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I went with a new fiberglass replacement for my 73.
I read a lot of negative reviews on the tru-flex bumpers a few years back and I didn’t want a urethane replacement because they were hit and miss on proper fitment and construction at the time.
I got my new fiberglass bumper from Elkers but they are no longer around.
Top Flight Automotive and Corvette Central both sell fiberglass replacements.
Keep in mind that you just can’t bolt up a new bumper to one of these cars and hope it fits.
There will be body work, fitment and paint work to match any of them up to the fenders.
Don’t let anyone talk you into molding the new bumper into the front fenders and front clip because if you ever need to replace it again, it will be a major expense.
Save yourself the ordeal of test-fitting multiple bumpers only to find out that you’ll have to cut them into several pieces and re-glass them just to get a somewhat acceptable fit before you can proceed with filling. Order a new fiberglass bumper from ACI instead - that one was the best. It fit well enough that only filling was needed to match the body contours. Have a look at my topic to get the idea.
I’ve heard good things about ACI.
One thing to remember about these cars is that the fit and finish on each one can be slightly different.
Even the best made body part will need some work to get that perfect fitment.
I replaced mine with Tru-Flex even a lot of others have had problems, I diidn't. As mentioned above, make sure that you fit the bumper and not the body.
Mine fit fairly well and needed fitting on the pasenger side mostly as seen here:
After fitting:
Now after 11 years:
I ran into the same issue with my ’73 a while back. From what I found, urethane usually gives the closest factory fit, while fiberglass is cheaper but sometimes needs a little extra work to get everything lined up right. Tru-Flex seems like a decent middle ground from what people say.
When I was researching parts and checking the car’s background, I actually used Bumper for some auto info and ended up reading through a bunch of Bumper reviews online to see how other people’s experiences were. It helped a bit while I was figuring out what direction to go.
Curious what you end up choosing and how the fitment turns out.
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
