Bumper tuck questions

[Fletcher]

Started looking at bringing the diving board bumpers closer to the car and just keeping them.  The method seems to be to drill, compress & weld the hydraulic cylinders.

 

Questions: 

1. Where is the best place to drill the holes?   Closest to the bumper?
2. There's a nut (not me) inside the end of the cylinder on the car side.  Loosening that on the center cylinder of the rear bumper seemed to let out some fluid, but not a lot.  Cranking on it for awhile with the socket driver didn't seem to remove it or release any more fluid that what came out with the first couple of turns.  What's it for?  Also, even with that bolt slacked and some of the fluid out, that outer tube seems seized on the inner one.  The others rotate easily.  That one won't rotate or even budge/bounce when smacked solidly with a 5lb sledge with a block of wood inbetween to not distort the metal by hitting it directly.  Finally, there doesn't seem to be much room to compress it.  It's seems like it's most of the way back already as it came off the car.
3. In one of the search results for Bumper Tucks, all the picture were broken, but there was a mention of www.parkerperformance.com and replacement short tubes to just replace the hydraulic cylinders with and draw the bumper in close.  That business seems to be defunct.  It's got a message up that says temporarily closed, but no indication if that's a covid thing or it's been that way for years.  Will try emailing them as the message prompts of course, but wondered of any alternatives to just buy short replacements for these cylinders that anyone is aware of? 

Thanks!!

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Fletcher
typos and I'm sure I still missed some.

[Jdddrigot]

I’m in the process of doing the same thing on my 75 02A but got sidelined by some bad points. Here’s some screenshots that pertain to the subject. I don’t know about the nut. I was just planning on drilling some holes and inserting screws. 

[biltwok2]

Buy a piece of 2 in exhaust tubing, cut to your desired length, mount the bumper and drill the hole for the chassis mount. Save your shocks in case you want to go back. Hugh improvement on looks.

[esty]

4 hours ago, biltwok2 said:

Buy a piece of 2 in exhaust tubing, cut to your desired length, mount the bumper and drill the hole for the chassis mount. Save your shocks in case you want to go back. Hugh improvement on looks.

ditto....

[Teelinger]

@Fletcher after you shorten the bumpers, call Patrick for a tip on how he shortens the accordion ends to make them look stock. 

[Stevenc22]

I used some steel pipe for the front tuck and drilled the rear shocks for the rear tuck.

 

Then carefully cut out a section of rubber from the accordion and cut so that the pieces left over line up correctly. Use some Sem rubber glue to join the pieces seamlessly.