OK, been a while since I posted, but I have been doing a lot of work on the front end...seemed like it would never get there.
Anyway, it took a long time to figure out how to support the bumper ends, particularly on the drivers side where the new air conditioning condenser now lives. On the passenger side all was well....except the early signal lights unfortunately want to occupy the same space as the support bracket...so, needed to make something exotic so I hammerformed the S shaped piece and it seems to work and clear fine.
Drivers side was harder, but ultimately simpler as I gave up trying to make the equivalent of the passenger side and simply put a small bracket at the end of the fender to tie the two together. Issue is that there needs to be a gap as there a rubber molding that fits between the bumper and the fender....so you really can't bolt the two together unless you do some kluge spacer thing. I also found out that the rubber sealing strip fits "backwards" from the intuitive way it looks like it goes on.
Needed to fabricate the mounting point on the fender...did both sides as I am a little anal, but it was a relatively simple piece to make up.
The bumper still needs a lot of finishing work, it definitely was a crappy part....probably should have bought a new or at least better one, there were rust holes that needed filling, bent parts, wrinkles...you name it, but the 3 inch lead will take care of the final look. I have welded in the inner supports an mounts, again, need some final grinding and prettifying before I coat it with anything....
Final appearance is what I wanted, it will look better with the fogs in it, plus the lip spoiler (still need to that final bit of fettling).
Next project after doing all the little details and finishing on the front is to do the bum of the thing....need to convert bumperettes to RS shape, plus fit the earlier rear finishing panel and such. Nothing too hard there from what I can tell, so I think I am still on track to get the car in primer by year end.
Dennis