Who makes the very best bumpers for a 74? TRUFLEX,conventional fiberglass I don't care,just want something that will need the least amount of work and good quality. Plenty of people on this forum have dealt with this,somebody needs to make a pole on the issue posted at the top in the STICKY page. Easy pole,people that have put new bumpers on a 73-79 can either comment or share any info regarding aftermarket bumpers. The bumpers up until 78 were pretty brittle so this could be a helpful tool. The pole would be the a list of manufacturers that sell the bumpers. Everybody seems to ask the bumper question,would help. I don't know how to post a pole or I would do this.

 

Ahhh you're going to ignite a debate here!

These car's were kind of hand-built on the assembly line ...and then many of them were abused periodically, maybe wrecked a time or two, ("Hey buddy, you have to see how this car ROCKS!!" ---boom!). So any bumper you get is going to most likely NOT fit perfect unless you do some bodywork to the bumper AND the front corners. Also, try to retain your OEM fasteners rather than using the typical aftermarket 2" individual stainless steel fasteners as they apply differential pressure which may induce some warpage. Here's how I beak the differences down:

Trueflex: Like an underhardened fiberglass. It's a thinner fiberglass. I have one downstairs which I was going to use. It fit 'ok' but I could have made it work with some bodywork. Overall the quality looks good. It's not warped like some people claim and it's probably 20 years old. I honestly can't tell you who made it, I think it might be ACI. I can go look for a sticker. I bought it used (but new) at a swap meet. The advantage is they have a little 'give' and they give the *Promise* that they can be flexed to fit better. One might fit your car really well, and if it does, you're lucky. If not, some bodywork will be needed to make a 'perfect' fit if that's what you want.

Fiberglass: Still going to require some final fitment and most likely bodywork unless you get lucky. No warpage. It's heavier. The downfall of fiberglass is if you ever hit anything (even anything more than a 'touch'), it's going to crunch up your car's fenders and probably entire front end. Lot of potential downstream damage. So, as long as you don't do that, you're good.

Urethane: I ended up buying a Urethane from Ecklers, back 12 years ago or so. It's a modern urethane from the same original molds. It's great. Even *These* will most likely require some font corner bodywork on your car's front end to make fit. They're still somewhat 'stiff' on the front corners, but you can make micro-adjustments. However, it's worth noting, if you do try to muscle it in...or out as needed, too much, then it often creates some warpage in other places, just like anything would. Ideally you want to install it in a 'relaxed' state, how it wants to be. The bodywork needed for mine was about the same that I would have put into the TrueFlex nose piece I already had. They don't do as good of a job cleaning up molding flashing as I would have liked (requiring some extra work), and you need to use a softening agent for the initial prime (you can use something like inexpensive PVC pipe softener solution). If you're paying a shop, keep that in mind. But overall, I like the urethane original-ness. They don't warp like the old ones do, but there is some minor 'waviness' on top, ....about like the cars were new. My car's Silver so it's not something that jumps out. But again, if a guy uses those 2" clips, some clips might be tighter or off-kilter in some areas that are looser in others...and lead to increased waviness.

Wrap-up: At the end of the day it comes down to budgets and your final product expectations. If you want 100% zero waviness, Fiberglass is your friend. But if you ding a vehicle in a parking lot, it could cause a lot more damage. That might never happen though. TrueFlex, don't expect it to flex very much, but it will some. And if you clamp it right it shouldn't be wavy either. Personally I like the Urethane. Increased crashworthiness on the rest of the car if it comes to that and the TrueFlex second, Fiberglass 3rd. You might get lucky and a new bumper will fit your car very well. Some guys do. But at the very least EXPECT the possibility that your car/bumper may likely require some bodywork ...and hence paint work too. And since C3's are extremely difficult if not impossible to 'blend' into the existing paint, it becomes a much bigger job.

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I have Truflex on both ends of my '74, very happy with the fitment right out of the box and have held up good (they have been on the car since 2001)

 

Here's something I failed to mention,these bumpers are going on a 75 so I will have to make a panel at the top,center of the bumper and glass it to the back edge of the 74 bumber. Can any fiberglass work be done with TRUEFLEX?

 

What do you mean?

Are you saying, you plan to glass the new bumper to the car with no seam? Or are you saying something else?
The grafting the bumper to the car usually results in cracks down the road unless it's really done right. I've seen so many like that and they look worse than a seam. Or are you going to re-do the front of the surround panel due to rivet distortion?

Give us the full story

 

He is going to put a '74 bumper on a '75 car, the fiberglass edge the bumper bolts up to is different between the two years so there is a big gap in the middle. he will need to "make" the middle section of the nose that is missing for the '74 bumper to work.I guess it's possible but that is a hard spot to fabricate from scratch.

 

Bumper will be bolt on. I'll make a mold off of the front of the 75 bumper,make the panel off the mold and bond that to the 74 bumper.

 

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Your car,your choice.

 

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Feel free not to take this to a conflict.

If you dont like the OPs preference, find another thread, please.

 

I asked for best fit,quality. I said nothing about originality.

 

I purchased the new front fiberglass bumper for my 73 from American Sports Car/Stinger Fiberglass.
They are now out of business but you could probably find a good 74 bumper from Eklers.
My bumper came delivered in an Eklers box.
It is a real close fit on the car and will require very little fit and finish work.

 

Fiberglass from Ecklers. Nice Quality.

 

Eckler's stopped making fiberglass parts years ago. They were sourcing fiberglass from a number of different places for at least 10 years, but most of it was coming from Stinger, who I believe bought all of Eckler's old molds. Eckler's was on the verge of bankruptcy about a year ago, and were bought out by another company. I don't know this for sure, but I think Stinger closed because they were pretty dependent on Eckler's, and the goings on at Eckler's may have put a hurt on them (like it did to many of their other suppliers).

Personally, I think the Trueflex is probably the best bumper, followed by ACI's rigid fiberglass one. I've heard good things about J & D's glass, but I don't have any personal experience with it.

I think Eckler's discontinued the urethane bumpers a couple years ago, and I don't think the new owners are interested in making many of the things Eckler's use too.

Because Trueflex is a fiberglass bumper, you can glass it up, but doing that obviously also defeats the purpose of buying a flexible glass bumper.

I don't care who's bumper you buy though, everyone of them is going to require some amount of glass work to either the bumper or car, to get a perfect fit, but if you're already planning on doing some major mods to the bumper to fit it to a 75, does it really make much difference if you have to do some extra work to fit it???

By the way, I don't think the 73-74 bumper cover will fit over the 75-79 impact bumper, or at least not the center section with the license bracket and bumperettes. I'd find out for sure before buying an earlier bumper.

 

True Flex is a great marketing name, whoever came up with that. It makes one think they can flex it to fit. Nope. Don't buy a True Flex bumper and think it's going to be flexible here and there, and allow you to move however you want it to, to get a perfect fit. You can get a *little* 'flexing' on the longer spans in the center, bottom corners, and that's about it.

Best to install how the bumper wants to sit, and apply bodywork as needed. No problem doing bondo or glass work. Its still a great product, but not as flexible as the name suggest.

You might check on your local internet ads. I sometimes see unused Corvette nose pieces for sale here. Usually rather cheap and obviously no shipping.