RUF Bumper Installation Questions.......

[ken_xman]

Now that I have the RUF MA Shaw bumpers in my garage.
I am somewhat lost on the actual installation process.
The "searched threads" say they are just bolted to the fenders, but I am at a loss how?

Where do they bolt? # of bolting points?
Are there 3 on each corner of the front, and thats it?
# and location on the back?
Do you completely remove the oem shocks?
Any pics of the installation process?
How do you hold in the mesh screen in the front center?

Do you use a spray undercoating, or chip guard, for the inside for protection?

I thought they somehow bolted to original shocks with just no cross piece?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Randy Blaylock]

Welcome to aftermarket body parts fitting.

Ideally, you'll get the car up on jackstands to make working on things easier. Take off the front wheels. Remove everything below the bottom of the fenders, across the front, including the rubber smile, and the bumper shocks. If you can loosen, dismount, or otherwise get the trombone cooler or whatever cooler you may have out of the way, along with the horn trumpets on the other side, that will also really help.

Grab some kind of cribbing, short lengths of 2 x 4s, or whatever, to place the bumper in the approximate position that you think it should be. At this point you'll see how the flange on the bottom of the fenders meets the flat part on the sides of the bumper. You'll probably have to drill several holes to secure the bumper to the fenders. Use smallish bolts, and as big a washer as will fit in the space to distribute the load, and nylock nuts. 5mm x .8 bolts, 10/32, or something along those lines would work well. Try to work as far around towards the front of the car as you can, almost getting in under the headlight bucket if you can. In the center area of the bumper, underneath on the inside, there should be a flat area where you can also mount some bolts through to the inside of the trunk area.

This means drilling many holes in your car. If you consider your car to be a pristine example of an original car, you're going to have to get used to the idea that you will be doing some irreversible modifications.

There are some temporary fasteners called cleco fasteners, that are fairly inexpensive, that make fitting panels much more convenient since you can install and uninstall them quickly and easily. Consider these.

It's going to take a lot of patience and time to do it well, if you don't think you have those attributes, consider having a favorite body shop do the job. Sometimes paying others to do things they're used to and good at is money well spent. Don't ask me how I know this....