Ruf Bumpers

[lromanosky]

So these came up on Ebay, and I jumped at them without thinking it through. I was going to put them on my 1979/92 Ruf BTR III, which was a 79 SC chassis, rebuilt at the factory into a 965 wide body. What I think I want is a wide body "Yellow Bird", but that looks like it means a change of sills, exhaust etc. etc. and the 965 has grown on me.

I still can't quite figure out what I have bought. The rear bumper is some type of plastic with one layer of carbon weave bonded to the back, and appears to fit a 930. The front bumper is fiberglass, and looks very narrow, and looks like the narrow body CTR "Yellowbird" bumper, even though it was sold as a 930 part...

Anybody have any comments on them.. I could put them on my stock 79 930, but that seems kind of pointless. I may sell these on, as they might be surplus.

Lawrence

[speednme1]

Iirc I thought RUF bumpers were polyurethane and not fiberglass or carbon fiber. I could be wrong though. A call to RUF may be in order.

[jwasbury]

According to the RUF website, both of these pieces are narrowbody parts. They won't fit a 930. Pretty sure the CTR front bumper was always fiberglass...its the BTR front lower valance that was polyurethane.

[JFairman]

Also, if black pigment is mixed into polyester resin and surfacing wax is also mixed into the resin to give it a satin finish, and then after wetting out fiberglass cloth with the same weave pattern as carbon fiber cloth and then vacuum bagging it or just using a wide bondo squeegee to sweep and sqeeze out the excess resin... it will look just like that.

The purpose of surfacing wax mixed into polyester resin makes it so you can sand or grind it without the sandpaper immediatly loading up with the sticky surface resin. It will also remove the gloss in polyester resin and leave a satin finish in it after it goes off.
Black pigment mixed into the resin is only cosmetic, and too much of it will weaken the hardened resin.

[lromanosky]

Well had I taken the time to ask the seller for the part number, and either phoned Ruf or looked at the website I would have found out that they wont fit either of my cars! Also, to add insult to injury the cost of both is about 3,000 Euros, and i paid $usd 6,000 + shipping.

There are a lot of parts that may be listed on the Ruf website that are NLA, so perhaps if the parts are not available new, then I stand half a chance of not getting burnt too badly...

What the seller had represented is that the rear was a carbon fiber bumper for a 930, which I thought was worth a lot, expecially from Ruf. But it is a plastic bumper with one layer of CF weave bonded to the underside.

What do they say about a fool and his money? Arrahhhhhhh!!!!

Lawrence.

[speednme1]

Originally Posted by lromanosky

Well had I taken the time to ask the seller for the part number, and either phoned Ruf or looked at the website I would have found out that they wont fit either of my cars! Also, to add insult to injury the cost of both is about 3,000 Euros, and i paid $usd 6,000 + shipping.

There are a lot of parts that may be listed on the Ruf website that are NLA, so perhaps if the parts are not available new, then I stand half a chance of not getting burnt too badly...

What the seller had represented is that the rear was a carbon fiber bumper for a 930, which I thought was worth a lot, expecially from Ruf. But it is a plastic bumper with one layer of CF weave bonded to the underside.

What do they say about a fool and his money? Arrahhhhhhh!!!!

Lawrence.

why not open a case with paypal? if they were be represented as a 930 item but are not, then I see no reason why you should not be refunded.

[lromanosky]

Well the seller has agreed to take back the items and refund the money providing I pay for the shipping and crating each way, from Texas to Calgary, or about $1,200. I'm considering my options. I could send them back or just re-list on ebay, or keep them for a future project. Thanks for your input.
cheers,
Lawrence.

[Slider79SC]

You could replace your front fenders with narrow ones and sell the fronts for some pretty good money. Then run the new front bumper you have.

Then have the wheel arch lips on your rear fenders shaved down a bit to match the rear bumper and original smaller lips of the Carrara and have a "Yellowbird" clone. Or have the rear bumper modified to match your turbo shaped wheel arch lips and have a custom modified clone....

Of course then you loose the wide wheels up front but...
Just a thought....

[lromanosky]

hmmm, I think I would just sell these, and go to RUF and buy the wide-body versions of the same bumpers-sometimes you have to take your lumps which is better than making a second mistake to try to correct the first one! We will see if the seller makes good on his claim to take the items back....

I do like the idea of a super light weight, NA, narrow body car so maybe I will build that one day...

Cheers, Lawrence.

[speednme1]

Originally Posted by lromanosky

Well the seller has agreed to take back the items and refund the money providing I pay for the shipping and crating each way, from Texas to Calgary, or about $1,200. I'm considering my options. I could send them back or just re-list on ebay, or keep them for a future project. Thanks for your input.
cheers,
Lawrence.

Hey Lawrence that quote seems high, I had a rear euro bumper shipped from Nineapart(Canada) to New Jersey for $69.00

[drmatera]

See if Greyhound will take them

[x98boardwell]

I thought the yellowbird was a narrow bodied car?

[ej911]

this will fit a 930 turbo.

www.Rennspd.Com

[SAY - 642]

Hi, Lawrence:

Sent you a private message. If you decide to sell , I could use the front for my RUF CTR Tribute car .

NOS RUF CTR Rear Steel Flares....Still a work in progress by Peter Dawe

RUF CTR 002 tribute in the works

[Slider79SC]

Edited my first post to take out the narrow body confusion...

The original "Yellowbird" was built off a norrow body car (and also the next 54 customer cars) but the rear flares and the rockers were widened slightly to get a larger tire underneath and to make room for the air intakes on the 1st prototype car (CTR 001).

Ruf also modified several wide body customer cars albiet not from a body in white like the first 29 CTR's.

[lromanosky]

Beddor had a couple wide body "CTR"s but you are right of course about all the original body-in-white cars being narrow bodies. The bumpers are back in a box ready to ship back to Texas, and I think I am just going to stick with the 965 body for my Ruf, and do a cosmetic restoration. The more I look at the 965 the more I like it.

Thanks guys.

[alwaysflat6s]

First thing you need to do is 100% verify what you have.

It is clear to me that you have a proper Ruf CTR-1 front bumper. It should have come with various installation bits as well as the rubber lower lip at the price you paid.

I suspect the rear bumper, yes it is Ruf... is actually a correct CTR-1 piece. That means it will NOT fit a 930 nor an SC/Carrera rear flare. It is wonderful with a real CTR flare, but that means you also have to source the CTR rocker panels! You can have a good body man convert your rockers to fit, but when I did that a long time ago I could have purchased the correct Ruf rockers for what it cost to get them correct.

The gent that spoke up saying he has CTR flares on his project NEEDS this rear bumper! [unless I am sorely mistaken.]

If you haven't yet noted, the Ruf bits are much heavier duty and well built than any of the cheap knock offs on the market. At least that is true of anything I have seen.

GL

JR

[alwaysflat6s]

BTW, the Beddors had 964/993 based CTRs, not early CTR-1 cars. Quite different.

[RUF911]

Is a template available to cut out these vents? Wouldn't want to get it wrong 🤔.

Thanks