How to mount a F/G front bumper

[sjanes]

Gang,

One of my winter projects (here in Canada, we have enough winter for a lot of projects), I have decided to add a front mounted oil cooler. Now I'm trying to decided if I should just replace the front valance and keep the stock bumper, or replace the bumper as well. For those of you that have mounted a one piece F/G bumper/spoiler, how did you mount it? Do you keep the original shocks, or does it mount another way? How sturdy is it when mounted? How much weight savings is there?

Thanks for any info
SJ

[Moses]

Originally posted by sjanes
Gang,

One of my winter projects (here in Canada, we have enough winter for a lot of projects), I have decided to add a front mounted oil cooler. Now I'm trying to decided if I should just replace the front valance and keep the stock bumper, or replace the bumper as well. For those of you that have mounted a one piece F/G bumper/spoiler, how did you mount it? Do you keep the original shocks, or does it mount another way? How sturdy is it when mounted? How much weight savings is there?

Thanks for any info
SJ

The front bumper mounts to the tub via special brackets and also is secured to the body with bolts or rivets.

I removed the shocks, but others retain them. They will not have much function with a glass bumper.

My bumper is very solidly mounted but will flex a bit when pressed like all fiberglass. When you paint it, be sure the painter uses the paint additive that allows the paint to flex. Otherwise the paint will crack and spiderweb in no time.

Do a search on "weight loss" or "911 diet". The weight savings is considerable, but I don't remember exactly how much.

[cowtown]

Moses is right on. I also mounted an IROC/RSR bumper-spoler, so I could install a giant Setrab cooler in the front center area, and elected to ditch the shocks (they weigh ~12lbs EACH), but did replace them with some aluminum tubing for extra support. I have a ton of pictures detailing exactly what the process was if you can't find enough on search.

I didn't have any special brackets for the mount to the tub and fenders. I made them with aluminum stock. If you can get a complete kit, that would be the way to go. This stuff took me a looong time to get right.

I'd estimate total weight savings of around 70 lbs. You'll lose your heavy fog lights, bumper, valance, rubber smile, one set of marker lights, and accordian pieces. I also took out my wiper washer tank and motor, and relocated the horns to the left side of the car to make the oil line installation cleaner.

[Bill Verburg]

I used the mechanical bumper shocks to mount nerf bars under the f/g skin, a small dollop of protection.

The front nerf is a great place to hang the cooler from.

The bumpers themselves are very light and can be hung from the fenders by boltes through the fender flanges and in the back the stock lower struts.

There is a very nice Ruf setup currently at Rennlist classifieds.