• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Rear bumper mod....

Share this page

HealeyPassion

HealeyPassion

Jedi Warrior
Country flag
Offline
Have you ever thought... I think they could have done a better job with the rear bumper? Well that's been on my mind for many years. So, I collected some old bumpers, had them stripped of chrome, and went to work. Yes, I kept the original bumper, bumper guards and bumper irons as original … no animals harmed. Pictured is the original (with some blue tape that served as measurements for what was to come) and the results of my fiddling. The inspiration was Jaguars, and a few others, that have done a beautiful job of splitting rear bumpers on their cars even back in the day. What I did... took the ends off one of the originals I got from Ebay and graphed them on to a left and right sections of another... made bumper irons that located the split bumpers closer to the body... fabricated a new license plate holder that raises the license between the split sections... added a Jag. XK140 Lucas license plate light to that (these have a backup light built in)… I will rewire the backup light to be a 3rd brake light (I'll use a red LED so the lens will still be white)… the small bumper guards are actually two original bottoms blended together (again, Ebay junk). It's all "repurposed" AH bumper stuff. I haven't drilled the holes for the new small bumper guards yet, so they may move a bit before I'm done. Of course, it will all be rechromed when I'm done. By the way the car is going through a complete restoration so you can disregard everything else you see on the back end i.e. paint, luggage rack, GB sticker, etc.

1 Original bumper S50 1157.jpg 1a Split rear bumper L and R V1 S50 1219 - Copy (2).jpg 7 Split rear bumper L and R V1 1217.jpg

Steve
 
Last edited:
Thanks Jack. The goal/intention was to have it look like it could have been "factory".
 
Although it looks great, I had the only year they made a split bumper on my MGB-GT (1970). The reason they stopped it was the excessive damage to body if rear ended compared to the full bumper.
 
With all due respect... if I get rear ended in my Healey I imagine the damage to the rear shroud will be the least of my worries.
 
I agree. With the limited protection provided by the bumpers on 60s British cars, I would guess that the cost of having two parts to assemble rather than one was the reason split bumpers weren't used.
 
Back
Top