Modify US bumpers to Euro style

[DanielG]

Lowmile--

It is a small world -- I see your car almost every day -- well, a reaonable facsimile -- my 560sl is Champagne Gold -- so it gave me great pleasure to see your progress and the final outcome of your SL. Mine is parked daily at the Highland Park train station -- west side. It has become my spring/summer/fall car.

[DanielG]

Congratulations on your win!

[domchang]

For those of you who are interested in this thread, here's a cut/paste of an email I got from the gentleman who actually did this to his W116. He had posted the details originally on mbz.org but that dissapeared when they had hard drive issues.

The author is trying to recover the original step by step procedures from a computer that's been having issues so I can't post them yet.

Here's what he sent me in terms of a summary of what he did and links to pics of his W116 with the bumpers "collapsed" closer to the body and "shortened" rubber bumper ends.

quote:

The bumper project did go well and I wrote an article about it that disappeared in a www.mbz.org computer crash and was not recovered. My copy of the article is in the same computer here as the original pictures. I haven't been able to get that machine working yet.

Here's a summary:

Remove the bumper shocks.
Drill into them to release the oil and pressure. (Be careful and use good eye protection, it will spray out pretty much.)
Disassemble the shocks, cut a section out, probably about 2 inches, and then reassemble.
Either drill a hole all the way through and put a bolt through or tap threads into the hole for a bolt to hold the shortened shock solidly in the shortened position.
Reassemble.

For the rubber ends, cut a section out of the middle where the contour is pretty straight and then glue the two pieces together with that section removed. The tip section will probably not line up perfectly but you should be able to get it pretty close when you reattach the tip to the main part of the end. Make the two cuts as parallel as possible and you shouldn't have to do much adjusting. I drilled some small holes in the cut end surfaces and used some pieces of welding rod or coat hanger wire to keep the pieces aligned while the glue cured and reinforce the connection. I forget exactly what type of cement I used but it was some sort of glue made for rubber that was very strong.

In this picture you can see the seam. http://www.studio280.com/bumper/bp4.jpg --especially when it is this muddy. When it is clean it is not so obvious. It's not exactly perfect but it's not that noticeable and the overall improvement that the shortened bumper makes is worth it. Just take your time and make clean straight cuts with a hack saw and you should be able to do a good job.

Good luck,

Colin

end quote

here's pics:

http://www.studio280.com/bumper/bp1.jpg
http://www.studio280.com/bumper/bp2.jpg
http://www.studio280.com/bumper/bp3.jpg
http://www.studio280.com/bumper/bp4.jpg
http://www.studio280.com/280image3.htm

[tan man]

thats a great side by side headlight picture, what better way to compare!
i read a post long ago that 1968-69 camaro bumpers are a dead on match for the sl.
jack