Been a while since my last update on the DHC but there still is progress, though not as much as I hoped for. But today I finished the bumpers at last. Been working on them over the past few months. First thing was to dismantle them in preparation for shot blasting and coating.
With everything removed, it was clear why one side of the bumper was hanging down a bit. As you can see the bumper mount on the right is seriously distorted.
Probably caused by one of the many accidents this car seems to have had in its earlier life.
With everything removed, it was clear why one side of the bumper was hanging down a bit. As you can see the bumper mount on the right is seriously distorted.
Probably caused by one of the many accidents this car seems to have had in its earlier life.
As with a lot of other parts the bumpers, including the two fairly heavy balance weights got the powder coat treatment.
With the bumper bars sorted I switched my attention to the clamping plates that are used to mount the US style bumper covers. Sorted out the best ones available from my spare parts stock.
These were done by “hand” with a drill mounted wire brush, degreaser and black spray paint. They are not in sight but I just hate parts on a car that are rusty. And with new nuts and rings it makes assembling so much nicer.
Last and most difficult part of the bumper preparation was cleaning the covers themselves. The usual trick with a special cleaner didn’t work here. Over the years so much filth had been accumulated under several coats of cleaning products, that I needed sanding paper to get rid of it.
With the covers cleaned and coated it was time for the finishing touch for the front cover, mounting one of the newly acquired license plates. Should have been rather straightforward with the cover “of”. If I hadn’t drilled one of the mounting holes right in the heart of one of the stiffening ribs. Cost me well over half an hour to get sorted properly, which is without repositioning the plate or drilling extra visible holes. But that got sorted in the end.
Today it was time to fit the covers to the bumper bars, which went smoothly! Only thing that went “wrong” was that I had used washers that were too large on the clamping plates. Luckily I got my boxes with assorted nuts and washers at hand.
Also cleaned and coated a few of the cars plastic trim pieces, like sill kick plates, front “grill”, side blanking plates etc.
With the bumper bars sorted I switched my attention to the clamping plates that are used to mount the US style bumper covers. Sorted out the best ones available from my spare parts stock.
These were done by “hand” with a drill mounted wire brush, degreaser and black spray paint. They are not in sight but I just hate parts on a car that are rusty. And with new nuts and rings it makes assembling so much nicer.
Last and most difficult part of the bumper preparation was cleaning the covers themselves. The usual trick with a special cleaner didn’t work here. Over the years so much filth had been accumulated under several coats of cleaning products, that I needed sanding paper to get rid of it.
With the covers cleaned and coated it was time for the finishing touch for the front cover, mounting one of the newly acquired license plates. Should have been rather straightforward with the cover “of”. If I hadn’t drilled one of the mounting holes right in the heart of one of the stiffening ribs. Cost me well over half an hour to get sorted properly, which is without repositioning the plate or drilling extra visible holes. But that got sorted in the end.
Today it was time to fit the covers to the bumper bars, which went smoothly! Only thing that went “wrong” was that I had used washers that were too large on the clamping plates. Luckily I got my boxes with assorted nuts and washers at hand.
Also cleaned and coated a few of the cars plastic trim pieces, like sill kick plates, front “grill”, side blanking plates etc.
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