Bumper irons

I'm having trouble mounting the SS bumpers bought earlier this year. Nothing wrong with the bumpers, but I suspect that the front irons I have are not the correct ones for my car. - the depth of the iron is wrong compared with the mark in the underseal where the original one once was and the rear of the iron is at too steep and angle for the car body Mine is a '69 model year (B20b twin carb) - the irons I have (see attached pic) may be from an earlier car. Does anyone know whether the bumper iron pattern was changed during the production run? If such changes were made does anyone have a set of front irons that would go with my car? 222s - thanks for your comments (I have re-posted this on the general 1800 / amazon board as I originally posted it under "sales")

Alan, Might not be your irons that are at fault. I think the later ones had a very slight step on the bottom, but from what I remember they are interchangeable (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I had quite a fiddle fitting the S/S bumpers to a P1800 and in the end used some shims and washers to get a good fit. I also had to drill out one of the bumper iron holes quite a bit using a drill saw to get the holes to line up. You'll get there, they just need a bit of fettling. It's a good idea to mask the areas on the pollished surfaces that connect with some light tape to protect the finish. Having said all this, I've found even fitting original re-chromed sets have been just as much of a fiddle at times. Let us know how you get on. Gordon

Gordon, I was coming to the conclusion that drills, spacers, cutters and grinders might be the order of the day. I can envisage that the car will have to go on stands so that I can get in to drill the appropriate holes in either the chassis legs or the irons (or maybe both) in order to get them to fit. I had a similar problem fitting the SS set onto the rear of Judith's Karmann Ghia. If only a previous owner hadn't lost / misplaced the original bumper irons.............. I'll let you know how it pans out - but don't hold your breath Alan

Alan I also bought a set of s/s bumpers for my '66 P1800S. The rear ones fitted the irons like a glove but, I needed to drill out the front irons at the bumper mounts and use shims to get a good fit. The front bumper iron in your photo is the same as mine and, I believe, correct for the later flat bumpers (the cowhorn bumpers have different shaped irons). As one of my front irons had been damaged in a shunt, I had to fit a replacement and then fiddle around before everything would line up. Not sure why you would want to drill out the chassis rail (unless the rail has been damaged) as the iron fixing holes are pre-drilled. As Gordon says, I'm sure you get there with a bit of drilling and shimming. Cheers Paul

Just to clarify about the irons, I was a bit unclear in my other post in refering to the 'later cars' In essence meant later than Allan's which I thought was a Swedish built car. As paul says, don't drill the chassis rail as there is a captive nut in there. Gordon