My name is mark Sherman. I have owned this corvette since new, It has 7000 original miles. The car has been in dry covered storage for the past 8 years. The bumpers both front and rear are cracking and are breaking apart. I wanted to replace these with the original. The back is a 2 piece bumper. The questions that I have are: Should I not replace these , because the car is totally original. The paint on the rest of the car has held up amazing well and shows nicely. If I do decide to replace these, a recommended source and the type of paint to use would be very helpful. The last question I have, How hard are these bumpers to remove. I have access to a drive on lift. I prefer not to send this car out to a paint shop. Any suggestions or direction is appreciated. The car is Maroon in color. Even the original factory license frames are still in plastic. This is a base convertible with a 350 engine and automatic. Black convertible top, luggage rack and whitewalls.
Regards,
Mark Sherman
314 920-2804

 

Hello and welcome. I can't speak to all of your questions, however I am in a similar predicament. I am in the process of replacing both the front and rear bumper covers on my 74, and I have had no solid luck in sourcing original parts in the short time frame I have to work with and a limited budget. Because of my constraints, I have opted to replace both pieces with fiberglass replacements which will buy me some time to keep searching for originals.

My suggestion is to repair if you can. Your car is a convertible, all original with a meticulous history, and since it's a 74, original rear covers will be especially difficult to source.

BTW, any pics of your car? I'm a sucker for luggage racks and white walls .

Good luck!

aC

 

....Mark, even though we want to keep our cars "totally original"-you can't, unless it's an absolute perfect museum piece and it will never be driven. These 36yr old Corvettes do need maintained. It actually hurts these cars more to sit than to drive them. My best running C3 to date was my '75 that I sold in March with 169,000mi on it. Yeah, I did EVERYTHING to that car except pull the body off of the frame. But it ran and drove so beautifully I drove it 63,000mi in 19yrs of ownership.

...if your bumpers are cracking and breaking apart, you're actually devaluing your car. They have lived their useful life and must be replaced. The cheapest way to go is TrueFlex fiberglass bumpers, but due to their nature and being very rigid, some people have had good luck with them, some not so good. On my Silver '75 daily driver coupe(same one mentioned above)I put front and rear TrueFlex bumpers on it and they came out very good, not great, but it was a driver, not a show car. When I tried a TrueFlex on my '74 about 6yrs ago, it had a huge vertical gap near the right front turn signal marker light. Ended up selling it here on the C3 Parts Forum. The best front bumper out there, and it'll fit like a glove because it's IDENTICAL to the factory urethane bumper is the '73/'74 GM Parts Reproduction Urethane Bumper. For the rear the best replacement one out there is Eckler's 1974 True Two Piece "Flexi-Fit" rear bumper. Since the rear doesn't have the tricky "curvatures" that the front has, the rear doesn't need to be urethane and it isn't available in the original urethane form anyways.




...these bumpers fit so well everyone that looks at them thinks they are original.

 

You can still get a urethane front bumper for the 73-74 Corvette, but you better sit down. The price is about $800! Flexible fiberglass front bumpers run $325-$350. As paul said, you have no choice but fiberglass for the rear.

Even if you found used original urethane bumpers for your car, I wouldn't recommend using them. The urethane GM used from 73-75 tended to dry out and crack or crumble, just like yours did. Using old original bumpers, you will probably end up right back where you are now.

 

Hey Mark nice car .Have you changed the rear end fluid?
2 -4oz bottles of limited slip bat juice (chevy dealer) and top off with your favorite 90 w.
Change the Brake fluid Dot 3or 4
Radiator needs the fluid changed .
Your calipers may have taken A hit sitting this long be aware of your brakes if one or more pulls right or left (When stopping)R&R
I used toledo pro glass for my ft & Rear Bumpers they fit great and They give you A discount when you buy Both .(at least they use too)
The front is the hardest took me three days (not rushing it) get the ratchet wrench 3/8 I think is the little speed nuts on the back . been A while since I did Mine. Alot of the old parts are not used when putting on new bumpers the Honeycomb and some of the plate backing pieces. Now the rear bumper (two beers) and clean your Grounds while you are there.
I reused all my retainers and my old speed nuts they looked new after a second on the Wire wheel.

Keep your old bumpers where they bolt to the car now ,I used them to drill the new holes in the new bumpers .
The Lettering on the rear is another thing Pack your lunch do one at A
time slow ,line your holes up like a NASA engenieer would nice and straight.
My car is Silver and the bumpers are black. I thought it looked good so I did not paint them (not good for everyone) And low and behold I did win a trophy at My second car show I entered.(Lucky). start driving your car . Have fun.
One thing I forgot .Im sure you should either paint the Whole car Or Paint the bumpers before Installing. Per my body shop Buddy. Jmo