74 T/A bumper restoration?
 

Hey Fellas:

Has anyone ever tried to restore the front or back bumper? :confused:

I know these are one-year-only/rare as hen's teef but the graveyard in Alberta wants 3000$ for a used front bumper.

https://www.davidt.com/images/layout/banner.jpg

The car I have has extensive cracking and appears that the previous owner tried to paint them with...something

What can be done?

pics hopefully come thru this time...

Sand, fill cracks with semi flexible filler, sand more, primer, satin black.
Wait for 6 months and repeat:censored:
I've had my front bumper redone twice and it still cracks just looking at it!
I think the foamy plastic type stuff that they used, ages and just has a tendency to crack.
Sand it down and see if its the substrate (plastic) or the paint itself.
Good luck!

Hmmm...so its constructed of plastic on top of foam on top of steel?

Could they be removed and dipped into some sort of (more flexy) space age plastic?

My old '74 had minty bumpers before I sold it...dammit

its a urethane material. if it has cracks v them out then use a good flexible filler. i would remove the bumpers. get some flex agent to mix with the primer and paint. now that is the right way. let me tell you what i did but understand this is not the right way. i sanded with 36 grit i then used 3m window weld and filled the bad spots. sanded with 80 then 120 . i bought rustoleom paint for plastic semi gloss black. and painted it. it has held up pretty well its been 4 or five years i cant remember exactly. my car is not a show car. i hope this helps.

Gosh this is going to be a mini project... Quite the eye sore for motivation however

Thanks!

75 Firebird front and rear bumpers will interchange with 74's. IIRC on 74's the front bumperettes are molded as one piece with the bumper, in 75 the bumperettes can be removed seperately. other than that there are small differences in the mounting brackets but the main bumper bar can be swapped out. Don't limit yourself to 74's

My 75 TA is in the body shop now and my bumpers looked a lot like yours. They removed all the paint and what looked like cracks in the bumper ended up being just cracks in the paint. The rear bumper is all one piece with the bumper being painted on.

Oh interesting...I thought it was an odd duck

I have to get the black stuff off and go from there.

Nice car you got there.

When you pull your bumper off to work on it, check to make sure you have all four of the locating studs (2 at the end of each bumper). Those tended to break off over time and they are needed if you want to have your bumper fit flush with the rear quarter.

Some info. here;

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=793726

Very True, they hadn't finished aligning and tightening the right side of my rear bumper and you can see it drooping slightly in the pic.

Sage advice...I'll watch out for those

Thanks! :o

3m ezsand 2 part mux is what I use on these after a v in the crack if its big. Then I use SPI EPOXY Only over it. Block it, wait a few days, repeate. Shrink back is minimal and it remains flexible

3m...ok 👍

If you have cracks in the actual urethane, you will need to V them out and repair with what is mentioned above or a Lord Fuser product. My '74 was in excellent condition for it's age but the front bumper still had some cracks in the urethane. Shop painted it three times before figuring out that the cracks had to be repaired first. No problems since.

There are so many cracks maybe they used the wrong inflexible type of paint...still on the ToDo list'

:(

Would the process be similar to the 73 nose detailed here?

Bumper Prep and Crack Removal

https://www.pontiacdiy.com/pontiac-t...lares-70-81-2/

Also, is there a "how-to" remove the bumper and bumperettes for dummies...or non handy computer guy 🙄

Thanks!

got the car out of storage today and was feeling adventurous enough to try to pull off the front bumper...

I think I have removed at least 30 bolts and she isn't even thinking about loose...where did I go wrong besides trying to do this myself:

It's hard to explain over photos but I removed all of the bolts from the bottom, the nose cone bolts from the bottom and the top and the front valance completely.

I don't see any other bolts to remove.

I can however "feel" some inaccessible bolts on-top of the bumper inside the nose cone just under the plastic "pontiac" grill. Do those have to go because they don't appear to be attached to anything!

There is also the mysterious yet fragile/rare piece on the front nose cone under the grill - I hope that doesnt' have to be removed to access some mysterious bolts.

Thanks so much.

that “yard in Alberta” is known for having beyond outrageous prices.

They have had a monopoly of F-body parts for approximatly a 200km radius around Edmonton for probably thirty plus years - so if you’re living in that radius - they are the only game in town.

But, their supply of good original second gen parts is dwindling something fierce.

Best to look to other sources.

… like asking some other guys about three hours south of that yard.

I have sold a lot of my parts to guys who refuse to give them any business, even though I am a six hour round trip away.

Ya, tempted to go there with some 80's cologne and sell them some leftover parts...lol

I will not knock someone for having a great business strategy - and a monopoly is a fantastic business plan...

My opinion soured on them the first time I went there in the late 1990's - when I felt I got suckered...

They can be a great resource if in a bind, but otherwise I stay clear of them.

As an example, the last time I reached out for pricing (because on occasion, I think to myself "oh, they have to be reasonable on this part - every car has this!"), I was inquiring about buying a rear package tray - the metal rear dash;
To be clear, I did not care which year it was from, because I only cared that the speaker areas were not cut.
They wanted $550cnd for that part out of a car (that was just to buy the part, shipping and tax was extra);
I bought one for $122usd shipped off ebay.

jinkies...there can't be that many people restoring f-body's - I wonder how they stay in business

Maybe they hiding bodies for the mob...lol

nope, they stay in business because they are the only game in the Edmonton area - if you are fixing an F-body, you HAVE TO go to them.
It's either go to them, or you have to go way out of your way - like to Calgary/Red Deer to find another person (or business) to sell you stuff.

found them...two hidden inside the bumper accessible from underneath

That's alotta bolts...jinkies

Now on to the rear...

got her off..only broke one bolt 😆
 

that'sa lotta bolts...

like new...
 

It was supposed to be an inexpensive DIY project but buddy talked me into sending it to a pro 😚

Calihornia car, after he media blasted the front it had hundreds of cracks filled with old school bondo.

Using the 3m material aforementioned, he was able to get it looking rite again:

Getting it on will be harder than getting it off but that goes w/o sayin...

after pics...
 

Just to close this off...looks way better but the front "ears" already cracked a bit again as the wife was holding the bumper as I bolted it back in...natch 😫

Looks pretty good.

Ya, the black is much blacker - always like that contrast on a white car

He doesn't think it will stand up (because all the cracks) but I'm parking in the shade and hoping for the best...

Bumper ears question
 

I am in the middle of restoring my 75 front bumper. I used the 3m 05887 I think flexible filler. Not too happy with my new skin job, but time to keep moving on.

The question is, regarding the ears that wrap around the front fenders, I am thinking of shooting some low-expansion foam into them, to add in more stiffness. They seem to want to crack there, and I think this would be an ideal solution to add some heft to those ears.

I would like to know what you all think of this idea. I am not sure if the foam will have a detrimental affect on the poly bumper material

It's worth a try. Mine has already re-cracked just due to the sun and especially around the "ears" because my two helpers were holding it that way when we were trying to re-mount it.

Sigh...still looking for a better pair but they are unicorns as you know

Ongoing bumper restore
 

Ongoing with pic

Looks good from here.

Was it a southern car like mine?

How is the dash?

KS car, now in MO
 

Rear qtrs were rotted out, now replaced. Bought a nice bumper from a dude in IL years ago with an amazingly new bumperette as well. Still has shiny steel in it.

The bumper turned out decent, with some scratches, and was chasing high spots and making low spots, amateur!!! LOL

Dash is a 73, car was stolen from me, and got torn up by the perp, F'er. The stealer put in a broken-up used 73 dash into it. Did not know this until I pulled apart my dash. Cut-out for stereo, can't see it, but anyway, broken grab handle, lots of broken screw bosses, and ripped/broke my vacuum to outside vent line (reason I had water in my pass floorboard and hence rotted out, as it always stayed open). Fixed all of them. I used Polyvance to repair sun damaged top, and also the console. Next will be SEM treatment for new back to black. Work to be continued. Awaiting car to go to paint in the shop now. Final primer and sanding are done, waiting for the paint guy to get to it.

Wait, the car was stolen and you got it back?

That's crazy!

I think I found another set of unicorn bumpers that I'm hoping are better than mine but he is a few hours away and my car is still in storage.

Does anyone know what socket size I will need to remove the front bump on a 75 by chance?

Memory hazy but I remember borrowing a huge one.

Is the front valance the same as a 74 or completely different? I could use one of those too.

Thanks

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Update: The front bumper is better than mine and he can't find the rear but is looking for it... 🙄

The valance looks somewhat different - especially the blanked out signals but it was cracked as hell anyways...