Bumper Removal

[ClubSport 911]

Anybody got any advice (good / bad or ugly) w.r.t. removing the front bumpers from a 3.2 ?. Also, the nearside wheel well has 2 large containers - seemingly made of plastic. One is the tank for washer fluid. The second seems to be a catchment tank from the fuel filler neck. Is this right ?

Quite stupidly, I' d like to remove both these tanks....they seem to be held in place by that infamous " magic bolt" i.e the one that stops is coming out, but cannot be located...any clues ?

Finally, does anybody know if / whether there is such a thing as a fibre glass front / rear bumper kit for our cars ? - I want the same stye if possible.

Thanks if you can help.

Steve

 

[Guest]

Just done this myself - removal of the bumper is a lot easier if you take off the valance first. To remove the valance there are two sheet metal screws either side connecting the valance to the ' fill in' panel. One nut and bolt either side about 6 inches in from that panel and two screws accessible from inside the front boot (behind where the jack goes). When you' ve got the valance off I found the easiest way to take the bumper off is to forget the bellows (you' ll break the screws) - remove the other sheet metal screws on the ' fill in' panels and the four bolts which are located behind the front rubber moulding. Bumper will then come off. If you support it half way down you can remove the sidelights and feed them through the bumper. You can then get at the bellows screws with the bumper off - take care they are easily broken - and thus separate the bumper and the ' fill in' panels.

Autofarm do a nice set of fibreglass bumpers but they' re not the original shape - haven' t seen them in the flesh but the pics look good. As the bumpers themselves are Aluminium I would stick with them if you' re happy with the original shape - they' re not that heavy.

The tanks - one is the washer bottle as you say but I can' t remember noticing the other one - my fuel overflow merely exits behind the front wheel not into a tank. My car is in the bodyshop having some minor titillation done so I can' t help with this until I get it back

Any queries repost and I' ll try and help

Cheers

Roy

 

[bert gear]

the washer bottle and fuel expantion tank are held in by a S/S strap remove this then just push up to clear a stud

 

[ClubSport 911]

THanks Bert - as always, superb help...if i get stuck will you help me " live and direct " on the ' phone ? []

Rgds

 

[ClubSport 911]

Thanks Roy - would you say I' d get this done inside an hour all-in ? - what are your thoughts ? - Appreciate the help. STEVE

 

[Guest]

Yes no problem - certainly took me less than an hour and I wasn' t really sure where things were, was being very careful etc. I also used mostly open ended spanners and a couple of ratchets would have helped with a couple of the bolts holding the valance. You' ll need a couple of 13mm (for valance bolts - non captive) an 8mm (for the sheet metal screws, bellows trim and indicators, and a 17mm to take the bumper itself off. In addition I used a 10mm for the screws in the boot holding the valance (I used a fairly long one at some point but I think that was because of the alarm being in the way).

No doubt it will take longer putting back my pristine painted parts!!

Roy

 

[Guest]

I' ve always liked the look of the IROC RS - especially on narrow body cars.

Just like this one:

 

[Guest]

I think you may have gathered from the above posts that it is not the bumper themselves that are so heavy (as they are aluminium) but rather the valence and the bumper shocks.

Here is another pic (I really like the look of this car - just needs to be a tad lower) :

 

[Richard Pottle]

I guess with the removal of the bumpers and shocks etc you will get minimal crash protection - a rear impact would go straight into the engine - ouch!!! However, the weight saving (anyone know how much?) must add to the performance of the car. Also, has anyone fitted kevlar panels to their car - I wonder if they are easier to paint than fibreglass as there are some horror stories flying around about having to send them off to bodyshops to get them properly prepared before painting etc. Kevlar is going to be a lot stronger too.

 

[Guest]

I think that if you take one in the rear you are f*cked regardless[]

I have painted a couple of fibreglass panels with rattle cans before, no problem - but the point you make is that the quality of the panel may vary. Mine were perfect and already undercoated (made in NZ). With Carbon/kevlar the weave shows thru. You will never get as good as the OE paint/panel. But if you want light weight you will presumably use the car on track so who cares if it isn' t perfect IMHO.

ciao,
Richard

 

[Richard Pottle]

Fair enough - this maybe a stupid question but is it possible to remove the shocks but keep the actual aluminium bumper - therefore you could lose a lot of weight (apparently) but still keep the original style. Apologies for my mechanical ignorance.[]

 

[bert gear]

There are two types of bumper shocks
1 light weight alloy crush bars
2 heavier teliscopic types

 

[ClubSport 911]

I was just coming to this. where o where can I get the lightweight crush types without paying for them through the nose. Surely some bright spark must have an idea to make some pattern parts, or a bracket in place of those monster heavy shock absorbers.

By some cruel twist of nature my Club Sport has had the telescopic dampers fitted as an " upgrade" .....

Any help ?

Steve

Ps - Like the IROC look apart from the mock EVO style inlet @ the front, so I' m looking for something a little more in keeping with the car as-is. Nice piccie though

 

[ClubSport 911]

I would run a marathon (only because I can and do...) to get hold of quality, original looking fibre glass parts for my car

Engine lid
Rear Whale tail - not the RS america type...
Rear Valence

etc...

Any ideas anybody ?