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Would anyone have a photo of a chromed bumper C3 without the bumper and grills installed? I'm in the midst of converting my '74 to look like a chromed bumper car and need a pic in order to see just what fiberglass pieces I need to buy or what I need to fabricate to enable the chromed pieces to look "correct." I've looked at the front end conversions and the parts that are offered, but they look too custom rather than the stock look that I'm after.
Would anyone have a photo of a chromed bumper C3 without the bumper and grills installed? I'm in the midst of converting my '74 to look like a chromed bumper car and need a pic in order to see just what fiberglass pieces I need to buy or what I need to fabricate to enable the chromed pieces to look "correct." I've looked at the front end conversions and the parts that are offered, but they look too custom rather than the stock look that I'm after.
Thanks ! Anyone got a side shot and maybe a three quarter shot as well? Looking at the first pic, the later cars seem to have enough left over after the front bumper and grills are removed to act as a good base for sculpting what I need rather than buying the fiberglass pieces. I found a nice pair of '71 front fenders and the egg crate style side fender grills. Bought a new chromed bumper and drop pieces that fit next to the center grill. Also got the front grills and the lower chromed surround trim pieces as well, now it's time to map things out, try to gather up some pics of an original chromed bumper car for reference and wait another month to begin the fiberglassing.
Again, thank you for any pictures that you can post. TC
Here`s a couple shots of my 71 front clip I bought for our coupe. First pic is when we just brought it home, 2nd is when we got it unloaded, and 3rd is with it upside down, working on the "rivet bumps"
FYI: "Been there/Tried that" The "rubber bumper" nose is about 3.5" TOO LONG. The chrome bumper will have a 1" gap where it wraps around each fender corner unless you trim off the excess nose length. See my pic with the tape in a V-shape across the nose.
Last edited by doorgunner; 01-25-2018 at 08:43 PM.
Tony, yours was 3.5 inches long because the bumper was molded into the nose. With a removable bumper, the strip between the front of the headlights and the bumper lip is about a half inch too long. The 68-72 had a strip only about 1/4 inch wide before nose folded under the bumper. With a 74 with it's straight front, you MIGHT be able to fab the behind-the-bumper section at that point instead of cutting the nose 1/2 to 3/4 inch shorter. First thing I would consider, is get the chrome bumper. Start finding or fabbing the brackets and mount it on the front of the 74 nose. Without doing any glass work to it yet. And see how it looks. And see if filling in the section behind it will work or if it looks too bub bub bub butchered the bumper may be too wide even only that much farther forward. Remember, the nose is tilting inward, therefore getting narrower as it goes forward. And the chrome bumper can't be made narrower without a sawzall...edit; you have bumper and brackets. cool. now see how it fits your nose...after removing the rubberbabybuggybumper first of course...
Last edited by derekderek; 01-26-2018 at 10:25 AM.
I think you will need a correct front valence. way diff than the 74-up setup. google 72 corvette front valence and you will get lots of pics to compare to your front end. ecklers has it about 165 bucks...
See pix below for some ideas, like my custom grill on my '72 ...maybe keep things simpler.....cheaper too.....custom done by a welder buddy of mine....it got hit once about 12 years ago, so we fixed it best we could...the center is not purrfect any more.....
Man ! You guys are just terrific, loads of reference pics and comments/cautions, just what I need ! I think that my best move is to fit the bumper to the nose as it is now, with the small amount of extra surface between the light pods and the edge of the body. If the bumper fits well at the sides, I'll leave things as they are and move onto fabricating the brackets, if the bumper is to loose on the sides I'll trim the nose in increments until the bumper is tight and right. I may well need to trim the front all the way back to the stock configuration of a chromed bumper car, or may need to just trim a bit. Either way, it's easier to trim a bit more rather than have to add fiberglass because I made a mistake. I really am thrilled to have these photos as reference, I think that this might well be a successful modification.
For the rear, I already bought a '71 rear clip from the fuel filler hole rearward. I was going to cut the body and match up the rear clip fiberglass, but after looking through the other threads, I think that it'll be more successful if I trim the clip instead and fit it in place of the original rubber rear bumper, almost as though the clip were a bolt-on. Seems much easier and WAY more precise to do it this way.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I've written the word "trim" way past my life allotment so I'll end here, really can't thank everyone enough for all of this help and information.
Door gunners build thread has a LOT of detail on fitting a 68-72 tail panel on a 64-up body. His is actually a 68, but somebody stuck later model body panels on it before he got it. But he has measurements, etc. Back is coming out nice. And he has a table of contents on page 1, so you won't have to read thru 4000 some posts...
Last edited by derekderek; 01-26-2018 at 04:58 PM.
Door gunners build thread has a LOT of detail on fitting a 68-72 tail panel on a 64-up body. His is actually a 68, but somebody stuck later model body panels on it before he got it. But he has measurements, etc. Back is coming out nice.
Also look up Priya.... she`s doing a similar tail swap, and also has lots of pictures.
And remember.... ANYBODY can restore a car, but it takes a REAL man to cut one up!
(Or in Priya`s case, a real WOMAN!)
I looked for both pf those threads and found partial sections that were posted in answer to other questions but never the entire original threads. I know what to do for the top, just measure filler hole to edge of where the rubber bumper mounts and translate that measurement to the clip. I don't have reference for cutting the sides of the clip as it doesn't include any part of the wheel wells. Ordinarily using the rearward edge of the wheel well would provide the data so I'll probably see if I can scale up a good photo or technical drawing to get close to the possible cut line. Right now I'm working on the front since that seems to be the most straight forward and I have NOW enough info to make it work thanks to you folks.
Thanks, every photo will help. I think that I have the top leading edge figured out, follow the original angle but cut it back to 0.5 inches from the headlight opening and make up a glassed over wooden "shelf" piece to fit just under the fiberglass to support the bumper and give something to bolt the bumper to, I need to find enough info to fabricate the cornets of the grill openings or find a pair of salvage pieces to glass in. Also have to figure out how much glass to add or cut on the forward side edges of the front fenders to mimic the angle on the stock chromed bumper cars. Still a lot of research to do and fiberglass bits to source, but I've already spent the big money of the bumper and grill surrounds and such. so . . . making a little progress each week.
01-25-2018, 10:25 AM
Photo of chromed bumper front end needed.
