Switching from urethane to chrome bumper

[Mister 4x4]

Yes - the actual 'bumper' itself is a steel piece that mounts to the bumper brackets, and both the urethane and chrome "bumpers" mount to it (same places and mounting kit for both)... both the urethane and chrome "bumpers" are essentially just covers that hide the 'bumper core' (as I like to call it).

 

[Tecman]

Yes - the actual 'bumper' itself is a steel piece that mounts to the bumper brackets, and both the urethane and chrome "bumpers" mount to it (same places and mounting kit for both)... both the urethane and chrome "bumpers" are essentially just covers that hide the 'bumper core' (as I like to call it).

Fantastic! The P.O swapped out the bumper cover to chrome. ALOT of work that was done when the PO did was sub-par/Hacky. So I just wanted to make sure that I didn't need to straighten out the bumper too

 

[Mister 4x4]

You might need to - however, the urethane and chrome pieces can be damaged independently of the bumper core.

 

[Knoxferatu]

Knoxferatu-if you are serious about pulling a mold off a urethane bumper, I have a few gallons of epoxy resin and some mat. With a bit of dye we could do a mock carbon fiber pretty easily. Resin is a few years past it's shelf life, but mat lasts a long time and a quick test run with some resin would be easy enough.

I also have some 2 part 4pound density closed cell foam that would make a mold pretty easily

I'm absolutely serious, brother. These bumpers don't do enough good to be worth their weight, but they complete the appearance of the car.

I like the appearance of either bumper. A big bonus for the chrome bumper, in my view, is that it's a good bit lighter than the Endura bumper. For my car, which came to me with a decent Endura bumper, I'm considering using the bumper to make a mold, from which I'll make a carbon fiber bumper that will be lighter than either the chrome or the Endura. Of course, thinking about that leads me to consider making a carbon fiber hood, which leads me to consider making carbon fiber fenders...

I like all of your ideas. I am 1000% about improving upon our cars in more unconventional ways like the carbon fiber parts! If you make the bumper, I will buy one, given the price is fair...

It will be a while before I get to it, but I will do it. You won't miss out, I promise, as I will do a very detailed build thread.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

I am surprised someone has not marketed a cheap, rigid fiberglas replica of the urathane bumper yet. Properly painted it would look totally correct.

Of course, it certainly would not provide any measure of protection from dings, bumps and crashes, but then again...niether does the original.

The underlying metal substructure of a 71/72 urathane bumper could easily be bent and distorted by hand. They are no match for any kind of minor damage.

Personally, if a nice, crisply molded fibergas replacement was available, I would use one.

My current front bumper ( whole front end, actually) came from a 72 Mach 1 back in 19080. It has been refurb'd, repaired and repainted several times over the years, and it shows. Looks shabby compared to the rest of the car.

 

[Knoxferatu]

Kit, will carbon fiber be good enough?

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Yeah, i didn't see that response when i posted. CF is clearly a better idea.

 

[cudak888]

A good idea until someone hits the rigid CF.

Frankly, I dare say someone willing to pony up for tooling an injection-molded, hard rubber copy should have success.

-Kurt

 

[Knoxferatu]

Kurt, I think we could make them out of Kydex or ABS easily enough. Wouldn't be a mass production affair, but it might give much of the resilience you suggest. I'm personally set on carbon fiber, for the ultra light weight, and I don't care about making a profitable enterprise out of it. We're all friends here, as far as I know, and if a friend breaks a carbon fiber bumper, then we'll just have to make him another one. If a friend wants a Kydex bumper, we'll work on that, too.