The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Guard against those Reproduction Bumper Guards!

Reproduction Bumper Guards that don’t fit worth a $^#@!

http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/accessories&page=3

They really fit the radius nice don’t they!!!!!!? And then how in the world do you bolt them on to the bumper, the original bumper guards were 11 gauge which was strong enough for you to draw up the bumper bolt with out bending the material. The reproduction is only made from 16 gauge material and you’ll bend the @#$* out of them if you try to draw the bumper bolt up tight.

One more reproduction item to add to the pile of crap in the corner of the barn, this one made in Taiwan from Classic Parts of America.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

That's just not cool at all! I guess that's one of the reasons I was so stubborn about finding OE guards for my '55, besides the fact I didn't want chrome.

Denny, you should have a repop bumper from the same manufacturer. Then you could hold the edge of the bumper with your index fingers and bend it with your thumbs to conform to the bumper guard. If you had a trailer queen, no one would ever know the the difference.

Again another justifiable complaint about garbage off-shore products being sold to us by the various vendors. As long as we accept them and throw them 'into the pile of crap the corner of the barn', without letting the vendor know how bad they are the more we will be getting. Its up to us to let the vendors know that this garbage is not acceptable.

Fight back Denny, call and complain, send them back! If everyone that gets crap sends it back it may force Chevy Duty and their ilk to change their product manufacturers.

Yep... that is a known issue... even on the 60-66 bumper guard repops.

Sometimes having a beat up truck is a plus. I bought some used chrome original ones online.

I'd complain... politely, yet firmly.

-W

That is a “repop” bumper I’m holding it against in the picture Ken. Maybe I should check it’s fit against the original to see if it matches that. I can shim the space between the bumper and mounting bracket, but the thing that really bugs me and I can’t so anything about is the mismatch of the profile radius. And I would hate to really bump anything with these bumper guards, They might look purty, shiny chrome and all, but I don’t think they would guard against anything very well.

Bill and Jim, It just doesn’t seem to register with the vendors; I think the market is just too lucrative now days. If you don’t buy from them, there’s always another guy waiting to take your spot. Business in America just isn’t hungry enough to care about quality now days. Maybe when all of the manufacturing and sales has moved off shore then they will pull their heads out of their %*$# and wake up to the fact that their goal should be to service the customer. As long as we have to keep absorbing the shipping and handling costs it just isn’t worth sending this crap back to them. This mail order society that we live in makes it easy to get screwed, in the old days when you walked up to the parts counter and put your hands on the item before you paid for it, it was a lot harder to dupe the customer. Then we have that situation where most of the buying public is willing to accept what ever is thrown to them so if you are one of those that expects quality reproductions you’re in the minority.

Gee Woo, I wish I would known that it was a “known issue” I don’t recall reading any reports on reproduction bumper guards over the past few years. I do recall reading about bad chrome jobs on bumpers but you have to factor in how may of those were left out in the weather and not kept cleaned and waxed. Even back in the day a vehicle that was left out and not taken care of got rusty in a few years.

Actually those repro bumpers that I got a couple of years ago from the same vendor are quite good, except for, and there’s always an except for, the edge treatment before they plated them. The edges of the original bumpers were rounded over; the reproduction bumper had sharp edges left un-champhered, not the best shape for electroplating to adhere to long term. Now clearly, here is a case where all the manufacturer would have had to do to make an accurate reproduction was to spend 5minutes with a Dynabrade Dynafile on the edges before plating and he would have had it perfect. I mean, like charge an extra ten bucks and put the finishing touch on it to make it an exact copy. And the repro bumper brackets had the same issue, before they were formed if they would have rounded the edges like the original brackets they would have had a part that you couldn't have distingusted from the original. These I ended up spending a few minutes rounding over with a file my self before painting them, but I couldn't get all of it where they were riveted together. There's that "except for" again!

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, looks like the best places to buy these things are swap meets.

Might have been years ago Jim, but round here in the three years I've been working with this old gal, I haven't found hardly anything for AD trucks at any of the swaps. Seems everyone has discovered ebay.
Even if you could find a solid pair of guards the next problem would be finding a shop to restore them. Around here one of the main stays of the chrome shops were bumpers, with the advent of the painted bumper almost all the chrome shops have had to close their doors. Most of those that made the cut only do comercial plating and don't want to mess with onesies or twosies and if they do take the job the prices are thru the roof.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I guess we be going to Ebay then. You might also check with Jim Bob or Jim Bo or whatever it is over on parts wanted here. I've been able to pick up some stuff from him that the vendors don't carry.

Well, if it's any consolation Denny, you're not alone. I went for bumper guards for my 56 and they fit like - well you know. I'm debating whether to modify them so the arcs are correct and have them rechromed, or just give it up and look for originals, although in two years of looking I have not found any original bumper guards for a 56 on EBay. I previously bought a set of repro rear bumper ends for my Cameo because my originals were really rusted out and chrome shops didn't want to do them. I hated the repros from the day I got them because they were such a poor fit and difference in shape, but I wore them for a while (after I had them modified to fit and rechromed). Then one day as I was talking with a restoration guy, just out of curiosity I asked him if he could restore my originals. He looked them over, kind of grimaced, but said he could. It took him a while, several months, but when I got them back they were perfect, like new and just needed chroming. They're since rechromed and remounted and look great. I sold the repops on Ebay just last week - at a loss of course, but they made someone else happy and it's better than decorating my garage with more stuff I don't need. . Repops, yeah, maybe, but only as a last, and I mean the very last resort. Thanks for bringing it up Denny.
Dale

Years ago I made a reproduction glass top for a 1954 Ford Skyliner (Glass Top). I found a plastics company THAT WOULD NOT mold the top unless the car was sitting in their shop (Pollard Plastics, Dallas TX) and then a friend that loves complex geometry and builds high dollar homes made a trimming jig with the car SITTING IN HIS SHOP. Since they were not from a third generation sketch sent off to Taiwan they actually fit better than those from Ford's original supplier. All came about because a thick headed German wouldn't pay some guy in Canada five times too much for one of his NOS tops. It just doesn't happen like this anymore.

I used to use Ebay a lot. There were some good deals, afew that the seller didn't know what they had, and could get a steal, and a lot of fair prices on parts. Now it seems most of the parts the seller wants to fund their lifestyle on a single fender that has been setting in a swamp for the last 30 years. Please note that said fender had holes you could throw a cat through, but it was "rare" and "hard to find part" It may have been an accurate statement though. As something that far gone hadn't rusted away compleatly, and hard to find some idiot that would give $500 for an AD fender in that shape. Plus it seems that Ebay has mostly the same old parts week after week. Myself, I prefer to ask fellow bolters for the parts I need. I pay a fair price for what I want, and gives someone here a few bucks to spend. Oh yeah I still watch Ebay. And if the right part comes along I will pop for it.

..... and lets not forget one thing guys. The vendors are buying this cheap crap at bargain prices and kicking our butts with the markup and shipping.
I hate :mad: 99% of the repop stuff but could be a little happier with it if I was paying what its worth... rather than paying many times that. Say what they want I've been around manufacturing of many things for 37 years and they are making a darn good profit....by overcharging us for cheap crap.

Can anyone speak for the quailty of chrome
bumpers and bumper guards sold by L.M.C.and BOWTIE.

You give very little information to go by Pete, so I don't know what sort of vehicle you're refering to. The bumpers that I bought from Classic Parts of America a couple of years ago for my 1950, AD looked just fine, and I'm kind of picky. My only complaint was that they didn't round over the edeges before plating which may cause problems later on down the line.
They were advertised as and had a tag that read "tripple chrome plated" which I take to mean that they were copper/nickle/chrome plated, but that may not be the case.
My guess would be that LMC or any of the other vendors are getting them from the same supplier, I can't imagine there being to many manufacturers of Advance Design bumpers in the business today.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

DENNY I'M WANTING TO BUY CHROME BUMPERS FOR
MY 1959 APACHE PICKUP AND WAS THINKING OF
BUYING BUMBER GUARDS. L.M.C. ADVERTISES A
REG. CHROME AND A SHOW CHROME.
THANKS

I have ordered a front buumper from Tuckers, and after reading
these posts, am holding my breath.

BIG CHEVY
LIKE YOU, ALL THIS CHROME STUFF ISN'T CHEAP AND IT LEAVES YOU WORRING ABOUT QUALITY.

..... I have mentioned before about Bill's speed shop in Ohio. They advertise in the Old Cars Weekly each week. They currently advertise 1947--1972 for $105 up and guarantee them for 5 years. Back some time ago I checked on a chrome bumper for my 52 and the price was $120 plus the shipping. With the economy not doing so good they may have came down some? I chatted with the guy for a few minutes but don't recall the exact conversation but he did indicate to me that they are doggone good and also they would "stand behind them". They could be local stuff???

I am finally ready to buy the back bumper (I traded for a front one) and I called them a couple weeks ago but didn't get an answer so I'll try again maybe this week.
If someone wants to go ahead and give them a ring the number is
330-832-9403 ....and please report back.

I recently bought a 'chrome' gas cap for my '52 from American Classic. What a piece of cr@p. I thought they had accidently shipped a stainless cap instead of the chrome one.
The guy at AC suggested I use a magnet to see if it is chromed steel (magnet sticks) or stainless (no stick). It was steel, but a really (bad) chome job. I emailed my disappointment, but to no avail.
Shoulda just kept on using the rag that was stuffed in the fill tube when I got the truck. The rag was shinier than my new 'chrome' gas cap..

well, I may as well add a couple more cents to the pot.....
I bought a pair of door handles a short time ago. Its bad enough that you can't buy one....you have to buy a Pair. Then when you get them they look like someone had poured sand all over them before they were chromed.
Yeah, I'm still (upset) over them and they are still laying in the box they came in!!

Looks like we're going to have to just pick a vendor and start boycotting them one at a time to get the message across?
I'm ready!

You got that right Alvin, as long as people keep accepting this trash, they'll just keep churnin' it out!

It can be less hassle to just keep the junk but sending it back and demanding a credit on your card sends a message and is more of a hassle to the vendor than to you.
If we all did that it would shake the boardrooms around the industry. WHOSE WITH ME???

I bought a pair of bumper guards for my 64 C-30 on e-bay....opened the box, and thought they looked real nice. I wasn't ready to put them on yet as the truck was still not painted at the time. Fast forward almost a year, as I was finally ready to mount my bumper. Took them back out of the box and started to try to mount the bumper with the guards in place. YEAH RIGHT!!!! They don't even begin to fit the contour of the bumper, the holes don't line up, and there is NO WAY to possibly mount them, without grinding a significant amount of material from them. I'm (upset)! And the worst part is, I can't (complain to) the vendor, because so much time has passed, and I no longer have his contact info. If I grind them to fit, they will rust unless they are re-chromed, and that will be cost prohibative anyway........so they are now back in the box, and will remain there until I get sick of looking at them, and throw them away......just like dropping a hundred dollars in the toilet!

That seems to be my problem. I make a purchase for some item that won't go on the truck for a year or two and what do you do when it turns out bad?
My motor, tranny, and rearend were bought back in 06 and haven't even started up yet. The warranty is up on both the tranny and engine before I get them out of the garage.

We got a set of the bumper guards for my sons truck, that fit like every ones eles. We ground them to fit then took the chrome door edge strip and put on the ground edge. It looks fine, BUT you should not have to make them fit.

We probably can't do it here on the bolt (vendor bashing) but we need to pick one that we have stuff from right now that is below standards and then also have folks that experienced the same problems from the same vendor....then everyone send the stuff back for credit card credit and the others write a letter and send it postal and require a signature. Inside just simply state that if their suppliers do not get with the program we will no longer buy from them anymore and that WE will spread the word.

As I mentioned. We may have to do it "outside" the Bolt (converse by PM?) but we can do it.

I know on the 60 to 62 chevy they say that they will not work on a repo bumper they must be put on an original bumper to fit properly, I don't know about the fitment on the 63 to 66 sense they have a different bumper on them. I hope this will help you even thew that is not what year truck you have.
Bob

RETRACTION: I was going to post this last night but just didn’t get the time. Thanks to one of the members over at the VCCA group, it was pointed out to me that the rear bumper has a different radius then the front bumper. That I was trying the fit of the bumper guards against the rear bumper. I did this because the front bumpers (new and old) were off the truck and inconvenient to get at. I dug thru the pile last night and here is what the fit of the bumper guards looks like against the correct, new reproduction front bumper:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122141778/large
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122141780/large
My apologies to Classic Parts of America and Taiwan, my mistake, not yours. It just goes to show you maybe some of those “cheapo repop parts” aren’t so bad after all.
My lesson for yesterday was; Look for different contours on the front and rear bumpers of an Advance Design truck. And don’t open your bug yap until all of the possibilities have been explored.
Again, sorry for the bad rap Classic Part of America, I’ve actually had a very good experience with everything else that I’ve bought from them and half the new parts for my restoration came from them.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I should have thought of that when I looked at your first post. Rear bumpers were almost always removed and hung in a barn because the tail gate would not drop all the way down and you couldn't unload a barrel or anything heavy without bending the tail gate. 50 years ago I could spot the difference at 20 feet when I was looking for front bumpers.