Extenders nudge up against the grill opening…make contact with paint. Also, prevent moving the bumper far enough to the outside to install the bolts.
I think the only option is to trim 1/4 inch off the edges of the extenders, at least, to enable fitment. What do y’all think?
You need to be mindful of using the proper spacers when mounting the bumpers.
I have the curved spacer and the conical spacer. The problem here is horizontal movement, across the car, left to right. I can’t even get the bolts in so I can start shimming for >orientation< of the blade. appears to be about 1/4 inch off.
I got it in once and found it standing to proud out from the body and the edge of the extender, and the screw of the rubber shock mount, were both touching the inside lip of the grill opening. scratches.
Try assembling everything loosely except the motif bar
that’s what I am doing.
Bill,
I assembled this 3 piece arrangement on the floor first to assure I had it correctly aligned. Then offered it up to the bodywork. Working from the overrider bolts first then to the outside. It takes a bit of juggling to get it installed and my motif bar extensions do touch the bonnet air intake opening but I have clear chip protecting film on the paint so it didn’t make a mark.
if they touch, how did you get the sealing strip on?
Bumper installations on E Types is an artwork all its own.
Front and rear bumper component fitment issues and rear brake lamps (Series ones only) need to be addressed during the body and paint stages if possible.
We don’t even want to get into the fitment issues of the Repro bumpers because that can be even more of a nightmare.
One must understand that these vehicles had a significant amount of hand fitment during assembly and where the factory could merely grab another bumper component to make a satisfactory fit we don’t have that luxury- nor were most of the E’s all that perfectly aligned to begin with.
Throw in decades of possible bumps and bashes to the body, it makes things very challenging. Nothing that can’t be overcome, but at times creativity becomes your best friend.
I once spent over 6 hours installing a set of rear bumpers on a Series 1 to get them straight enough to appease the customer. Were they straight YES, were they perfect No.
As did mine, but I ground a flat spot into each end of the motif bar so it wouldn’t foul the bonnet. The bar was chromed brass so no significant corrosion issues with removing a little chrome plating. I only needed to remove about 0.1" from each side to get it to fit properly.
Boy, howdy!!
Those are not issues: those are features.
are you talking about the bar and not the extensions?
It was installed prior to the bumpers.
As I recall now I too had to shorten the motif bar ends slightly too. Same result it was brass under the chrome plating.
Yes, the central motif bar (9). As for the over riders (4) and extensions (6) I believe I had to fettle the mounting holes in the over riders to get the damn things to fit. I got the blade positioned as best I could, then eye balled the over rider location, assembled, and measured. Rinse and repeat.
I used several pieces of 1/4" thick wood to keep the spacing between the bumper and the bonnet even so the rubber strips (7) would fit properly. The small gaps between the extension/over rider/blade will be easily filled by the rubber strips (5). All this done while in primer and prior to chroming the parts. It turned out reasonably well.
Yes, I had to grind the ends of my motif bar substantially, to the edge of the bolt holes, to fit between the outer sides of the air ducts, which also put the extenders tight against the bonnet opening, so I found it easier to use a short piece of overrider seal rather than bumper seal there.
looks fantastic
that looks fine. I should have done that with the over rider seal. I had just barely enough bumper seal left after the rears, to cover two bumpers and extenders
I think the Overider seals to be far superior to the Blade seals Jaguar used.
Now if you could just get those in roll length…
No, it didn’t: I’ve seen your car.
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It turned out OUTSTANDINGLY well!!!
Whatever description of the bumper installation and it’s frustrations…y’all have under played it. Jeez.
If you are doing this, one tip. The over riders are attached by a 1 7/8 inch pointed bolt. If you don’t have this…you need to make one. The 2" bolts at the hardware store have an unthreaded portion that is too long for this application.
I don’t have a thread cutting lathe so I got some 3/8-24 threaded rod and super glued a standard nut to the end of it. I think I used 2 to 2 1/4 inches thread length and ground in a point. You can get away with a little extra length, it makes it easier to catch a thread…left handed, eyes shut Braille method.
And no…they don’t fit good. And yes you will scratch the car, the bumpers or both
