75 corvette rear bumper
Thread Starter
6th Gear
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
75 corvette rear bumper
Im seeking a solution in replacing my cracked 75 rear urethane bumper; its was goodtill this summer now its falling apart ; I;ve had the car since 1976 ;are the toledo truflex bumpers a goodfit or is it possible to find a nos 75 one someplace ; am planning a ground up restore on my vette over the winter ; like to know how others have dealt with this ;if it were not for the indent letters I;d give it a thought about replacing with a 76 urethane nos and just putting letters on top ;thank you
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,944
Likes: 22
From: Yooperville MI
Welcome to the cracked bumper club. Not to alarm you, but your front bumper will most likely be in similar condition when you go to remove it. The fiberglass type bumpers are nice because they have crisp straight lines, flat surfaces, and won't warp like the urethane bumpers. In addition fiberglass bumpers can use the same paint process as the body therefore avoiding some of the paint issues inherent with urethane.
Flex fiberglass is not necessary for the rear. Standard fiberglass rear bumpers fit very well with minimal fitment to the body shell. Unless there is a price advantage with Toledo Pro, from my experience their quality and dimensional accuracy of the molds are a few notches below ACI. The letter indentations in '75 assured the factory got the letters straight if the holes were not in the exact location. When I did my first bumper job, I saved the center section of the original bumper as a template to drill the letter holes. It's not difficult to mount the letters to a flat surface and the studs are long enough.
The Repro urethane bumper will mount to the body and tail light brackets like your original, whereas the fiberglass bumpers will require minor modifications to the tail light brackets.
Flex fiberglass is not necessary for the rear. Standard fiberglass rear bumpers fit very well with minimal fitment to the body shell. Unless there is a price advantage with Toledo Pro, from my experience their quality and dimensional accuracy of the molds are a few notches below ACI. The letter indentations in '75 assured the factory got the letters straight if the holes were not in the exact location. When I did my first bumper job, I saved the center section of the original bumper as a template to drill the letter holes. It's not difficult to mount the letters to a flat surface and the studs are long enough.
The Repro urethane bumper will mount to the body and tail light brackets like your original, whereas the fiberglass bumpers will require minor modifications to the tail light brackets.
Last edited by crazywelder; Sep 22, 2006 at 06:34 AM.
Thread Starter
6th Gear
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
75 rear urethane bumper
thank you for your advice I;ll look at at the ACI bumper and see what they got to offer and you are right I;ll probably replace the front one too ;I think i;ll go with a nos urethane one as the original has lasted now over 30 yrs and if i can get 20 out of next one i;ll be 80 yrs old ; but as for the rear bumper I;d love to get a urethane rear too but i;ve searched and it seems impossible to find a nos ; I'm not to excite about a fiberglass one as there are idiots that always seem to back into my car so if all fails i;ll go with a flex one ;as far as colour match i;ve had good luck ; I still have original ontario orange on my car but its got lots of nicks on it and willbe repainted too bad no one does acrylic laquer anymore ;I use to buff out my car yearly and still have a nice shining surface on it ; if it was not for all the scratches i;d not repaint it ;thank you again and if u hear where I can get a urethane bumper e mail me at appinbo1946@yahoo.com ; i;m in canada across from port huron mi
Pro
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 683
Likes: 4
I have just finished my rear bumper on my 75. I first ordered the flex-fit and it would not fit as I was later told that I had to leave the extensions that mount to the bumper bar off. I did not did fit well at all and it does not flex. I sent it back and ordered the urethane. It fit as good as the original which in my opinion should be better but after all is done I am satisfied with it. The urethane that is used today is far better than in the 70's. The hardest part to the installation is the urethane bumper for the 75 does not have the indentations for the CORVETTE letters. I had to make 2 templates from my original bumper. The first template I made was to drill the new holes for the letters into the bumper so they would line up perfectly. The second template was for the letters which I used a dremel tool with their router tool to make the indentations 1/8 inch into the new bumper. My car is an original car so I want to keep it original as possible. Sorry I am unable to post some pics. If you need pics or info send me a PM.
Good luck
Steve
Good luck
Steve
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 23,831
Likes: 10
From: Springfield MO
St. Jude Donor '07
A bit OT...I'm probably in the minority, but I kinda like the bumperettes. I wish one of the fiberglas bumper companies would make an 81-82 style bumper with the bumperettes...
