Hey guys, what's up?
It's been quite a while since my last round of "catching up to date" updates on here. My apologies, but I've been logging in some heavy duty hours at work lately, and there simply hasn't been enough time or energy at the end of the day to do much of anything.
But it's Sunday night, and I've got a bit before heading off to bed, so I'm going to see if I can't cover a bit more ground.
As promised last time, I'll cover the front bumper tuck and the mods to the front fenders to accommodate it. I took lots of pics of the mods to the bumper as I went along, but unfortunately not so many of the fenders. Just the "after" shots once they were already in primer. So, here goes...
The term "bumper tuck" is pretty much self explanatory. The idea is to trim down, tuck in and move back the bumper to fit closer to the body reducing unsightly gaps and proportions. I removed the stock chrome front bumper from the car and removed the black impact strip and inner reinforcement. I picked up a second bumper in good shape from the auto wreckers and did the same to it. This pic is the starting point with everything removed.
The inspiration for what I wanted to do with the front bumper actually came from the rear of the car with the rear bumper and side trim panel removed. The shape in the quarter panel where the plastic side trim sits looked like it would provide the perfect recess in which to set the bumper back into when I got to doing the tuck on the rear bumper. The indentation in the quarter panel below and ahead of the tail light in this shot is what I'm referring to:
This recess practically begs for the bumper to be moved back and into this area. The problem then became "how do I duplicate this recess on the front of the car?" As I've mentioned before, I REALLY dislike the cheap plastic filler panels that go between the body panels on these cars, so the plan all along was to eliminate as many or all of them as possible.
On the front fenders, the plastic side panels were removed and the header panel left in place. From there, a template of the exact shape of the recess in the rear quarter panel was made so as to exactly match the shape at the front of the car. The template was then transferred to sheetmetal and cut out. This would be the basis for the recessed area.
Next, a measurement was made from the bottom of the header panel to the bottom of the fender. This measurement was then subtracted from the height of the template. The measurement I was left with would be a small section that would extend the "flush" section of the fender forward to eliminate the gap and the need for a portion of the plastic filler panel. Confused yet? This is what I'm talking about. In this pic, the "flush" fender extension is in the process of being welded on and the recessed portion is missing still. The front part of the extension needed to tie into the perforated section of the front filler panel (covered earlier), so securing the front wouldn't be an issue.
Next, it was time to move onto the recessed portion that would create the pocket that the bumper will sit in. The templated section of sheetmetal cut out earlier was aligned with the bottom and inner edge of the fender and tacked on. This gave me roughly 7/8" of recess which coincidentally matched the rear quarter panel pocket. From there. it was fully welded, hammered and dollied into the right shape, then body worked and primed. This is the driver's side completed.
You'll note that the front of the recessed area is cut back at a 45 degree angle. I initially had it squared off with the front edge of the fender, but I found it was too flexy and would contact the bumper. I would've needed to find a way to support the front edge with a mount or something, but I found it was easier (and lighter) to just cut it back from corner to corner.
Once the recessed pockets were created for the bumper, it was time to start modifying the bumper to match. The bumper was test fit before any cutting was done on it without the fillers in place. These pics show just how poorly they really fit the car.
This one is with the bumper moved back to the desired position closer to the fenders.
From here, it was determined that the bumper ends would actually need to be lengthened to properly fill the recesses created. The flattest most uniform area of the bumper end was determined, and the end was trimmed off. Roughly the same area of the 2nd bumper was cut out and added to the first. Here it is briefly mocked up.
Also note that I've already started welding up and metal finishing the trim holes where the impact strip sat. At the time I thought I was going to have the bumper rechromed, so all the metal work was done old school style by a technique known as picking and filing. Basically, no grinders are used, the weld is filed BY HAND then any low spots are "picked" up with the pointed end of a quality body hammer and filed with a special body file until the surface is perfectly flat and level. It's extremely time consuming, but can also be very rewarding if you have the patience. (The same process can and is used on sheetmetal btw. It just takes the right tools and some practice.)
Back to the bumper, the ends were fully welded on, picked and filed, and the rest of the trim holes filled.