Tucking in the front bumper on US 308 | FerrariChat

Tucking in the front bumper on US 308

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by tifosi12, Nov 17, 2003.

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  1. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Oct 3, 2002
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    Andreas
    With the help of Bob Campen we tucked in the front bumper on my 308 QV. Wanted to give you a play by play in case somebody else is planning a similar project. Here the before shot. Since the bumper has already been painted, we didn't want to do it the brutal way by driving into a wall.
    :)
     
  2. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    First you need to remove the grill with its own three screws. Fairly easy. Then you crawl under the bumper and loosen the 4 nuts holding it in place. The bumper itself ways about 60 pounds, so once it gets loose, make sure your 2nd person is there to take it away. Also you need to unclip the two cable strings going to the two turn signals/lights.
     
  3. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Now it is time to do the real work, letting all the gas out of the two shocks. They're on either side and hold in place by one big freakin' bolt each. This is a two person job: One holds the nut from underneath the car while the other person loosens and unscrews the bolt by accessing it from above through the open hood. There is very little room to operate, so be patient. Once the bolts are gone, you can pull out the shocks and drill a hole into the rear part of it. That will let the gas escape and you can collapse the shocks. These shocks also contain oil. You don't need to dump that to collapse them. Here is Bob drilling a hole on his mill.
     
  4. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Alternatively you might be able to access the shocks with a drill while they're in place. We didn't try that, but if successful you would save yourself a lot of time and energy. Anyway, once they're collapsed, they have to go back in with their two bolts. Then it is time for some heavy lifting and putting the bumper back in place. Before doing that we removed the shims. The bumper didn't align fully, so carefully sanding the holes in the shock plates was necessary to give it enough room. When you put the bumper back on, be careful to align it symmetrically. Once it is in, it will not move anymore. Finally put the grill back on and attach the two light cables.
     
  5. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    The result from a different angle:
     
  6. paulie_b

    paulie_b F1 Veteran
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    Jan 13, 2003
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    it looks alot better. great job.
     
  7. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Thanks. Kudos go to Bob Campen. I was only the helper.
     
  8. robertgarven

    robertgarven F1 Veteran
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    Feb 24, 2002
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    Robert Garven
    Great post guys,

    I have a couple of questions as I am in the process of doing this on my gt4. I bought 3 collapsed shocks and one that is still charged, I was curious if I could drill a small hole in the end of the shock where it mounts on the bumper. I figured that I could do it on a lathe. It looks as if this is where the shock was charged???

    I tried to collapse it on my press but it expands back each time!!!! I was thinking of mounting the bumper pressed in and pulling it in or out if I did a concours as the 3 bad ones I have can be pulled out by hand, but are still very stiff? I was hoping I could degas the 4th shock so that it would have the same amount of free play. What do you think.

    Boy it is going to be hard to clean the part stuck in there!!! :)


    Rob
     
  9. Bob308GTS

    Bob308GTS Formula 3

    Sep 26, 2001
    1,148
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    Bob Campen
    The end is fairly thick, easier to drill the inner tube. Good luck
     
  10. Sean F.

    Sean F. F1 Rookie

    Feb 4, 2003
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    Can you back up and take some pictures. Up close it's hard to see the "full effect" of the changes.
     
  11. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Rob, good to hear from you again, remember we almost teamed up last April while I was in Beverly Hills.

    Anyway, I don't think you could make the bumper movable for concours etc. Even though both of my shocks have no more gas and are collapsable, once everything is put back in place, you could move the car around by pulling on the bumper, but the bumper won't move! We actually tried that to make sure it sticks and boy it does. So once you made that step, it is irreversible. Unless you buy new shocks.

    BTW: Next project lined up: Do it all over again for the rear bumper.
     
  12. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Sean, I'll shoot some more. Here is the only 'backed up' I got at this moment. Looks kinda funny without seeing the wheels, almost like a UFO:
     
  13. Doc

    Doc Formula Junior

    Sep 13, 2001
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    Bill Van Dyne
    I also pushed in the bumper on my QV, but was able to accomplish it easily w/o removing the bumper. You can drill the holes with everything in place. To avoid marring the bumper against a wall, cover it well with some thick , heavy blankets.
     
  14. Mike C

    Mike C F1 Veteran
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    Aug 3, 2002
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    I did it on my 308QV in about 20 minutes total for the front bumper! The steps:

    1. Don't remove the grill or bumper. You can drill a hole in each bumper shock by laying on your back and drilling upwards into the shock body with a 1/16 or 3/32 drill bit. There's a slight "whoosh" sound when the gas comes out... no big deal.

    2. Use a large standard rubber mallet and start whacking the bumper. I removed the lenses and bulbs of the bumper parking/signal lights, since I didn't want the vibration of the hit to perhaps break the bulb filaments. Going from one side to the other of the bumper with two or three good whacks at a time did it. I did that instead of pushing against a wall, and I think this gave me better control. Of course, my bumper is the original finish, not painted red.

    That's all there was to it!

    By the way, my bodyshop guy says that it would be a 10 minute job to pull the bumper back out to normal (appearance only) if you were so inclined for concours.
     
  15. robertgarven

    robertgarven F1 Veteran
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    Feb 24, 2002
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    Andreas,

    Good to hear from you again also. You bought my super chrome plated tool kit!!
    On the 3 discharged shocks I have you can pull them out and push them in with almost the same force as a koni shock. I guess it is because they failed as opposed to drained??? I was actually worried that they would vibrate in and out while I was driving! The hole I was talking about is visible in the photo of Bob with the drill press on the end that mounts to the bumper there is a small hole about 1/8" diameter in the middle that looks like it has a small weld in it. This is where I think that they were filled and welded when manufactured, but it is just a guess. That is where I am going to try to drill. BTW on the gt4 the shocks mount vertically instead of horizontally. I can actually rotate the inner part around by hand.

    Rob
     
  16. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Mike, guess next time I'll give you a quick ring, before we start on another long endeavour...
    :)

    Here some more shots of the finished look:
     
  17. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    another one
     
  18. Ferrari_UK

    Ferrari_UK Formula 3

    Dec 6, 2002
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    Jeff Howe
    Hi all.

    They look so much better don't they !

    If you want to fit the Euro bumpers we have those too at just $510 each.

    Regards
     
  19. Wayne 962

    Wayne 962 Formula Junior
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    Nov 27, 2003
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    How did they mount the bumper on the 1976 cars? Without using any shocks? Are they just bolted directly to the car?

    I would suspect that this mod would open your car up to damage if someone bumped you - is there another way to do this, perhaps by using a shorter shock from another type of car?

    -Wayne
     
  20. Steve King

    Steve King F1 Rookie

    Feb 15, 2001
    4,367
    NY
    Looks great . I have a couple of questions here.
    1. What method did you use to paint the rubber bumber
    2. Do I assume the turn signal lens are the euro's
    3. Instead of collapsing the shocks can you just fabricate a bracket to the correct length and bolt it in

    Thanks
     
  21. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    ad 1)
    Took it to a paintshop (the whole car) and they painted it. Had it actually done twice, but it still chips. So I wouldn't recommend it. What I will do going forward is actually replace the unit with a fibre glass one and have that painted. I want to replace it not only because of the paint, but also because a fibre one is about 55 lbs less weight.

    ad 2)
    yup

    ad 3)
    I bet you could.
     
  22. Dave

    Dave F1 Rookie

    Apr 15, 2001
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    Great job!
    As a side note, the stock front bumper as noted weighs a bunch.
    A great way to get better performance out of your 308
    without tearing onto the engine,
    is to go to the Euro style bumpers.
    Loose the US bumpers, spare, thermoreactor and such,
    and these old cars start to come to life.
     
  23. tifosi12

    tifosi12 Four Time F1 World Champ
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    All true. Got already rid of the spare. The front and rear bumpers will be replaced by Euros and once I'm off the emissions tests, the catalysts will go and a tubi come in. Add a K&N (already done) and you're digging into 328 performance with a QV.
     
  24. jm3

    jm3 F1 Rookie

    Oct 3, 2002
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    When I pushed back my bumpers, I drilled a hole underneath as described.
    However I went one step further, and tapped the holes for 1/8 pipe thread, and installed "tank valves" which are basically tire valve stems with a male pipe thread. I can now use my compressor and tire chuck to restore the bumper to a functioning state at any time. Although I am husky enough to push the bumper back by kicking it, a more patient person could hook up a vacuum source (as for evacuating Freon) and actually suck that bumper right in.
    (thinking...)
    In fact, maybe I can hook up an onboard vacuum pump, and move the bumper in and out as I drive around. Can you imagine the looks on the ladies as I cruise by with my front bumper moving in and out?
     
  25. Wayne 962

    Wayne 962 Formula Junior
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    Nov 27, 2003
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