The New Look

[ljowdy]

During Jan. of this year I read on Pelican about a member that was looking for metal bumperettes for his 1973.5 911. He had those horrible black foam "things" and while doing some research, found out that a few Euro cars came with metal bumperetts but, they were coated with a material similar to plastic and were the same as the chrome units but were black in color. Eventually he found front and back units and made the change.

It looked so good, I decided to do the same. I found a set of fronts via a member in the US and the rear's came from another member in Holland.

I discovered that the front bumperettes were originally designed for the narrow bumper strip and, my car had the 5 piece wide bumper strip (2 end pieces, 1 piece each between the foam bumperette and the end pieces and 1 long piece in the middle.

I ordered a 1 piece wide bumper strip from Pelican, then drilled a hole through the rubber where the upper bolt goes through the body/bumper to hold the bumperette in place. Once I found where the new narrow metal bumperette would be positioned, I made 2 vertical cuts in the bumper strip using an air powered cut off wheel. I mounted the new bumperettes and when I tightened the bolts on the bumperettes, it "sucked" the edges of the bumperette into the rubber strip thus hiding the fact that they were originally designed for the narrow strip.

Personally, I like the look and regardless of anything else, the new look is far superior than with the huge black foam bumperettes. Since I didn't know what size bolts to use, I bought a piece of 8mm threaded rod, and estimated how long they should be. I screwed the rod into the front bumperettes and then attached washers and nuts to hold them in place. One of these days, I'll buy the correct length bolts but for now, it works just fine. By the way, the rear's mounted up without a problem

Attached are a couple of before and after photo's

[72targa]

Nice work! Looks just like my '72.

[Chuck Miller]

Been think'n about re-do'n my big '73 rears with small like those for about......... 22 years.....

..... and so it goes

Nice look

[smedley]

Hey Chuck,

If you want to go way cool and trick.....there is an outfit in the UK making aluminum replica bumpetettes. Nice and light!

Of course trick and cheap are never used in the same sentence. If interested, I'll find the link.

Mark

[LKreg]

Certainly worth the effort. Looks just right!

[72targa]

Hey Chuck,

If you want to go way cool and trick.....there is an outfit in the UK making aluminum replica bumpetettes. Nice and light!

Of course trick and cheap are never used in the same sentence. If interested, I'll find the link.

Mark

www.cheaptrick.com/

[RSTarga]

That's the way that the designers expected the car to turn out before they read the DOT reg's

[Aldo]

Here are the aluminum ones:
http://www.vw-online.co.uk/acatalog/...nd_912_25.html

[FHernand]

You are on to something there...very nice.