Technical Custom Bumpers

Back in 1960,on my full custom "J",my first plan was custom tub nerf bars on front an back. But that got side tracked a little. I did do full rolled rear pan an nerfs,but I found just a little bit twisted{ I could make straight } Corvair front bumper> it was exactly the right size{WIDE} as the "J" with the same "V" as the "J" hood> so I made a new pan to fit between the 60 Corvair Bumper and the 58 Ford Grill.

 

I say go for it.

 

49 Plymouth bumpers on my 48 Plymouth.

 

Subtle changes like that are great.

 

The heavily reworked '49 Plymouth bumpers really look at home on the 48 Plymouth.

 

Yeah, I didn’t stop and think this was a lot of work. Looks like it belongs there.

 

thanks, i wish i could get it finished someday

 

I used a 51 Pontiac one piece. I narrowed it, made new brackets, welded on a 49 chevy bumper over rider after shortening it. The ends of the Pontiac bumper were loooong.....went about a foot up the back of the 1/4 panel. I removed about 3-4 inches and welded it back together. Never did get it plated.

 

57 DeSoto on my 59 Ranchero

 

40 Chrysler bumper on my 41 Plymouth. It looks a lot better than the 41 Plymouth bumper!

 

I have always loved the use of the Desoto bumper on this 57 Chevy.

 

The peak on the front is really cool lookin'...

 

1952 Caddy

 

Just diggin on 57-58 dodge front bumpers. I’m a sucker for a two-piece.

 

Here's mine. Briz bumper that I molded a SoCal aluminum license plate surround into.

 

^^^^^^ I hope your planning bigger tail lights.

 

I dunno. K13's lights might be pretty bright. Take these tiny little things on this '41 Chevy coupe. You can barely see them until they are on ... and then you KNOW they are on. Quite bright, and sneeky. Oh, and keeping with the thread topic, the bumper is made from Cadillac pieces.

Still can't see the tail lights? It's those two tiny little silver bumps at the top of the bumper wingtips.

 

Whoa... what the heck are those? I'm lookin' for something nearly un-detectable for my back window... a "3rd" brake light sort of thing.

 

Ptarmigan 9 by mr57 posted Feb 7, 2017 at 10:48 PM

Ptarmigan 10 by mr57 posted Feb 7, 2017 at 10:48 PM

 

I like that car and the bumpers look great. I’m also a fan of the Continental kit when done right. I think they get a bad rap because they often don’t turn out right. Good idea, often poor execution, but that’s not what this thread is about.

 

Stock front bumper on my '50 Buick, removed the teeth and bumper guards/parking lights and added a '50 Olds grill bar. I'm using chrome bumper bolts to fill the holes for now. Out back is a '55 Pontiac bumper and '53 Kaiser lights.

 

I saw a pic of these bumpers last night made me think if those would work on my 47 Ford but that might be a lot of work for a mild custom.

 

Never seen the grill teeth removed from a 50 Buick before. I like it!! The tail lights look like they belong there also.

 

Slick! To me, that's what it's about; Subtle changes that make a huge difference/ improvement!

 

still work in progress. 1949 desoto bumper. 1947 chevy truck. 1949 olds lights.

 

My avatar shows the stock bumper, tucked in & trimmed for fender clearance. It was intended to be temporary, but it's grown on me.

 

Yes, the kit does look great on there. There are only certain makes and years that they look good on, and tri-five Fords are one of them.

Even though this thread is not about continental kits, it is a topic that is tangentially related to the discussion of bumpers. I think that for cars with continental kits, the rear bumper needs to have two design aspects for it to work, 1) the bumper needs to have a certain visual weight to balance with the heaviness of the kit, and 2) it needs to wrap the sides and have a nice looking termination to finish that.

The first reason is why when discussing 57 Fords, the kit IMHO, looks better with the Fairlane bumper than the Custom bumper, and the latter reason is why I think full kits (not baskets) don't look light on Cadillacs, 57 Chevs and others. They look GREAT on Oldsmobiles.

 

Yeah, a kit looks natural on a 57 Ford.

 

Here is a two piece bumper option. 1959 Chrysler I think.

 

I've always liked that treatment, I just wish it was tucked up a little bit. It's like a front continental kit. The problem there is that the sides of the bumper need to be shortened.

I think one of the main things that stops more people from undertaking this endeavor is that it takes some real skill to sort of metal finish the bumper, and then send it out to be chromed, which is expensive and takes a long time. When done right though, it makes a big impact.