How do you fit the bumper on car

[Sparkrite]

I must be missing a trick here but the rear bumper has the curved ends that come back in on themselves so the longest length is more than the 58 odd inch opening, and being a steel bumper its rather stiff so I cant just spring it open a bit before clipping it on to the car.

[Kendo]

I’d say it’s variable quality control by Lotus.

I’m in the middle of repainting. So I ground down the body a bit to fit.

Which I imagine you don’t want to do.  Was your bumper repaired, unbent? Re chromed? I noticed some chrome flash on the inner corners that I was able to burnish down a bit. I didn’t want to file down that expensive chrome. Alternately you could have the bumper reshaped by a chrome place and replate it. Not much positive news, I’m afraid. Maybe one of the more experienced restorers can chime in.

[4129R]

All 7 of my rear bumpers have fitted without bending/easing the bumper apart.

There must be a fault with the repair/painting of the fibreglass.

I fear bodywork adjustment will be necessary.

[EuropaTC]

I guess the first question is "did the bumper come off the car or is it a new replacement ?". 

I've only ever had two bumpers on my car, the original and a new one I bought from Lotus in the 80s when they actually had Europa parts on their shelves. I think I paid £12 for it, it was clearly priced in the 60s and never updated !

Anyway, both bumpers fit the bodywork ok, no hassle in getting them to fit. If yours is a replacement it sounds to me like it's been bent at some point in it's life. A photo of the ends "coming back in" might help, I have my original on the garage wall so we could do a comparison with a genuine original ?

Brian

[jbcollier]

Properly fitted bumpers are a snug fit to the car, maybe an 1/8" free, or less, on each side.  And, you are right, they have to be encouraged into place.  I had old bumpers refinished and part of the process was arcing the bumper to suit.  First time it was a bit loose and I had them tighten it up by a 1/4".  Once to the correct size, then they  did the polishing and plating.

As to fitting, the bumper is more "open" underneath.  I draped rags on the body at either side, dropped one side in place and carefully slid the other side down and into place.  There will be some tension but the soft rags will slide with the bumper and you paint will be fine.

[Sparkrite]

This is a replacement bumper, from a ford cortina mk1.  It turns out one of the corners was bent inwards about an inch. I managed to pull it back to a more correct position and I had to fit one side first then try and fit the other side whilst pulling it "open". But the fit is awful compared to my original which fitted with less than 0.5 mm precision. I cant imagine I would ever get my original straight again as parts of it have been stretched quite a bit since the accident.

[jbcollier]

There are shops that specialize in bumper repair.  You'd be amazed at what they can do.  Not cheap though.

[4129R]

There are shops that specialize in bumper repair.  You'd be amazed at what they can do.  Not cheap though.

Chrome plating company near Wembley Stadium. Not cheap, but good repairers.

[SwiftDB4]

Unsure what stage you are with your car as regards paint, but have you considered no bumpers? I haven't had bumpers on my S1 since 1974 and think it looks better without. Not sure if your MOT requires bumpers?

[Kendo]

When I bought my car, from someone who repaired a major front end shunt, the front bumper was bent 90 degrees about 1/3 from one end. I handed it to a rechroming place that straightened it to (almost) a perfect fit. (If I'd known what I know now, I'd have done John's trick of checking the corrected fit before plating. Knowledge is expensive.) Do they have data bases for this sort of thing, like they seem to have for windshields and such?

Anyway, a good shop can do wonders.

[4129R]

Unsure what stage you are with your car as regards paint, but have you considered no bumpers? I haven't had bumpers on my S1 since 1974 and think it looks better without. Not sure if your MOT requires bumpers?

No MOT test required on classic cars.

[jbcollier]

Shops long in business will have bucks to check bumpers against.  Be surprised if they had a buck for a Europa given how few are about.

[4129R]

Shops long in business will have bucks to check bumpers against.  Be surprised if they had a buck for a Europa given how few are about.

The chrome painters near Wembley Stadium knew straight away what car I had when I said I wanted bumpers straightened and chromed from a Ford Anglia and a Ford Cortina. They returned the bumpers as good as new, but they are expensive, as chrome platers are few and far between.