I want to change to the euro front bumper

just drill out the bumper shocks and compress them. Time is the only cost.

 

That's option #1

Option #2 is go with the real thing. It will be lighter BUT you will need to change out the little grill underneath to make it look right. Then you will need to put in the driving lights on each side of that. All that plus the cost of the bumper.

So stay with option #1

 

I did this with my 308 GT4..... may think about it with my 308 GTB.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151119&highlight=gt4+nosejob


If you are around this Saturday, you might think of coming to Boulder for our Cars/Coffee event. 95th and Arapahoe in Lafayette actually. Brewing Market. 8 - 10.

I could take a look at the car to see if this might take the same approach.

John Feeney

 

After the right-front collision that totaled my 330 2+2, those nice, deep impact-absorbing bumpers seem just right for my GTS.

 

yup, to do it right you have to really go through the front end. Remove the US bumper shocks and custom fit some sort of mount similar to Euro bumper mounts. Euro mounts will not fit as the sheet metal at the front is slightly different. For carb cars, swapping to a Euro front bumper does not look terrible without changing to the Euro grill, but it's definitely noticable. For QVs it's a must. One thing is for sure, hanging the front Euro bumper and fashioning the hanging system to make it look just right is difficult.

 

Pull the bumper, then pull the bumper shock. Drill a small hole in the bumper shock and fluid will drain. Place the bumper shock in a vice and compress and once the desired bumper shock length is compressed, drill another hole and set it with a set screw. Make sure both sides/shocks are equal. Reinstall.

 

found a pic of my front end. I still have the US grill and it doesn't look terrible. I would like to change it soon, but it's not at the top of my list.
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Or, option #3: you can buy shorty bumper tubes from MA Carbon (around $170), that way you can save the OEM bumper shocks for later use.

Not sure how far you can get the bumper pushed in by drilling out the shocks vs the MA Carbon tubes. Here is a shot of how far you can get the bumper pushed in with the MA tubes. It really helps, but I sure wish it went in just an inch or so more pushed in.
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Geno I think that's pretty close if not exactly like a euro. Here's what mine looks like.
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It's no walk in the park,as others are telling you, the mounts, mounting and lower grill are all different parts between the two set ups...

 

Mark,

I did the front and rear bumper push in on my 1980 308 gtbi this year. A big improvement in looks. The rear was very simple-remove the bumper, take out the aluminum spacers, replace (with some washers on the old bolts to take up the space. The front required some disassembly but gave me a chance to clean things up under the front end. Put the bumper shocks in a vice and drill a small hole, let the fluid out, and reinstall them. I pushed in the bumper to the desired placement after the reinstallation and it has not moved. I'm in Parker if you ever want to take a look. Maybe I'll see you at C&C sometime.
Mike

 

+1 It doesn't take much of an impact to necessitate replacement of the entire front clip.

 

$6K part.....$20K installed and painted.

 

+1 on MACarbon short bumper shock. Now they're working on a US style bumper out of
F glass.
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That's not a spoiler. That's a snowplow

 

That's a Super Size EXTRA deep unit.....

 

LOL! believe it or not the front end does go down at high speed.

It's by Koenig Special

 

Your car has a beard.

 

Basically, you have three choices: 1) leave it original (most owners do,) 2) push in the bumpers either through drilling the shocks or swapping to MACarbons' bumper tubes (this is a better look in my opinion,) or 3) the full monty where you replace the bumpers with Euro fiberglass units and you replace the US grill with a Euro grill. You can do this yourself but it takes some time to hunt down the pieces and then to fabricate the bumper mounts since no one seems to make a set that will let you mount Euro bumpers to a US frame. I went the full monty and like the results but it is all a matter of what suits you. I dont know how to attach a thread here (can someone show me how to do that?) so do a search for 308 Euro Grill and you should find my thread. Hope it helps. Chip

PS - I have a set of the MACarbon tubes if you are interested.

 

If all it had required was a new front clip, #5409 could have been repaired for what Hagerty was willing to pay.

Unfortunately, the hit was a hard one and the damage extended beyond the front clip, to deformation of the door/window frames on both sides. Big $$$

Though ugly, the U.S. spec 308 bumpers do serve a variety of purposes beyond lowspeed damage protection...seat, soda, food, cleaning supply and tool holders, you name it.

 

They're not all that bad, Scott. I'm used to them and, yes, they serve a useful purpose. I'll add another to your list...a good way to test shock absorbers without touching the coachwork.

 

I'll pass on that one.