Cabrio Front Bumper

[ggrum]

Anyone ever tried putting a small bend (30 deg max) in the end of the Cabrio front bumper. Unlike most of the others mine is straight (see photo) and I'm getting a bit tired of catching my leg on it in the garage. No problem if it was mild steel but stainless can be a bit unpredictable when working. Ideally it would be heated up first but I haven't really got the means of doing that. Bumper.jpg

[A_Hogg]

I managed to bend one of my rear ones [unintentionally] when I jack knifed a camping trailer into it on reversing! Not much help am I? And not easy to straighten out again.

[terryrscott]

Looking at my cabrio bumper it looks doable but you need the bumper off the car, a bench vice with some copper or alloy Vance jaws to protect the stainless, and I big head room on the bumper with small bit in the vice and try to make it bend where you want it to and not halfway along , you could jubilee clip the bumper to a scaffold pole to make sure it bends in the right place, but I would never try to do it on the car..

[ggrum]

That's pretty much what I had in mind and, as you say, I would never do it on the car. I might leave it until the summer is over and then if I break it I have all winter to sort it out.
Thanks.

[A_Hogg]

Could you get local Blacksmith [ is that ok to call them that ?] to anneal and bend for you?

[John_Mulvaney]

I significantly modified the curve of rear Hunter bumpers and avoided the bend occuring at the "weak" points at the mounting holes by clamping the inner end against a plywood former of the curve I required in a large vice. With a 3 foot long piece of 4" x 2" clamped to the free end of the bumper with a G clamp and my foot against the bench the stainless bent easily with just my 7.5 stone behind it. The spring back was quite significant so the plywood former was remodelled accordingly by a large ammount initially and then by a lesser degree to give the desired shape.

[ggrum]

Thanks all. I think you can still call them Blacksmiths or should it be Forge Operatives?

[Mike]

Geoff
I have access to an engineering works one mile away who have a press and would be able to press the exact bend you want at exactly the point you want it. I hope to be at Newark so could collect, have the required bend press braked into each end and then post back to you - if you would like to do it it that way?
Regards
Mike

[ggrum]

Thanks Mike, I also hope to be at Newark in the Marlin but I don't think I want to drive it all that way with no front bumpers. If you are there we can have a chat about it
Regards
Geoff

[greyV8pete]

Thanks Mike, I also hope to be at Newark in the Marlin but I don't think I want to drive it all that way with no front bumpers. If you are there we can have a chat about it
Regards
Geoff

You could always make up a temporary bumper out of a scaffold pole and park it with the roadsters!

[andyf]

You could always make up a temporary bumper out of a scaffold pole and park it with the roadsters!

Careful! That scaffold pole is very effective My rear bumper saw off an amanous Mini Metro

[listerjp2]

Careful! That scaffold pole is very effective My rear bumper saw off an amanous Mini Metro

Mine saw off 3 trees when I crashed the roadster on the way back from Le mans classic

[ggrum]

Someone once reversed into the front of my old Roadster. No prizes for guessing who came off worse!

[wiggiesworld]

Interesting topic; made me go and look at my Cabrio bumper, turns out its already bent at the end, I just hadn't thought it could be different I suppose.

[greyV8pete]

Anyone ever tried putting a small bend (30 deg max) in the end of the Cabrio front bumper. Unlike most of the others mine is straight (see photo) and I'm getting a bit tired of catching my leg on it in the garage. No problem if it was mild steel but stainless can be a bit unpredictable when working. Ideally it would be heated up first but I haven't really got the means of doing that. Bumper.jpg

Hi Geoff. Too hot to work on the car today so I spent a half hour doing a sketch of my Hunter NSF bumper for you. Photos would be attached but can’t find how to on the new forum. Any ideas? Peter.