Fiberglass rear bumper 1975 warning

[Ronald L.]

Re: Fiberglass rear bumper 1975 warning

Here is the answer to the need for original or closest to original possible:

BTW there is likely a means to stop or slow down the environmental attack, the part needs to be off the car ...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1975-1979-Corvette-Front-Bumper-Cover-NOS-345495-Rare-Original-Flexible-Urethane/372714608976

and 75 service, for 76-79:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1975-1979-Corvette-Rear-Urethane-Bumper-Cover-NOS-Flexible-Rare-Original-75-79/392343207969

I don't think the 75 rear tool survived to make service parts in that configuration...

[Joel A.]

Re: Fiberglass rear bumper 1975 warning

The front urethane bumper cover on my '74 recently disintegrated in the garage. It was a NOS cover I installed in '97, and the car sits in the garage under a cover all the time. Stuff just gets old, and dries out over time. I'll be replacing it with a Tru-flex type cover, when I get around to it.

[Dan D.]

Re: Fiberglass rear bumper 1975 warning

C'mon guys...It makes me sad when I hear a lot of "factory bashing" concerning products build 30, 40 or 50 years ago. I was a District Sales Manager for Pontiac Division for 30 years. After retiring from GM...I spent another 14 years with Sandy Corp...who had the contract with GM to work with GM Training to do product training / new product launches /shows and exhibits, etc. During these years, I visited a dozen assembly plants..proving grounds...advanced design center...saw products years before they were due to be introduced. Bottom line...there were a lot of super bright talents doing the very best they could to develop products with what they had to work with. Marketing come up with ideas that they believed would help sell product...Engineering tried to figure out how they could be fabricated...Manufacturing tried to come up with a way it could be done profitably. Let's face it...Yes, compromises were made at times or there would never have been any new products. In all those years I never met an engineer or a designer or someone from plant manufacturing who said, " Gee, let's make some junk today." I think we in the Corvette community are so fortunate that there are so many replica parts available to us made out newer and better materials. And, yes I do understand the dilemma of the purists out there and I respect that. However, I have to believe the glass is half full and not half empty. I jokingly commented to a fellow club member, "I think if all you had was a V.I.N. plate, I think you could probably build a Corvette with scrounged up O.E.M and replica parts." I'm an old man and some of my parts haven't held up the way I wish they would have.

[Ronald L.]

Re: Fiberglass rear bumper 1975 warning

Dan - you would not recognize the Pontiac/ GM porperties anymoreand I'm told that this year more become level with the soil. The glass full is you were able to retire, now its 15-25 and a big boot out the door with no retirement. Shall be a very tense September...


Joel - you can get a good urethane material that will not oxidize to fragments, the truflex is junk, they do not fit are not the same size, etc. Some of the later molds survuved so molding today's materials in them is possible, RIM molds...no. You can imagine perhaps the Fiero crowd where all the vertical panels were molded from these time bound resins.

And to the question of 64 to 64 bumper ... show me a print first, pictures second.

There is a very long history of the original C2 bumper tools and some of it was posted here nearly 10 years ago where I basically showed that the service parts were thinner and not of the 60's process - a 60's bumper is very different than a 70s or later service part for the purist.

[Dan D.]

Re: Fiberglass rear bumper 1975 warning

Ron, Yes I was very lucky. You know what they say, "God looks out for kids and idiots."