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Hello everybody. I need advice on buying bumpers and frame horn covers as the original ones I have are in very bad condition. I understand that the repro covers don't fit. Does anyone know of a manufacturer that makes a good reproduction that will fit? Also, should I try to find a used set of bumpers that I could have rechromed, or is there a good quality new bumper that is available? Your help will be appreciated. Thanks.
The only ones I've seen, and used, are probably from the same tooling, through Vintique I believe. Most of the vendors get from them. Like any repop sheetmetal piece they're going to need some tweaking, and if you're real picky about fit even the stock ones weren't anywhere near "perfect". There's a lot of "slop" to deal with because you've got several independent pieces that all have to move around to line up (body, fender, tank, frame). You might want to check with Brookville, http://www.brookville-roadster.com/email.htm , they may be making these themselves and odds are it will start as a better piece, but likely still need tweaking.
The last repop bumper I got was from Drake. It was a pretty nice piece. It partly depends on what your target is. If you're building a car to be a sharp looking driver (as opposed to what too many people today mean by "driver quality", in other words junk that's normally thrown away) then the repop should suit you fine, although each piece needs to be inspected as they don't all come out the same. You can search out originals, but if they're legitimate ones, they will be pricey and will need both repair and replating. If you've got a very good and reliable plating shop available that won't be too bad, but it will be more expensive. The most decent shop around here for bumper plating charges more for the plating service than the repop bumper complete.........and he does Drake's plating!!!!! (obviously there's a steady customer/quantity discount vs single customer thing going on there). The one problem with buying a used supposedly "original" bumper is that unless you're real good on identification, you stand a high chance of buying an old repop.
Thanks Bob. I appreciate the reply. Great information!