Thread: How to tuck in your front bumper on a model A Ford

Tweet

I bought a very nice model A bumper and brackets for the front of the roadster pickup, and when I bolted them on, it kinda looked like Pinocchio. With the stock bumper brackets in place, there is 6 1/2" from the front tires to the inside of the bumper, and the bumper sets out 18 friggin inches from the front of the 32 grill shell. Now I have looked at about a thousand pictures on the net, and the most appealing model A's either have no bumpers, or nerf bars, or else the bumper sets much closer to the front end sheet metal than stock. Up here in Canada the local authoritys get kinda hinky about issuing a safety certificate if you don't have a front bumper----So----gather round kiddies for another one of my "how to" stories. Measurements show that the maximum amount of "flat" area (as in uncurved) on the bumper brackets is about 3 1/2", so we are going to do some serious sectioning, and tuck that bumper in about 3 1/2" closer to the front of the car.----stay tuned.

And this is where we are going to remove a peice of bumper bracket.

So far----so good---but Oh My Gawd that stuff is hard steel. I set it up in my big reciprocating hacksaw and let it saw away for half an hour, and all it did was rip off the paint and then wore all the teeth off the industrial hacksaw blade. I ended up cutting it with a 3" diameter abrasive wheel in my pneumatic grinder.---I can see where this is going to have to be jigged up properly and then pre-heated really good before I start welding it. I haven't done this before, so its "figure it out as I go".

Since there are a lot of rather complex angles on these brackets which I want to keep, while still shortening them by 3 1/2", I made up this simple jig to hold everything in the correct angular relationships before tackwelding them together. Once they are tacked together in 3 or 4 places with my 110 volt mig welder, I will remove the peices from the jig and take them over to my welding area where they will be preheated with oxy acetylene, then stick welded with my 220 volt Lincoln stick welder, to ensure thorough weld penetration.

Brian,

As a machine designer, I'm sure you know this, but those brackets tend to be a second cousin to spring steel, so they ARE hard to cut. With the welding killing the temper, you might want to avoid hitting anything.

Henry Rifle---I know that. I am sacrificing the strength of spring steel for the sake of cosmetics. On the other hand, if I run into anything with a roadster pickup, is it going to ultimately make any difference?

is it going to ultimately make any difference?

There ya go . . .

And there we are. I preheated the 2 peices to be welded to a dull cherry red, then immediately welded them solid using 1/8" diameter #6011 rod at 120 Amps. I did not notice any undue "spitting" or exploding" like I had been warned about when welding spring steel. Once the welds were completed, I let them air cool so as not to induce any cracks in the weld or the parent metal. I think they look great, and the next (and last) picture I post will show the shortened brackets and the bumper in place on the car.

Wow---I'm impressed. The bumper looks a ton better pulled in closer to the body.---You may ask "why am I doing this when I am supposed to be prepping everything for final paint?"---Well its because the bumper brackets have to be painted when I paint everything else, and I sure as heck couldn't modify them after the paint is on them. The only part of the operation that I didn't show is at the rear of the brackets---when mounted on the car they interfere slightly with the repop front fender supports. I didn't want to mess with the fender supports, so I trimmed about 1/2" off the rear of the bumper brackets, and I am going to have to use a carbide drill and put one new 17/32" hole in the rear of each bracket and drill the frame for new rear bumper bracket bolts. If I had been running the original Henry style fender brackets, I wouldn't have had to do this.

Well Brian, as usual you did a nice job, BUT(!) if you drop a plumb line off the front of each front fender it looks to me that the line will fall forward of the bumper and not really provide protection to the 'glass fenders. I admit the bumper looks too far out in the middle, but since the ends are bent back the bumper needs to be further front to provide protection to the front edge of the front fenders. I think the bumpers are one of the few ugly features of the Model-A and I would prefer to leave them off, but with a fiberglass body and fenders it looks to me that the bumper needs to be way out front to prevent cracking the front fenders. I do agree your final result looks very good, but maybe a 2" cut might be better for the fender protection? I could not see how this worked out until you showed the picture with the bumper mounted but now it looks about 1" back too far to save the fenders. Just my humble opinion. On the other hand do like the folks do who have no bumper at all, just don't bump anything! I am probably going to use a straight front bumper on both front and rear of my 'glass A, not for looks, but just to protect the 'glass.

Don Shillady
Retired SCientist/teen rodder

Good eye Don---your right. The thing is, that bumper is only on there to appease the authorities, not for protection. As far as damaging glass fenders as opposed to damaging steel fenders, there isn't much difference----a steel fender wont take being jammed up against something solid any better than a glass one will. I have been fortunate in the fact that I have never bumped into anything with a hotrod.---Sad fact is that if your going more than 10 miles an hour when you do, it won't make much difference where the bumper sets in relationship to the fenders.