I hate the way the OE rubber bumpers sag over time. Mine are 83 original, so they are more wavy than the pacific ocean. Also, the fron bumper sags down, so there is about a 3/8" gap between the bumper and hood leading edge. Im gonna buy new ones anyway, because I want hte GTA style front one, and my back one is (literally) half bondo from a previous wreck. If I buy new or used rubber ones, could I line the insides with fiberglass to stiffen them? Has anyone tried this? I dont realy want to spend for fiberglass ones...

------------------
1983 Pontiac Firebird SE
LG4-Based Chevy 400
700R4 Tansmission
Modified 4 Barrel Q-Jet Carb
Accel Super Stock 8mm Wires
Edelbrock Pro-Flo Air Cleaner
3.23 Posi Rear
14X7" Cragar SS/T Wheels
35X4 CD/AM/FM Head Unit
100WX2 Amp
2 Pioneer 12" Subs in Custom Box
Third Gen Performance
"A four cylinder is only half an engine"

 

Ward,

If you can fashion jigs, clamps, or fixtures to hold the bumper cover in the shape you want, you could try using expanding foam to fill the voids and stiffen the entire assembly.

Warning! It will be messy. Once the foam has has a day to cure, there will be no moving it again. If the voids you fill with foam are not isolated from the steel body panels, you will effectively bond your bumper covers to the chassis. If you can remove the plastic snap fasteners, the inner energy absorber, then line the impact bar with a plastic sheet, you can reassemble and jig the covers in place and fill with foam to your heart's content. You'll also need to be aware that the foam expands while curing and can cause huge bulges in the cover.

A second alternative would be to acquire some large styrofoam blocks, then cut and shape them to fit the inside of the covers in the correct forms.

Either one would be pretty time consuming, and it might just be easier to wait for the new covers.

------------------
Later,
Vader
------------------
"No matter how hard you try you can't stop us now"
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0

 

My GTA nose was fine for 11 years until it was pushed into the back of a Mercury Grand Marquis(Boat anchor). It wasn't sagging or anything. As long as all of the brackets and fasteners are there and adjusted correctly, you shouldn't have problems with the nose sagging. After I put the new nose on, I popped the old one back. The shape came back except for a couple of cracks in the urethane.

89 Transam GTA, a few bolt ons