1980 Spider with slim line stainless steel bumper

[divace73]

G'Day All

I am doing the massive heavy bumper replacement for the original slim line type. I got the brackets from the bumper supplier but in all honesty the bumper is great but the brackets were not.





The side mounting brackets on the bumper itself cannot be mounted due to the bumper sitting to high. Has anybody else done this transplant with an acceptable height the bumper should be at and how did they achieve it?

PS Many thanks Mark for the Chin spoiler, it looks great, just on temporary at present.

[So Cal Mark]

have you attempted the rear bumper yet?

[divace73]

No not yet????? Is it much harder?? I was contemplating trying to rig up the one piece from an 124 AC??

[azruss]

I have fitted a set of ss bumpers i got from Harrington. Had the same fit issue. had to modify the mounting hole in the sheetmetal. spent about 6 hours re-shaping the brackets and finally ended up cutting the brackets just outside the bodyline and bending some new brackets and welding them on. was a PITA but came out good. I'll see if i can post some pix.

[azruss]

Here are pix of the mods i had to do to the front. I have fitted the rear also. did not require cutting and welding, but did require about 4 hours of shaping the brackets for a good fit.

[divace73]

Hi azruss

I don't feel so bad now.....Did you end up re welding the side mounting points as well??? I have been contemplating redesigning the main and indicater brackets and get them remade locally, I will still have the original air brake and bumper mounting holes which will be visiable with the bumper lower and may look a bit odd??

[baltobernie]

It's ridiculous that the customer must modify these expensive products so much to get them to fit. Have you contacted Harrington with photos?

[divace73]

I Have, they said to me that a customer asked them to make the brackets but they were never tested as they don't have the car and the guy who origially asked for them didn't give feed back otherwise????
I will be giving harrington some feedback once I 'design' a bracket that fits a little better.

[azruss]

the shape of the bumper itself is close enough to the contour of the car to be acceptable. The issue with the front is the existing holes for a bumper shocks are too high. no way to get the bumper lower without modifying the bracket as it comes out of the hole...and, like you said, the hole is then visable. If you look at the thread where everyone has pix of their car, there is a huge variation in bumper height. I chose my height on what gave the most even gap between bumper and sheetmetal. (7/8" below bottom of grill opening). The big issue was the bracket was tougher than the bumper and the car, so you couldnt tweak it while on the car without bending up the bolt points. after many attempts at getting the right shape, i gave up and decided to cut and weld....and yes i did all 4 points. the pix above show the corner bracket mods.
The major issue with the rear bumpers is the bracket holes were not accurate and had to be redrilled or ground to a slot. the other issue is the rear bumper shocks have a single bolt hole to attach to the unibody. this hole lines up with the harrington brackets, but the is no 2nd bolt point. i had to drill another hole. PITA on the gastank side. On that side, i had to remove the corner rocker panel. My experience with my fiberglass ground effects panels i built for my 70 is the 80 is so different that everything required serious mods to fit. The 70 body was a piece of art. the fit and quality was great. My 80 is a complete POS. horrible workmanship. horrible fit. It maybe that this particular car has been in a wreck, but not much indication of that other than the floorboard tubes were collapsed like it had been picked up with a forklift or jacked up by some idiot that didnt know the jack points. all panels look original...no non-factory welds. I see pix of other cars of the same year and they exhibit many of the same maladies.
I guess what i am saying is even if the brackets were fitted to one car doesnt mean they would fit all.

[manoa matt]

Sorry Azruss, but I think its got to be one or the other, not both. Either early bumper with no chin spoiler, or the chin spoiler and no bumper. Looks too busy/identity crisis, just my opinion though.

[grittracing]

you know , not to add more work. but do you have plans to put some fog light holes in? it looks great other than that auto parts stores have them now pretty cheep. less than $30 for a set of LEDs

[azruss]

In the past i have had bumper mounted fog/driving lights. planning on doing the same. That will make the front end even busier yet.
I've done a plethora of custom projects over the years and always question my sanity in the middle of the project. Some of the projects i thot were a complete disaster in the middle came out great as the finished project. I have also learned that you need to live with a custom mod for a while to see if it grows on you. Think of how many cars or designs you hated in the beginning but grew to like. the germans are willing to take the greatest risks in out of the box designs. (vw bug, multipla, 914, tr-6, bulging MB trunk lid, chevy caprice (you know the one i mean), 59 el dorado...the list goes on). from a spider point of view, the mod trend are toward no bumpers with or without spoilers. this is a look we have grown comfortable with. In going the other way, i know i am out of most of your comfort zones.
My goal was to alter the aerodynamics of the bottom 1/4 of the car (eliminate front end and rear end lift), create a look that made the car look lowered without actually lowering the car, and make it match the existing body style. I thot long and hard about running bare bumper and decided i liked the classic bumper look, so decided to keep them. Once all the mods are fitted and painted they will blend much better than now.......trust me!

[grittracing]

no i have always loved the old style bumbers but could think how to make them work. And you have. My own car i would set a couple holes in for fog lights and turn signals. I thik it looks great ! I have gone bumberless incase you havent seen my car. Becasue i didnt think the tub bumpers fit this sporty little car the old style where perfect. Cant wait to see the finished car. Are you thinking of doing the sides and rear to?

[azruss]

sides and rear are fitted and primered. They also required serious time to fit to the new car. dont have any primed pix, but here are a couple of "in progress" pix showing the ss rear bumpers. I'm planning on leaving off the long chrome rocker trim. will probably put on some of the clear bra material for protection from clumsy feet.
I, too, felt the tube bumpers were ugly. I have come around on those, but still prefer the old style huggers. I have also fitted a flat hood to the car and plan to go back to the early side mirror. thinking bumper mounted front turn signals....round harley style. decided against spoiler mounted driving lights and turn signals. couldnt find a good location that was practical without screwing up the airflow over the spoiler. the SS bumpers did come with brackets to mount the original front turn signals.

[divace73]

Hi azruss

You need to keep us updated with the pics, I like to see what it looks like when it's finished.