Thanks Vintage! I sometimes wonder if anyone reads this thread...nice to hear that I have at least one reader!
Anyway, on to the front bumper. It was a take off (obviously) from what I gather was a 1968 which means it has different mounting than what I want, but it was not all that much money and looked pretty good even though the paint is lousy. At least 3 different colours on the thing....here it is before sandblasting today
I presumed that I would need to refinish the odd spot and modify the mounting insofar as I am putting a 1989 valence with fog lights on it. That is why I was OK with a not so great bumper/valence....the valence was coming off anyway.
Well, sandblasting revealed some pretty ugly body work...tons of filler, holes for the deco trim merely hammered down and body filler larded on to it. Crinkled metal...it will be a lot of work but a new one is $810 (repro) plus shipping and I think I can fix this one.
Look and weep...
Close up of the worst part...
Inner side is not much better.....I wonder what those mounts looked like originally, right now they look like shrapnel...
Only good news is that the metal appears to be reasonably thick and not perforated, just bent. I guess me and my pick/file/dolly will get a workout. I will be removing all the brackets and supports for clearance and so I can modify them for the later (1973) mount set up. I'll look around this forum so I can see what the inside of a real 1973 front bumper looks like.
And yes...I will be using 3 inch lead when I get sick of tapping. Might just do some other stuff tomorrow like disassemble the trailing arms, front A arms, get all that ready for blasting and powder coating and get the brake stuff ready for plating (have a bunch to do).
Ahh...the challenge, that is why we do this...no?
D.