Rear bumper widening (pics)
05-27-2011, 11:58 AM
#1
Rear bumper widening (pics) So a few weeks back I stumbled upon this one Camaro owners website (that I can't find again). In it, he had a mod posted where he flared out the bottom of the rear bumper using a simple piece of sheet metal and two nuts/bolts. Since the 4th gen Firebird/Formula bumpers flare way in at the bottom, I decided to try this mod on mine.
First, I got two computer tower blank/extra slot covers (these particular ones had a ridge for increased strength... I'm an IT guy so I have a lot of them) and undid the plastic push-pin holding the bumper in on one side, and then loosened the philips-head screw holding the bumper to the body in the wheel well area (THIS IS IMPORTANT). Held up the piece of metal to the two holes (body side and bumper side) and stretched the bumper out pretty far until it felt like it reasonably wouldn't go any more, then marked the hole position on the piece of metal using a Sharpie. Clamped both slot covers onto my drill press, and drilled out the holes large enough to get a good bolt going through it. Then I trimmed the excess from the slot covers with a metal cutting device. Since this was an experiment I just used wingnuts, regular washers, and bolts with a flathead slot on the head. I attached one nut/bolt/washers assembly to the body side, and one nut/bolt/washers assembly to the passenger side, with the modified slot cover facing down, and then retightened the philips-head screw in the wheel well near the top of the bumper.
The nice thing about this mod is that you have the ability to control the amount of bumper flare. I think I'm going to make some more brackets for it that don't flare out quite as much, but it still looks better than stock to me.
Anyways, I just took some pics last night (more to come):
P.S. I did it for the lulz
For comparison, here's a stock Pewter Formula:
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I may also start making and selling these with multiple adjustment points either through myself or 6LE (or he can make some nice ones) if there's enough interest. Working on getting better pics ASAP so you can make a decision.
Update 1:
Update: so I tried it Friday night on a Camaro and a Trans Am. The Camaro I couldn't get enough flex to actually use my bracket, and when I flexed it a little all it did was bow the bumper in more between the upper mount and lower flare, and make it look cheap. The bracket worked on a Trans Am, BUT it looked ugly as hell (as somebody said, it looked like a cheap ricer body kit).
Based on this test, I've come to the conclusion that this only works WELL for V6/Formula bumpers.
I took before/after pics of my car using a tripod, but again, it was at night. I also took a partial-daylight pic and a full daylight pic.
Pics:
Before -
After -
Partial daylight -
Full daylight -
Walk-around video showing the dirty car and how unnoticeable the wheel well gap is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FiFQZe9uLY
Music =
First, I got two computer tower blank/extra slot covers (these particular ones had a ridge for increased strength... I'm an IT guy so I have a lot of them) and undid the plastic push-pin holding the bumper in on one side, and then loosened the philips-head screw holding the bumper to the body in the wheel well area (THIS IS IMPORTANT). Held up the piece of metal to the two holes (body side and bumper side) and stretched the bumper out pretty far until it felt like it reasonably wouldn't go any more, then marked the hole position on the piece of metal using a Sharpie. Clamped both slot covers onto my drill press, and drilled out the holes large enough to get a good bolt going through it. Then I trimmed the excess from the slot covers with a metal cutting device. Since this was an experiment I just used wingnuts, regular washers, and bolts with a flathead slot on the head. I attached one nut/bolt/washers assembly to the body side, and one nut/bolt/washers assembly to the passenger side, with the modified slot cover facing down, and then retightened the philips-head screw in the wheel well near the top of the bumper.
The nice thing about this mod is that you have the ability to control the amount of bumper flare. I think I'm going to make some more brackets for it that don't flare out quite as much, but it still looks better than stock to me.
Anyways, I just took some pics last night (more to come):
P.S. I did it for the lulz
For comparison, here's a stock Pewter Formula:
I may also start making and selling these with multiple adjustment points either through myself or 6LE (or he can make some nice ones) if there's enough interest. Working on getting better pics ASAP so you can make a decision.
Update 1:
Update: so I tried it Friday night on a Camaro and a Trans Am. The Camaro I couldn't get enough flex to actually use my bracket, and when I flexed it a little all it did was bow the bumper in more between the upper mount and lower flare, and make it look cheap. The bracket worked on a Trans Am, BUT it looked ugly as hell (as somebody said, it looked like a cheap ricer body kit).
Based on this test, I've come to the conclusion that this only works WELL for V6/Formula bumpers.
I took before/after pics of my car using a tripod, but again, it was at night. I also took a partial-daylight pic and a full daylight pic.
Pics:
Before -
After -
Partial daylight -
Full daylight -
Walk-around video showing the dirty car and how unnoticeable the wheel well gap is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FiFQZe9uLY
Music =
Last edited by ZexGX; 05-30-2011 at 07:18 PM.
05-27-2011, 12:17 PM
#5
That's the catch. You can see a little bit of the body that the bumper normally hides. It's REALLY not bad at all, since most of the time it is covered by the tire (front) or the bumper (side/rear). I'll get some pics later tonight showing that. I think if you just painted that particular section of the body with black paint, it would be fine and not stand out. Alternatively, if you're gonna do this permanently and know somebody good with sheet metal, you could probably find a way of bending the panel outwards just a little to create the flare, without the sheet metal showing.
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05-27-2011, 03:28 PM
#20
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I think that looks very good. I would like to see more detailed pics too. I'm surprised no one has ever done this before after all these years of 4th gen Fbodys being around.