chromies?

any input is appreciated

There are quite a few people here that have done it. There is a nice write up on it here. Not that big a deal, put um on ya know ya wanna.

they can only be installed at the west coast classic, in the parking lot of the hotel.

There are some threads on here as to how to do it. You will like the result

there's gonna be some cutting and trimming and drilling, not to hard to do. craig at camp 914 did a good write up, it may be in the classics .

They will fit like a glove and you will wonder how you ever loved the car before seeing the result...
You will need:

Bumpers (got that)
Bumper tops (rubber that bolts to the top of the bumpers)
Dog bones (rubber mounting devices that go behind the bumpers)
8 nuts bolts and washers (you probably can figure this out)
2 license plate lights (see AA or the Pelican or GPR)

A spot weld bit for your drill is nice but not totally needed.
It really - really helps to have another early bumper car to measure hole location off of but someone here can do that for you...

There are threads on how to... Find them.

Here ya go. I have the link bookmarked, because it's on my short list of projects to do once I acquire a decent rear bumper top.

BumperBackdateInfo

The PO did mine so I can't give you any techincal info but here is a before and after:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

The back:

Click to view attachment

Loads of threads with info.

Link to a 914world search for "+bumper +backdate"