SS bumpers after 5 years or more

[7502]

Has anyone tried the stainless steel Vietnamese reproduction Euro style bumpers. I think they look pretty good from what I've seen.  Interested in how they look after a number of years daily driving, the more years the better.  And how do you treat them compared to chrome.

[Brandon]

7 hours ago, 7502 said:

Has anyone tried the stainless steel Vietnamese reproduction Euro style bumpers. I think they look pretty good from what I've seen.  Interested in how they look after a number of years daily driving, the more years the better.  And how do you treat them compared to chrome.

Haven't seen these bumpers but I am curious on more details about them...do you have a link to a site that sells them?

[HarryPR]

Here ya go:

https://www.02bumpers.com/

[Stevenc22]

If you buy them from Blunt (He is a reseller for 02bumpers), it actually works out cheaper with shipping than buying direct from 02bumpers.

 

I just received mine a month ago through Blunt. They look nice but are requiring some tweaking to make them fit right. Visually 10/10, fit 7/10.

 

 

[arminyack]

damn nice bumpers...but to get them to fit right I had to hack up the mounting brackets, and weld up my own "solution" to get em all lined up just right.

['76mintgrün'02]

I like Stainless Steel.

 

After about five years of use, this stainless steel stove top espresso pot had been burned dry on the gas stove a few times.  To clean it up, I sanded with 1500 grit paper, followed by white diamond polishing compound on a buffer.  I was pleased with how quickly it cleaned up.

figured I might as well do the others

 

mmm cawfee

[caseywarren]

+1 on the fit issues - I cannot get mine to fit to the mount on the front passenger corner side of my car. I would have to bend it almost to breaking it feels like

 

any tips or pointers you all are using to get them to fit right? I mean yes.. 10/10 on looks. Wow, but the fit issue makes it so I can even use them  

 

 

[caseywarren]

2 minutes ago, '76mintgrun'02 said:

I like Stainless Steel.

 

After about five years of use, this stainless steel stove top espresso pot had been burned dry on the gas stove a few times.  To clean it up, I sanded with 1500 grit paper, followed by white diamond polishing compound on a buffer.  I was pleased with how quickly it cleaned up.

figured I might as well do the others

 

mmm cawfee

Whoa

 

what brand of diamond polishing compound are you using. I've got a ton of steel things that need updates 

['76mintgrün'02]

you know those 'wax' bars that you rub on a polishing wheel?

red rouge is finer, brown bobbing is more aggressive and black emory even more so.

White diamond cuts pretty well and I was happy with how it shined up the 1500 gritted surface.  

 

Wet sanding makes the sand paper cut/last longer.  I cheated and put the pot bottoms on the lathe and spun/sanded them prior to polishing.

 

The beauty of stainless is that you can sand/buff out imperfections.

Chrome, once compromised... notso muchso.

Edited September 15, 2017 by '76mintgrun'02

[nbcbird]

I have also had problems with the fit of 02bumpers.  The front had bumper guards had wrong side profiles so they wouldn't mount in a straight alignment.  Chris was very helpful in getting a replacement set.  He was also helpful in getting a complete replacement rear bumper since the intermediate supports welded to the center section were completely off.

 

The replacement bumper was also off and I ended up cutting out the internal supports and fabricating some blocks made out of polyurethane to correctly position the original mounting brackets (on a '71).  I found it was critical to make sure that the mounting brackets (when installed) were both aligned to each other and in the proper orientation to the bumper ends.  This alleviates any twist to the bumper when it is finally tightened. 

 

Both bumper ends were also splayed out from the body and my solution was to grind off about a 3/16" taper from the bumper end profile where it aligns with the center section.  This allows the ends to be pulled in.  I am in the process right now of drilling holes in the body for the mounting of the bumper ends and can post some photos later.

Edited September 15, 2017 by nbcbird

[nbcbird]

These photos should help (for a rear stainless bumper) .  I found it impossible to use the original mounting "base" since the stainless bumpers do not have the same exact profile as the original.  So I fabricated some polyurethane blocks to match the profile of the center section--a 1/2" thickness worked well to offset the bumper mounts from the body and position the bumper ends optimally with the contours in the quarter panels.  The original bases welded in center section were cut out.  It is critical to make sure the face of the mounting brackets are perpendicular to the plane of the bumper ends.  And that the faces of each mounting bracket align to each other.

 

To correct the splaying of both bumper ends, I ground down each end in a taper from outer to inner edge (on both the upper and lower profile).  See the red line in photo.  Make sure the top and bottom match.  I worked incrementally until I was satisfied with the fit--ending up with about a 3/16" total on the inner edge.  Do not grind any material away from outer vertical bumper surface.

 

I don't want to think about any impact the rear bumper might be able to withstand--but then again there wasn't much give to the original installation either.  Good luck all.

[Vicleonardo1]

Don't want to be too much of a gloomy Gus. But it seems like you guys are doing a lot of fabrication work for something you spent over a $1000 on. 

Is that to be expected for something like this? 

[Simeon]

1 hour ago, Vicleonardo1 said:

Don't want to be too much of a gloomy Gus. But it seems like you guys are doing a lot of fabrication work for something you spent over a $1000 on. 

Is that to be expected for something like this? 

 

I agree. Was considering a set including getting burnt on shipping no doubt but I am considering no longer. Every other post about them had been about how good they are. 

[7502]

I must say it's discouraging to hear of the fitment issues. I was actually more concerned about them getting dull or cloudy looking over time, but I figured they could be buffed out occasionally. Since I have a '75 the locating brackets was also another unknown, 

[NickVyse]

Is it possible the differences are between early and late style bumpers, as (correct me if I'm wrong) these are replicas of the early bumpers with the shorty rear?? Or do they do both now?