Hi friends, I'm planning on putting Euro bumpers on my 1979 308 GTS US. What are my options? Where does one start to look, and are there any repro alternatives to the real deal? And what about the grill?? I live in Belgium, so I reckon it's not adviced to buy in the States, or is it? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes it is. With the low front spoiler I think it looks OK, but the bumpers has several collision cracks, and I'd like to replace it anyway.... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There are lots of posts on this so a search will give you the most answers. If your car is a US car then you need the following: 1. The bumpers front and rear 2. The front grill from a Euro car. They are very different and if you put the Euro bumpers on the grill looks totally wrong 3. Adapters between US to Euro bumpers. The fitting is totally different however if you have some fabrication skills, it is not at all to figure out a solution. There was a thread a while back where someone made some CNC adapters but I have no idea what the status of that project is. Best of luck with the conversion. It transforms the look of the car.
i did th brackets are ready and so is the grill. The bumpers are still in progress. you could buy a eurobumper at ebay.co.uk. There a guy selling repro's and his ad is there always
i'm doing the same thing, and would be curious to know what the euro bumpers and grill cost (factory pieces, not reproductions). what nuvolari said is accurate, i am doing all three steps.
There are two bumper shapes and two matching grills... There is also a lightweight version of the North American bumper on the way if you don't want the expense of changing the grills.... You can push the North American bumper in by drilling and letting the oil out of the shock mounts, or it DOES take a lot of effort to do a total conversion, as the two mounting methods are totally different and the bolts between the two bumpers are different spacing. That will be the attraction of the "lightweight replica" that has the bolts to line up with the stock supports... Your call!!!!!!
Eurospares or one of the UK wrecking yards can probably get you going... I am taking off a Euro repro bumper soon........no idea yet, what style mounting it's on.....
Another option is to install MA Carbon short tubes. Doesnt quite get the bumper in as far as I would like, but its a quick easy alternative. The rear bumper still looks like a diving board. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I used the repros that are available on ebay. They are even lighter than the OEM bumpers by maybe a pound total. Hanging the bumpers and fabricating the brackets is the difficult part. There is a lot that goes into fitting the front bumper correctly. The rear is not an easy task either but it is doable. In total I shaved off 82lbs. During my recent rebuild I removed all the emission air injection equipment and shaved another 27lbs (!) Crazy how much weight they add to these US cars. Removing these items will get you down to Euro weight and there is undoubtedly a marked difference in how the car responds. These cars don't have a huge amount of power to begin with, so removing weight helps a ton. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Agreed, the biggest weight savers were the euro bumpers front and rear, especially the rear what a difference. Then the exhaust, new stainless Nouvalari in place of a much heavier original Ansa with cats.
Kris, here are a couple of links detailing bumper conversions... I believe it to be a worthwhile project, as it transforms the car's appearance, and sheds about 70 lbs. If you've got any questions, feel free to PM. http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=245699 http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236399
Well, I ordered a front bumper at Eurospares. I found repro's on ebay but I didn't trust it at all. The seller, turns out to be Eddie Walsch from ferrarispares, works under the name of 'megasquirt', and this picture as his avatar. Would you pay £ 1000 (2 bumpers, brackets, shipping and VAT) to someone like that???? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I did original Ferrari Euro bumpers and gril on my US Spec '79 308 GTB about 7 years ago. I designed my own brackets to mount to the front two bolts of the US mounting struts. I mounted the rear to the US struts by opening up the holes a little. You also need to fabricate a heat shield for the bottom of the rear bumper to keep it from getting too hot.
To put you at ease a bit more, you DO know that megasquirt is a do-it-yourself fuel injection system? Clearly conceived by a bunch of (very gifted) nerds who thought the name was cool or something No comments on the bumper pic...
not to be too off-topic here, but haven't there been a lot of issues with the megasquirt? interference and harmonic issues of sort?
SO can you drain the oil in the rear bumper tubes as well? I assume you can make short tubes as well.
If it's still in them, I found my rears had leaked down, when I crashed my Ferrari backwards into another Ferrari that was sitting outside the shop......
