Allright folks, question, without being pejorative towards my vendor, Eckler's. I purchased 'glass bumpers for my 77 from Eckler's. The back went on no sweat. Everything lined up fine.

The front is a nightmare. I would say maybe my car isn't right, but they've sent a second bumper and the second doesn't fit either, but it doesn't fit differently. The ends are so far out it's not even funny. They're too long. The center isn't vee'd enough and the gaps are hopelessly screwed up. The body shop has graciously offered, at a great expense, to "make the car and bumper fit".

I am thinking the red herring is the bumper. Especially since two different bumpers didn't fit in different ways. I realize Eckler's isn't an ISO type facility, but has anyone else noted this sort of inconsistency from them before on these bumpers? I am also aware this is not an easy task that does sometimes get complex. I do have pictures, that I will e-mail to whoever wants to see them.

Lastly if someone is reading and thinking "I can't believe he bought Eckler's bumpers!" please offer alternatives. I'm about to tell the body shop let 'er rip, but I think something is amiss here. Help!!!

Thanks in advance...

 

Search for information on fiberglas bumpers - they all require fitment.

 

Typical poor quality found from several vendors. My body-shop has to custom fit every fiberglass bumper we buy. SOP.

 

Nothing new to me. I had to make a choice in bumper selection before and finally ended up making my own fiberglass bumper based on my wavy flex bumper (correctly filled out etc.). The thing came out fine, but I made a mistake and that is that i didn't fit the thing with the bumperbars, braces etc in place. So when i tried final assembly I couldn't get it on.

Ended up using a new (original) urethane bumper. Expensive, but fit is alltogther good and you can more or less push it in to place where things don't line up real good. The rest of the (minor) fitmentproblems had to be corrected through bodywork.

As all the others already mentioned, some (more or less) bodywork is involved. The PIA is however that the front of the C3 is a complete part and if you have to do bodywork, chances are you will have to do some major paintwork... so expensive.

Succes

 

This procedure has worked for me very well on several cars and I posted it last month. The more you do these, the more you learn, but the first one is the toughest. Ecklers doesn't make their own fiberglass covers, they buy from Toledo-Pro and ACI. I'm not a big fan of Toledo-Pro quality, but neither brand will fit out of the box. '75 and later fiberglass front covers are the most difficult, but they can be fitted with time and patience. You've already gotten past the removal process, so your a quarter of the way there! I've done these without damaging the paint on the body.

I don't recommend this procedure for flex-fiberglass covers, just standard fiberglass. I wouldn't use fillers or additional fiberglass lay-up on a flex part.

The cover ends and the areas in front of the headlights will be the issue. The first problem is, fiberglass covers won't fit over the honeycomb and center impact guard without modification. The fiberglass is thicker and doesn't flex, so these internal parts need a little shaving and the cover will fit much better. I've seen a lot of people eliminate these internal parts, but they provide good impact protection and will reduce body damage in an impact.

I assume your fit is similar to these pics:




To start, you need to eliminate all interference with the honeycomb and upper reinforcement. This will make the cover fit better, and you don't want these parts rubbing on the fiberglass after installation.



1. There is a steel reinforcement (Shown above) with a lip on it running horizontally across the top. You need to remove the lip with a cut off disc from the center outward on both sides. This will allow the fiberglass bumper to slide in place easier. Get a helper to hold a piece of steel flat against the body in case you slip with the cut off disc.
2. The big rubber piece in the center needs to be shaved on the top in conjunction with shaving the top of the honeycomb. Both bumper guards on the rubber piece will need shaving as well to make them narrower to fit in the fiberglass guard openings. Once all of these are reduced in size, the fiberglass bumper will fall into place. If you use some childs white sidewalk chalk smeared inside the bumper, you can check for interference. When you remove the bumper the chalk will remain on the parts it came into contact with. You don't want the fiberglass bumper rubbing on any of the inner structure, the abrasion will cause problems later on.

Once all the interference with the inner structure is eliminated, you can start working on bumper fitment. This is time consuming and you'll be test fitting a lot to get it right. You don't need to test fit with the retainers in the mounting holes, save them for later.

1. The top mounting surface (back side) needs to sanded to match the body contour across the front and between the headlights (shown on the white car). The gel coat is pretty thick and a lot of fitment problems on the ends can be minimized or solved in this step. Use a flat block and stop sanding when you reach the fiberglass.
2. Once you have the best fit (it won't be perfect) across the top you can concentrate on the ends. Expect a gap as much as 1/4" on the ends, however, the above sanding will reduce the gap. But don't expect to tighten the ends into the body with the retainers at this point, the center of the cover will most likely buckle.

Here is the filling procedure I use. Purchase Evercoat Vette Fill to fill the end gaps essentially making a mold using the body as a guide. No filler is needed on the body, in fact there will be no damage to the paint. This method also insures that the body and bumper mounting surfaces match at the same angle. I'm not referring to the visible outside gap, but the gap inside where the bumper and body tighten together. If you were to do a cosmetic fill on the outside, then tighten the bumper to the body and close the inside gap between the 2 surfaces, the top surface of the bumper will distort from the pressure. It may not happen right away, but within a couple months you could have a crease in the top surface.
This process works better the first time with a helper. To fill the gap (assuming the top fits perfectly without force) cover the front surface of the body and the mounting surface where the filler is needed (and slightly beyond) with Saran Wrap. This will keep the filler from adhering to the body and protect the paint. Sand the gel coat off the bumper where the filler is needed and slightly beyond as well as the some of the outer surface. Clean the bumper with wax and grease remover. Vette Fill is kind of thin so you need to work fast and carefull. Apply Vette Fill to the bumper mounting surface (one side at a time) and put the bumper in place against the body with very little pressure against the body. Use masking tape to hold the bumper in place and take off the excess filler with a bondo spreader. Let it dry.
Working on the same spot, force filler into the gap from the backside as well. You'll need to verify the gap between the parts is filled sufficiently, add filler to air pockets if needed. Now just finish sand and feather the outer portion. The gap problem is fixed and when you tighten the bumper to the body, there will not be any surface distortion.

Next, if the bumper does not have mounting holes, now id the time to drill them and test fit with the retainers. I use these PAL nuts to hold the aftermarket retainers in place on the ends. Using these keeps the retainers from falling out while you push the cover in place.

I use the OEM style retainers in the upper center of the cover with the PAL nuts.

 

Wow good write up!!!

 

This is really helpful. Great pictures that really capture the details.

Do the tru-flex bumpers have the same fitment issues? While it might flex a bit for the install the issues you pointed out might also be the same for the tru-flex.

Has anyone had to go through the same adjustments for the tru-flex bumpers?

Joe

 

Is there a way to tell if my front bumper is a truflex or just fiberglass? It has a red tag inside that is under the fiberglass but I cant read what it says.

 

Thank you. There are probably other methods to do this so I don't claim to be an expert, but I have had no reliability issues with the ones I've done, it's fairly easy, and retains the inner structure.
The most important part is mating the cover mounting surface to the shape of the body to eliminate or reduce stress on the outer surface which will show up as a crease a few weeks/months after installation. These are the types of things you learn from experience. And everyone has different levels of perfection that is acceptable, unfortunately, mine are pretty high.

I still need to get pics of the filling process, but it's easy to get involved with a job and forget. I will extend an offer to help install a front cover for anyone in the Macomb, MI area at no charge.

The gray bumper shown above is a true flex. I don't recommend them because they seem to need the same amount of work as a regular fiberglass cover. They just don't flex enough and remember when a rigid object flexes, it's going to have the opposite reaction somewhere else on the surface, with these, usually the center pops up as you draw the ends in. If you leave it with that stress applied, after it sits out in the sun, you'll have a bunch of waves across the top.

It will feel somewhat flexible on the back mounting surface, instead of rigid. Flex covers have less hardener in the resin which makes them somewhat flexible. But they do not flex like a urethane cover. Urethane is still the easiest installation.

 

Thanks for the reply bud. Mine has spider cracks on the point of the nose, if its a truflex can I use regular fiberglass methods to fix it?