fauxrs

See here

gs78vette

Not able to go anywhere from that initial page of your site. Do you have a link directly to tail lights like yours or other ones available?
Maybe any other link where to look. I really felt that the rounded lights that all the vette sites sell are a bit lame, boring, and not worth the well over $200 selling price! Same with original replacement.
Thank you very much.........

fauxrs

Well i guess Harbor Frieght moved that page - try here

onaqwst

i would do the 77 style rear bumper... look up 'groovyjay' on the forum and see his black later c3....

not a fan of the little wing on the back

gs78vette

I had not guessed that it was actually for boat trailers but it really works for the Corvette application. That link worked fine, thank you. Of serious consideration. I guess the key is to find basically 4" round lights/lense. Looks and apparently works great on your car! I'll try looking around some for other lights too, I've got some ideas on where to go that might have some.

gs78vette

It says he has a black 79 or did in the profile. No cars/photos of any cars are shown associated with groovyjay at all. You had me interested and now nothing to look at.

blckslvr79

I purchased the flex-fit from Ecklers. Rear bumper fit "ok" with some minor filling. Front bumper was a pile of crap. 1" to wide and none of the bolt flanges matched the car. Tried to send it back for an exchange and their service was crap. They refused exchange and tried to upsell me to urethane.

My body guy spent over 15 hours at $40/hour fitting the bumper. He said it was poor quality and that he could have made a bumper from scratch faster.

I'd recommend not purchasing from Ecklers for the bumper covers.

Front bumper







As for the T bolts- they work great on fiberglass. Don't buy the OEM style strips unless your using urethane bumpers.

You can also go to your local hardware store and buy 1/4" bolts and flat washers in place of the t bolts.

gs78vette

As far as I know that is the same bumper I have now, my stock rear bumper for 1978 (avatar). Unless groovyjay has a custom or modified 1977 then they are identical??? Mine is wavy/warped since it is urethane and that's mainly why I'm replacing but style too. What am I missing?

blckslvr79

I installed a 74 one piece glass bumper on my 79.

Got rid of the bumperettes and added individual C O R V E T T E lettering.

gs78vette

The style is not much different than the stock '79 do you think? You went with fiberglass instead of urethane which is nice to avoid wavy and warped appearances.
Curious why you chose a '74 to replace a '79? Also, how was the initial fit? Require a lot of work or not too bad? Did it just fit nearly perfect from the start?

blckslvr79

The shape to the body is identical from 74-82.
All of the covers are interchangable.

I went with the 74 because I wanted to keep my pace car spoiler which narrowed me down to 74-79 and I hated the bumperettes 75-79.
I also liked the individual chrome letters which where last used in 74.

As stated in a previous post, the rear bumper fit pretty well. Flex fit from Ecklers. We had to reshape the lower edge of the drivers side to fit (The mold of the bumper was wrong/short when they made the bumper cover). Overall it fit great compared to the front. I haven't taken any pics of the 74 painted and installed with the spoiler yet, but I'll try to get some this weekend. The finish look is very clean in my opinion.

(We also shaved the bumperettes off the front flex-fit to match)


Going for this look....

gs78vette

Excellent, that's some of the kind of info I'm needing to know. What to avoid is as important as what to get. you're confirming other posters about the T-bolts vs. strip bolt fasteners vs. bolts and nuts. T-bolts are sounding like the way to go. More cost than bolts and nuts but also provide a little wider point of pressure which is good. May use a combination of the two but not use the strip type at all.

That first picture looked like more than a ¼" of sand & paint. The other marked a ¼" looked about right. 1" to me is seriously something to be rejected. I know you were stuck since it was not returnable which is tough. I had planned on not ordering from Eckler's since their pricing was not competitive enough with say Willcox. I've had to return Willcox items and they have been fine to deal with. They should be good considering the dollars I've spent there, but still good.

I had planned on doing a lot of this myself but a lot of times it will take an extra set of hands plus hauling around back and forth to the body guy and painter. He's a friend and will do the work really reasonably and his estimate was quite low.

gs78vette

So, not eliminating the bumperette, but making it smaller if we're talking about the same thing. OR did you take yours down farther than this blue/white example front on this car? Killer nice paint on that car btw.

I would love to see the new pics if you get some over the weekend.
Also; I appreciate this documentary mini-series with all the photos. Photos help so much when you're talking about specific areas and appearance features. You showed the "process" which is great. I've got a good feel for how this is all going to work out if I can get pieces that initially fit reasonably well.

@fauxrs Thanks again; your photos, commentary, links and explanations have been great. I really must consider that rear end like on your car. Imagine that in new, deep, shiny, black paint. WOW! Plus some better looking lights than stock or plain round aftermarket. I'm terribly bias of my own car if you can't tell. Then again we all should be!
Let me know if you think of any other sources for tail lights. I have 2-3 sources to check for sure, who knows. I like yours a lot though.

blckslvr79

My front bumper is identical to the picture above minus the driving lights. We shortened the bumperettes back to the indentation and used the radius of the factory indentation as the new face. I considered going further and removing the entire bumperette, but it would have complicated the center where the license plate is as well as where the bumperette meets the top of the bumper. There are a lot more surfaces to match up if you trim too much. Ideally, I would have installed a 74 front bumper (which fellow members here have done) but I did not want to glue and eliminate the seam, and changing all the brackets to maintain the body seam was to much work. Shortening the bumperette really cleaned up the nose of the car.

Only thing structural I had to do was remove the center bumperette rubber reinforcements that just bolt on.

fauxrs

The main reason I chose the rear cap I have is teh same reason that blkslvr chose the 74 rear cap. was to get rid of those gawdawful bumperettes. I could have easily gone for the 74 rear cap myself for the same reason. I went with mine because at the time it was less expensive than the 74 rear cap and I felt was a bit more unique.

But the 74 rear cap looks good and I love the front on that blue car. very nice.

gs78vette

@blckslvr79
Thanks for more pictures and explanation, now it makes sense and the photos are very helpful. I wondered how it looked where the front bolted to the body. Looks likme it would be hard to get to.
At least the top row may be or can you get your hand(s) through okay from the top? Not sure how that piece is removed but there are tutorials available.
Anxious for finished pics, gotta be cool! Is that bumperette actually solid so it can be just cut off and sanded or what? I understand about leaving some of it for fit reasons, license plate, etc.

@fauxrs - you have a beautiful car, no doubt. At first when I saw the rear it seemed okay but the more I see it, it really looks nice! I may decide to do that rear end too?? Or not?? I hope you wouldn't be offended if I used your idea on the Z rear end if I do? Quite a bit more expensive than everything else I've found so far. You said the fit was very good on the rear though right?

Both of those cars are fantastic with some real thought and hard work put in on both! Thanks for sharing.

fauxrs

Offended? I didnt invent anything here do whatever you like.

gs78vette

I realize none of us members have patents on the parts and the way the cars look. Offended was no the right word; I appreciate those that take time to discuss in depth what they have done and how they did it to make their car look a certain way and "special" maybe when compared to others.
Guess I should have said " would it pissss you off if I copied some of what have done?
Some view it as flattery to have their work copied; some are "less than happy" about it. Especially after sharing all the info here. (Please take it as flattery)

From my viewpoint this has been a great thread due to the knowledge I take away from it. Photos are alway a big help as visual aids with the commentary and suggestions...all cool!

leadfoot4

My wife owned a '79 for many years, and was the original owner of the car. The fenders on her car were trimmed also, even though the car had the 225/70s on it.

fauxrs

Nope won't **** me off