Maserati Bora bumpers

Have you asked MIE? They are US based, so they might be cheaper than the European suppliers, you can get in touch with them via:

MIE Corporation
1620 Industry Dr SW #F
Auburn WA 98001 USA
Phone: 253-833-2598
FAX: 253-735-0946

http://maseratinet.com/

 

You could try the set advertised on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Maserati-Bora-Bumper-Kit-New-/200728533436?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ebc5a59bc&vxp=mtr



Julian

 

I'm pretty sure the previous owner of my car told me the kit came from Maurice in New Zealand, although the records he included didn't say so explicitly. However, the kit was (partially) installed in 2005 and at that time, I think Harrington Group was not in the business. By coincidence, Maurice is offering the rear valence and grille right now on Ebay. If my kit did come from Maurice, as seems likely, then I can vouch for the quality and finish. His Ebay ad mentions he still has some front bumpers.

I've been waiting to hear how your engine upgrade project turned out - or did I miss it?

 

Hi Elliot,

Wrong thread but interesting update on your special engine.

Why are you not using the dry-sump set-up of the Khamsin engine?

Did you end up making a new crank for this engine, modified the existing one?

Thanks!

Jack.

 

Ah yes, I remember now that you mentioned reduction of diameters, thank you.

Did you stay with the original crank-form, or will you employ a flat plane crank?

(Okay, I will dig the original thread up to avoid confusion)

 

I bumped the engine thread to move that part, but regarding the bumpers -

If you decide to restore the low transmission mount, one approach is to replace the rear cover with an unmodified original. It looks like the factory milled off about an inch of the mount for muffler clearance. Lloyd Butfoy at RBT transmissions thinks he has one in stock, but I have yet to get him to send me a picture to confirm. Maybe you'll have better luck.. I'm leaning towards using Pantera style side mounts; my subframe has the US modifications bolted rather than welded on and this would allow me to make the switch without welding mounting tabs to the subframe.

 

That an interest point you're discussing. Mine (last 77 Bora) has a completely welded and very different rear sub frame than the European configuration. While doing my engine and engine compartment restoration I stripped all the undercoating and original paint and it appeared that mine was built as a European spec car which was then converted to US specs. I bought the car with 3K miles on it. But I have never seen or heard of a bolted on portion of the subframe utilized for the US adaptation of the larger rubber bumpers.

Could you post some photos of that?

Also, perhaps you could take another crack at describing the change in rear cover of the transmission being a way to make this conversion easier?

Thanks.

 

Yes they are a part of the car body/rear frame and there's a 1" square tube between them. They are not what I think he was referring to. That's why I asked for some photos and clarification as to what he meant. I haven't don't the conversion as yet but I did cut back those large square mounts and remove that tube in anticipation of mounting my European bumpers. I don't believe that the remaining portion of the shock mounts are the biggest problem but it's been a very long time since I did all of this ...

I had a friend who performed a not so great conversion and the exhaust had to be modified into a tortuous mess to exit the rear because he didn't do enough changes to get it right.

 

I might have confused things by talking about the subframe. The bumpers on my car are mounted to the body structure, not the subframe. I'm using a European pattern exhaust system. The muffler hangers and raised transmission mount on the US cars interfere with the center of the Euro exhaust. If you built a custom exhaust system, this might not be a factor.
The pictures show the bumper spigots as they probably are on your cars and the mount that was attached to the bumper (P.O had substituted the stainless one). It's not telescopic on my car, and looks factory, but who knows? I've seen pictures of a '74 Bora that did seem to have telescopic mounts. The bumper mounts are welded to the chassis and I'm going to try to cut them off intact. They appear to be added to the '73-'74 reinforced structure in a way that makes that possible.

In my case, the subframe is going to have to be modified to clear the Euro exhaust and in that I got lucky. The pictures show the adapter on one side, then the subframe with the adapters unbolted, and finally the original transverse rear mount just stuck in place where the Euro and '73-'74 cars had it. You can see how much of the rear transmission cover has been milled away. A new cover solves that problem. Mounting tabs added to the bottom rails of the subframe would appear to line up with the rear mount. It doesn't look quite close enough in the picture, but I have the transmission supported by a handy piece of tubing that's thicker than the clearance should be. Table 12 in the Bora parts manual shows how the transmission cover looked on early cars and the drawing in Table 16 shows the location of the mounting tabs and muffler hangers for those cars. My thought is to make my own bolt-on adapter that adds the muffler hangers and either the tabs or the Pantera style side mounts.
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Thanks for posting these. Let's start with what year is your Bora?

I've never seen those portions of the subframe as being removable like that.

 

Try this............on my DB5 and Sebring they are perfect !

Cheers Rudy

http://groupharrington.com/en/part/239/maserati-bora-euro-bumpers.html

 

Make sure that you heat shield your inner CV boots from those S shaped pieces that connect the rear muffler assembly to the headers. At speed those pipes get very hot and can cause your CV boots to expand like a balloon then explode. I always wanted to try but have not as yet made a shield that goes over the boot attaches to and spins with the joint like a deep tuna fish can. If you never drive the car at speed for any extended period of time it's much less of a problem.

 

Elliot, mine is a 1977,or so it says, US974. Of course, as Ivan has documented, some "1977" cars were made in 1978, so maybe this one was built in the off year 1976. Some sources claim only 15 cars were built in 1977 and there seem to be too many 1977 VINs to squeeze into that period.

I have noted your tips (VCM 45?), Bob, and am trying to incorporate them as I go. One of the Pantera specialists makes stainless steel half-circle shields that bolt to the transmission side covers. The ostensible purpose is to prevent grease being thrown around the engine compartment (umm, just fix the boots?), but I wonder if they can be mounted on the bottom side of the U-joint as well. They'd make a nice looking heat shield. Realistically, lately I can't seem to find time to drive anything but a desk, so it might not matter!

Thanks,
Larry

 

I have original production parts on mine with dates of 1978 and mine is the last.

They played some games at the end.

Post a link about those shields please.

When you lose a CV boot at well over 100MPH it's one hell of a mess to clean up.
Mine incorporate a felt filtered vent now. That seems to have worked.

 

Here's the link to the heat shields - or rather grease shields:
http://hallpantera.com/cgi-bin/p/awtp-product.cgi?d=hallpantera-inc&item=22091

 

Elliot,

It's just been too long since I did all of this stuff but If you look at where they mounted the rubber bumper and lack of an exhaust exit at that height think just it forced everything exhaust related lower with than new much lower valence. I don't know if any of the subframe changes were calculated as adding additional strength once everything is bolted in place for the entire rear to absorb a bigger impact?

I do know that these bumpers are very stout and quite useful when pushing the car around or even lifting it up a bit to slip a jack underneath. I wouldn't dare do that with the S.S bumpers.

I wish they could have put a shallower bumper on the rear exactly where the original bumper was mounted and then the change would have simply looked like a modern update that many cars received back then. Ah well ...

 

I think the bumper height was determined by the regulations - the impact tests were conducted a heights of 16-20" above ground. The Bora is in bits, but I measured a '74 Merak and the exhaust grille is conveniently at 16-20" above ground. The center of the original stainless bumper is 22.5" high. Once the bumper height was determined, everything else had to be juggled to fit. My car supported the US transverse muffler with two "L" brackets welded to the subframe (in my case, subframe adapters) rather than the body. Sounds like they made it up as they went along, trying a new idea on every car. The pre-mufflers are supported by brackets on the subframe.

BTW, the brilliant bureaucrats exempted trucks and SUVs from the bumper height rule, because as we all know, a collision between cars and trucks could never happen.

I should be doing work-work today, but this is more fun - I'll see if I can't rehang the US exhaust and take pictures, then mock-up the Euro one to see how it fits. I need to do the latter anyway.

 

Yeah that was probably part of the calculation too.

The Bora, Espada and the Khamsin were just designs that didn't accommodate themselves well to the new regulations. The Khamsin and Espada are far worse.

 

This is the (loosely assembled) US exhaust system as they chose to mount it in March '77. This and my Euro one were made by Stebro so there might be dimensional differences from the stock units but the overall shape matches the pictures I've seen.
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