Doctor DeSoto - 2010-07-11 2:02 PM

When I did my old 58 Belvedere, I removed the seemingly added-on rear center piece that holds the backup
light and rolled a new piece of sheetmetal into the center valance to try and echo the front theme at the rear. It looked GREAT !



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This was back in the early 90's, so any photos I have are hard copy and boxed away. But I'll tell you
what I did ....

The valance under that center panel curves outward to a kinda squared-off box. Not sure why they
didn't just run it in the same profile from one side to the other, but they didn't.

Having a number of these cars on the property at the time, I figured out a location where the contours
were nicely rounded between the corners and the center box-out and cut the panel out of the middle of
the keeper unit. I wanted to just use flat stock, but couldn't get the roll right without a lot of kinks, so I
cut up several stock units to get the length I needed to fill the removed section, and then stitched them
together with 3 vertical welds.

Being on an under-roll of the body, it was not too hard to grind off the rough edges and work out the
minor fills to get a decent finish. Overall, the eye was drawn to the pinched center section of the bumper
(now devoid of that off fitting flat panel) and the reworked valance just gave a smooth backdrop of conti-
nuity like up front.

I was without a backup light, but I really didn't care. They often don't work and I rarely drive that much
in reverse anyway !

dukeboy - 2010-07-14 12:05 PM

Yes, the "Bumper wing" bumpers have an extra hole on the corners, where the standard bumper doesn't..However, one can and most do drill the extra holes as to mount the wings on a bumper/bumpers that didn't originally come with them..When I got my bumpers rechromed I turned in standard bumpers and got back a rear that originally had wings and a front that didn't..All I did was drill the extra holes in the front ..Other thna the holes, the bumpers are the same..

big m - 2010-07-12 11:38 AM

I'd have to agree with Brent that about 1 in 25 cars were ordered with the wings. They were standard on Furys, many Belvederes were ordered with them, and I have even had a few Savoys that were so equipped. I've never had an entry level Plaza with wings, but they could be ordered, I'd imagine.

Before the advent of E-bay, there were not many people that knew these had value, I can recall buying bumper cores from salvage yards with wings, for $25 per bumper. Now, with the value fairly well known, I seldom find them.

---John