What is the proper way to attach front/rear FG bodywork

[opticalfuel]

Hi folks.

Forgive the stupid question. I have clean front and rear RSR style body work (fiberglass) and need to know how to go about attaching it to the car/bodywork.

What is the RIGHT way to do it?

Do I need the bumpers, or not? (I have the original SC bumpers)

Do I fabricate a new piece that the new body work (front and rear) attach to?

What is the strategy? Safety vs. weight issues?
I will post tons of pictures if needed.
Basically this is what I am doing:



and



goes on: (yellow is photoshop at this point... pretty cool huh?)



and rear view:




Thanks!

[rrichar]

Your gas tank refurbishing looks great on the outside. Did you do anything to the inside to clean and refurbish it? I have a 1974 CIS tank that has a couple of spots with surface rust and I am not sure the best way to eliminate it and prevent it in the future. Any ideas?

[opticalfuel]

Depending on how much work it is to remove the tank... I would suggest taping off the trunk and using less extreme measures than I did... I had my tank out of the car...

See... How does one remove the Fuel Tank?

The chemical strip allows you to get down to the metal, or almost. then I stripped off the rest using a high speed mesh type abrasive wheel. I then used RustMort, and finally self etching primer and a final semi gloss coat in black.

You may want to just sand it down to the metal, treat the effected area, then apply a matching coat of paint or undercoating / rock guard style paint. My job was complete straight forward overhaul.

Yours might require a bit more finesse....

Watch out for the aircraft stripper... it seems harmless at first, but it burns the crap out of your skin if it stays on long. Be careful.

Good luck.

[opticalfuel]

btw... the inside of the tank is probably new... it had been sitting in a barn for about 9 years, but the inside looked flawless. It was shiny silver, empty, dry and clean. Sweet.

[RWebb]

FG pieces provide no safety whatsoever

best way to do rear is to put in in place, adjust the sliding metal 'struts' to fit and then glass the whole thing in as it sits. that's for early car - not sure re SC

make cuts, fills adjustments first of course.

front should not be as hard to do as rear

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

I have exactly what you do on an '83 SC, and basically, all I can say is that you simply intuitively "bolt/screw it on." It really doesn't matter how you do it, since as Randy says it's just light pieces of plastic, entirely cosmetic, nothing more. Hold it in place, take a look at where nuts and bolts and screws will hold it and go for it. Many stock mounting points--and none of them have anything to do with bumper rams or the like--can be utilized. Take all that crap off if you're going with glass.

All you're doing is attaching light plastic pieces to the car firmly enough that they don't fall off. If you're actually thinking "safety," you're better off taping a helium party balloon to the steering-wheel hub.

[bluesky]

+1 on what the others have said as far as fg bumpers not providing safety.

I will offer this solution up for the front.... keep your stock front bumper in place for impact safety, then slice the "bumper part of the IROC off" horizontally and discard it, leaving the lower section with the oil cooler hole and the brake duct holes to be used as a valence. Bolt this valence up to your "safe" stock bumper.

This 'solution' isn't a pure-IROC look and yeah, it does require you to sacrifice your IROC bumper and do some fiberglass work to make mounting points to turn it into a valence
....but it results in a safety-IROC look.

I've got a longhood IROC bumper I was going to do this to if I bought a Impact Bumper car....but my plans changed and now I'm gonna sell it.

(There are a couple of pics of cars on the forum that have a set-up like this....one is a beautiful brown 930 and the other is a yellow IROC...I'll see if I can find them in Paul's awesone photo 'archive' )

[opticalfuel]

I guess my real question then is:

Are the FG bumpers (front and rear) going to fit OVER the metal bumpers or are they mutually exclusive of each other?

To put it another way... If I want to use the FG body work bumpers do I have to leave OFF the stock bumpers?

Do they normally fit over the bumpers or go in place of them?

Thanks!

[cashflyer]

These look like the same pieces I have on my 78.

They do not fit OVER the bumper - they are not bumper covers. They are lightweight items designed to replace the bumpers for weight savings on the track. As mentioned, they provide NO impact protection.

I had to custom fab brackets for the rear. On the front, the stock bumper shocks mounted to the mount plates in the FG bumper. I understand that this varies by brand.

Somebody who is not concerned with weight savings could probably fab a crash-bar that would be hidden behind the FG.

[opticalfuel]

OK... Excellent. I now know what I was wanting to find out.

There are a couple of options. I could fabricate a nice aluminum piece to go between the bumper shocks front and back. they would be straight or slightly bowed pieces of 3/8 or 1/2 aluminum or other alloy.

I can look into that.

Otherwise I see that except for that senario, it's going to mean that I have to do some major mods to the FG, or sacrifice safety all together.

I am pretty sure if I do a solo crash, it'll be at a higher rate of speed than 5MPH.

That means that either I roll it, (God forbid) or otherwise toast the whole car, in either case, benefiting very little from the front and rear bumper.

The wreck I am using as a donor, hit a T-Pole (VERY hard at 100+ MPH) and then rolled lots of times into a field next to some cows. (Back in 1985 in Oroville, CA)

From what I can tell BOTH bumpers were undamaged. This is weird, but seems to support my point... If you're going to wreck it, its unlikely the front and back bumpers are going to come much into play.

The real reason they are good to have is the scenario where some block head jams on their brakes in front of you, or you stop too fast for someone behind - both causing all kinds of damage without a 5MPH bumper in place.

I am going to install a custom bumper bar that I can mount the FG to.

That'll provide some fender bender protection, and will make the install far easier.

Sound good?

I'll take lots of pictures as I go... I will visit the metal yard next week. I used to fabricate skateboards as a kid with my Dad's spare aluminum scraps that he'd bring home from FMC.

It was cool, and I learned alot about how to work with metal, but I got teased from idiots who lacked any imagination or skill themselves. I'm over it... really guys..

We'll keep you informed: http://www.74911RS.com/

Cheers!

[bluesky]

This sounds good....I'm subscribing so I can see how it turns out....I like pics!

[mikeatfhc]

Hey Nathan - it looks like you got the wheels on already - looking sweet!

[opticalfuel]

Not really. I just had a friend who had some wheel spacers that were 1.75" and took them for a test spin. I expect to receive my 2" and 1" spacers next week sometime.

I will need to do plenty to the suspension before it's ready for the wheels.

The torsion bars are not set right I don't think. It leans to the left a bit, because it was probably not put together for the final. The spline is probably off by one on the right. (or the left for that matter)

I will need to remove all that soon, and inspect, and re-install. I'll probably try to pick up some hollow torsion bars. We can talk about what's involved soon. I have never gone that far into the suspension before.

Maybe we'll talk early next week.

Thanks for the good deal on the wheels, I cleaned them up... I'll post pictures soon.

I may have new tires eventually soon.