I recently had VSR one fit up a set of stainless bumpers I bought off Ebay. These are sold by "kuhlauto" (Pete B in California). The buying process was ok. Very little communcation/status udpates from seller and the bumpers took nearly a month longer to arrive. But, Pete's a trust worthy guy.
When we unpacked the bumpers at VSR1, everyone was impressed with the cosmetics.
VSR1 then fit them up to the car (which is setup for 1972 and earlier bumpers).
REAR:
TWIST
Fitment wasn't too bad. Both ends had some twist to them that was mostly removed by counter twisting them. When I installed them, there was still a slight twist and a slight offset to one side of the car (see the URL below). Things to note: the twist is visible as a gap at the 1 ends that attach up near the wheel wells. The rounded ends contact the body first at their lower part, leaving a 1/4" gap at the top (space between black rubber edging and the body. This was present at both sides. I was able to pull it in with the bumper mount bolts, but the stock bumpers didn't have this problem. On the right bumper tip, you can see a slight unevenness in the gasket. The end of the bumper wasn't cut off straight, and I should have fixed it with a hand held grinder (60 sec fix), but the grinder was in the other garage and I have a sprained ankle today and said screw it.
ASYMMETRY
The next issue I noticed is that the bumper fit up offset to the left side by about 1/2". In one pic you can see there's a sizable gap between the longitudinal bumper blade and the body, and the right side blade is actually up against the paint. I pulled the bumper even using a tie-down strap (pic) and snugged up the 4 rear mounting bolts to hold it in alignment. I suppose the right way to have fixed the problem would've been to increase the bend angle of the right half and decrease it for the left half. I think you might need a couple of come-alongs to do this because these stainless bumpers are pretty darn rigid (and you'd have to pull it very straight to avoid adding a new twist to the bumpers. See the pic of the ends laying in the grass, The red arrows call out the fact that one 'blade' is about 1/4" (maybe 3/16") narrower than the other. Once the bumper's on the car you can't see this, but I thought it would've been nice if they had been more accurately made.
OVERALL:
It took a good 2 hours to fit them up to the car. FWIW, I wrapped the ends in that plastic they use on pallets etc for shipping. It's thin but a few layers were enough to protect the paint. I ripped the stuff off just before I did the final tighten on the mounting bolts. I put 2 layers of masking tape at a few points on the bottom center to keep it from getting scratched. I mounted by holding the bumpers of the ground on some cardboard boxes that were cut to be the right height. That allowed me to slowly move the bumper in position bit by bit without scratching the body. This and the front can be done this way by 1 person.
MISC: my license plate bottom touches the top of the new bumper. This is partly because the small piece that covers the center joint and 3 center bolts is taller/thicker in cross section than the original chromed piece. I'll trim my license plate bottom to gain some clearance.
http://s1244.photobucket.com/user/xkfeng/library/Stainless Bumpers?sort=3&page=1
FRONTS: more in another post.
CONCLUSION: these bumpers cost nearly 1/3 less than a concours rechromed OE set and they'll never rust. Cosmetically I thought they were great. Fitment was not very good as received. The rear's worked out with a few hours extra labor that an OE set would not require. Not so with the fronts so I ended up using a OE front bumper I bought from a forum member. I'll get into the fitment and compatibility issues with the front in a few days.
John
P.S. If anyone else is seriously considering these bumpers, contact me privately.
When we unpacked the bumpers at VSR1, everyone was impressed with the cosmetics.
VSR1 then fit them up to the car (which is setup for 1972 and earlier bumpers).
REAR:
TWIST
Fitment wasn't too bad. Both ends had some twist to them that was mostly removed by counter twisting them. When I installed them, there was still a slight twist and a slight offset to one side of the car (see the URL below). Things to note: the twist is visible as a gap at the 1 ends that attach up near the wheel wells. The rounded ends contact the body first at their lower part, leaving a 1/4" gap at the top (space between black rubber edging and the body. This was present at both sides. I was able to pull it in with the bumper mount bolts, but the stock bumpers didn't have this problem. On the right bumper tip, you can see a slight unevenness in the gasket. The end of the bumper wasn't cut off straight, and I should have fixed it with a hand held grinder (60 sec fix), but the grinder was in the other garage and I have a sprained ankle today and said screw it.
ASYMMETRY
The next issue I noticed is that the bumper fit up offset to the left side by about 1/2". In one pic you can see there's a sizable gap between the longitudinal bumper blade and the body, and the right side blade is actually up against the paint. I pulled the bumper even using a tie-down strap (pic) and snugged up the 4 rear mounting bolts to hold it in alignment. I suppose the right way to have fixed the problem would've been to increase the bend angle of the right half and decrease it for the left half. I think you might need a couple of come-alongs to do this because these stainless bumpers are pretty darn rigid (and you'd have to pull it very straight to avoid adding a new twist to the bumpers. See the pic of the ends laying in the grass, The red arrows call out the fact that one 'blade' is about 1/4" (maybe 3/16") narrower than the other. Once the bumper's on the car you can't see this, but I thought it would've been nice if they had been more accurately made.
OVERALL:
It took a good 2 hours to fit them up to the car. FWIW, I wrapped the ends in that plastic they use on pallets etc for shipping. It's thin but a few layers were enough to protect the paint. I ripped the stuff off just before I did the final tighten on the mounting bolts. I put 2 layers of masking tape at a few points on the bottom center to keep it from getting scratched. I mounted by holding the bumpers of the ground on some cardboard boxes that were cut to be the right height. That allowed me to slowly move the bumper in position bit by bit without scratching the body. This and the front can be done this way by 1 person.
MISC: my license plate bottom touches the top of the new bumper. This is partly because the small piece that covers the center joint and 3 center bolts is taller/thicker in cross section than the original chromed piece. I'll trim my license plate bottom to gain some clearance.
http://s1244.photobucket.com/user/xkfeng/library/Stainless Bumpers?sort=3&page=1
FRONTS: more in another post.
CONCLUSION: these bumpers cost nearly 1/3 less than a concours rechromed OE set and they'll never rust. Cosmetically I thought they were great. Fitment was not very good as received. The rear's worked out with a few hours extra labor that an OE set would not require. Not so with the fronts so I ended up using a OE front bumper I bought from a forum member. I'll get into the fitment and compatibility issues with the front in a few days.
John
P.S. If anyone else is seriously considering these bumpers, contact me privately.
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