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Front Bumper Fitting


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Hi All

Just a bit of advice on front bumper fitting.

At the moment I cannot get the bumper to fit below the indicators, it just seems to sit too high, I can just squeeze the covers back on with the bumper loose but I’m sure if I tighten it up anymore they will crack.

The pic shows the bumper touching the indicator whilst hanging loosely. It looks like the bumper is bent but its not, there is a slight ding but the way its reflecting makes it look way worse than it is and the DS fits just a badly.

Now this seems odd as it’s the same bumper, front wings and even inner wings as when I got the car and it fitted then.

But unfortunately when I had the body off the chassis for other repairs and repaint the lower part of the front valance was damaged. So I decided to replace it, but only the lower part, so not the grille section or light bowls.

I did that by buying a whole new front panel and separating it at the spot welds. I did the same with the damaged panel and just replaced the damaged lower section. It all lined up and fitted fine so no prob until I came to fit the bumper.

Basically the bumper fits ok, the wing holes and valence holes all line up well enough to allow the bumper it fit straight but the indicators just seem to sit too low.

But that seems odd as the holes for the bumper and indicators are in the same pressing so that would need to be wrong.

So a couple of questions.

So I know what I’m aiming for what gap does everyone have between the bottom of the indicators and top of the bumper?

Given that the holes for the indicators and bumpers are in the same panel has anyone else had this fitment problem and how did you overcome it as either lowering the bumper or raising the indicators by modifying the valence panel seems a little dramatic on a freshly painted shell.

Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers

Keith

Front indicator.jpg

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Keith,

The CP series front bumper was almost an interference fit with the front indicator/side light unit. The later CR series had a strengthened bumper that sat lower and further out.

Derek

CR1973 CR1058 O.jpg

CP1971 CP54529 O 1.jpg

Edited by saffrontr
typo
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I've just changed my original bumper to stainless, which is a later version (they don't make the early type), and it does sit quite a bit further down. The previous bumper was very close to the lights. Before and after:

IMG_20190810_185503_521.thumb.jpg.c0b95f92e5fbf6f9387c9eae7d789d50.jpgIMG_20190902_180215_526.thumb.jpg.da30afdaf4ac6de3d27e54d15ac989cb.jpg

Gareth

Edited by Mk2 Chopper
Typo
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Hi Guy's

When i looked at sheldricka's photo late last night it got me really worried.

I saw from that pic that the indicator/bumper gap was 1cm+ and there is no way i can get that gap as it stands.

But and this is (hopefully) the good bit both Derek and Garethj(?) seem to indicate thet the later bumpers hang lower.

I'm assuming that Triumph would not have made changes to the panel pressings but did that by changes to the bumper brackets.

So there is hope!!!

If i can try a later bumper it might fit and give me something of a gap.

Here hoping and thanks guy's and as Waldi says isn't this a great forum, posted yesterday and pretty much answer the following day, Yeah.

Cheers Keith

 

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Mark

TBH thats was my initial thought, elongate the holes and lower the bumper a little, but i really didn't want to start cutting at my freshly painted panels, the other alternative was to hack at the bumper brackets and weld some modified ones on.

But my original bumper is pretty rough anyway, with some dings, cracked and pitted chrome so it looks like this is a great opportunity (excuse?) to fit some replacement ones.

Cheers Keith

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Hi Sean and all

Yep that was on the list of possibles i'd considered, but doing anything to my newly painted and pristine panels filled me with horror TBH.

Hopefully later bumpers with the different mounting bracket may help with the prob.

So the next question is does anyone know of any pictures of the different bracket designs. On the face of it it does seem quiet difficult to lower the bumper much with a diff bracket as the captive nut is near the top of the bracket anyway.

But not having seem the later design I’ve got no real idea.

Cheers Keith

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  • 2 years later...

You're either looking at finding a secondhand one or buying a set of front and rear stainless new ones. 

Places to find secondhand would be the many tr specialists, eBay or there are members on here who have used spares, maybe put a wanted ad on here. 

Gareth

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Hi Kelly, early ones do come up occasionally, just have to keep looking . All repo ones are the later type.

I picked a decent one from stoneleigh tr mg show which needed a re chrome, cost me about £550 all in but pleased with results. Needed a fair bit of repair work.539C5E60-E147-4354-89E3-7FAD7E44A1C0.thumb.jpeg.645712fe804a199f54d6033206c29e73.jpeg

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On 9/18/2019 at 7:05 PM, Keith66 said:

Hi All

Just a bit of advice on front bumper fitting.

At the moment I cannot get the bumper to fit below the indicators, it just seems to sit too high, I can just squeeze the covers back on with the bumper loose but I’m sure if I tighten it up anymore they will crack.

The pic shows the bumper touching the indicator whilst hanging loosely. It looks like the bumper is bent but its not, there is a slight ding but the way its reflecting makes it look way worse than it is and the DS fits just a badly.

Now this seems odd as it’s the same bumper, front wings and even inner wings as when I got the car and it fitted then.

But unfortunately when I had the body off the chassis for other repairs and repaint the lower part of the front valance was damaged. So I decided to replace it, but only the lower part, so not the grille section or light bowls.

I did that by buying a whole new front panel and separating it at the spot welds. I did the same with the damaged panel and just replaced the damaged lower section. It all lined up and fitted fine so no prob until I came to fit the bumper.

Basically the bumper fits ok, the wing holes and valence holes all line up well enough to allow the bumper it fit straight but the indicators just seem to sit too low.

But that seems odd as the holes for the bumper and indicators are in the same pressing so that would need to be wrong.

So a couple of questions.

So I know what I’m aiming for what gap does everyone have between the bottom of the indicators and top of the bumper?

Given that the holes for the indicators and bumpers are in the same panel has anyone else had this fitment problem and how did you overcome it as either lowering the bumper or raising the indicators by modifying the valence panel seems a little dramatic on a freshly painted shell.

Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers

Keith

Front indicator.jpg

My TR is a 1973 CR type with extended mounting brackets to meet the 5MPH crash rule in the USA. Although it is a UK car and I have just under 1" gap between bottom of lens and top of bumper.

Bruce.

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On 10/23/2021 at 11:32 PM, Mark69 said:

Hi Kelly, early ones do come up occasionally, just have to keep looking . All repo ones are the later type.

I picked a decent one from stoneleigh tr mg show which needed a re chrome, cost me about £550 all in but pleased with results. Needed a fair bit of repair work.539C5E60-E147-4354-89E3-7FAD7E44A1C0.thumb.jpeg.645712fe804a199f54d6033206c29e73.jpeg

In the summer I sold a later type front bumper with near perfect chrome and no rust inside to a fellow TR owner who wouldn't pay me 200, so I had to agree to less! 

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