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 Rehabbing a 1956 Dodge front bumper - some hintsJump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [50 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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56D500boy |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9900     Location: Lower Mainland BC | . This is a follow-on from a previous thread about rehabbing a rear bumper, the rear bumper guards and license plate light sockets. REFERENCE: http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=75856&... Doing the front bumper is much the same, perhaps easier, because there are no electrical connections to worry about. The process starts the same: Remove the bumper. In this case, there are six bolts: One outboard "show" bumper bolt (with stainless steel cover) at each end. One stud at the back of each of the two bumper guards and two bolts that are exposed when you remove the bumper guard. All of the nuts and bolts are 1/2" x NC13 and require a 3/4" socket, preferably a deep socket and/or extension for your ratchet (or breaker bar). I had started this project by spraying the nuts and exposed threads with Moovit the day before to hopefully loosen the nut that may have never been off the car in 65 years (in my car's case). The bumper bolts are basically carriage bolts with a square shank where the bolt goes through a square(ish) hole in the bumper. The nuts came off the bumper guard studs reasonably easily. The nuts came off 3 of the 4 bolts reasonably easily too. However, the 4th nut, on one of the fancy stainless steel-covered bumper bolts, would not come off. I ended up using my Dremel with an EZ-lock cut-off wheel to cut off the head of the bumper bolt after I was able to get some clearance between the bolt head and the bumper. (I protected the bumper chrome with masking tape to prevent scratching. Once everything was off I used a portable drill and wire wheel to remove the surface rust hidden on the back side of the bumper (and the bumper guards). Then I wiped the rust dust out and "painted" the partially cleaned surface with SEM "Rust Mort" (probably phosphoric acid). Once that was dry, I spray painted the back side of the bumper and the guards with Tremclad and/or Rustoleum metal paint to further protect the item from future rusting from the back. While the paint on the bumper and guards was drying, I turned my attention to the "radiator stone deflector" (the metal panel behind the bumper that runs all the way back to the radiator - to protect the radiator from rocks bouncing up and piercing the core). I had previously sanded, primed and painted the horizontal surface of this deflector but not the down-turned vertical lip (about 5/8" wide) that is hidden when the bumper is in place. There was a little surface rust and a couple of very small sections of bubbling on the edge of the stone deflector. All of those issues were cured with a couple of rounds of 150 grit, 220 grit and 400 grit sand paper. This lead to some exposed bare metal so the SEM Rust Mort was used again. While that was drying, I gave the back of the bumper and the bumper guards another coat of TremClad. Somewhere about then, I wire brushed (wire wheel in my drill) the two bumper brackets and then painted them with TremClad Professional Semi-gloss black rust paint. I like that stuff. It dries very quickly and looks good (enough for me). With the Rust Mort dry on the stone deflector, I taped off the deflector about 2" from the vertical lip and using my favourite Cherrios cereal box as a paint shield, I sprayed the forward area of the deflector with a high build primer. The primer was a bit "chunky" so I had to knock it down with 220 and 400 grit sandpaper. In a couple areas, I got a bit too aggressive with the sanding (even with 220) and burned through primer back to the bare metal. (Duh) So I sprayed those areas with primer again and, when they were dry, I gently sanded the area, taking care not to go through the primer. Once I was happy with the primer sanding, I wiped the area down and sprayed it with the colour-matched light blue spray paint. I think I did two or three coats with very little time in between (it was a very hot day). Somehow I avoided my usual trick of spraying too much on the second coats causing it to attack the first coat and crinkling the paint. Either I got smart or lucky but no crinkling this time.  While waiting for the light blue paint to dry, I wire brushed the threads on the bolts (and studs) and I was going to reuse and then I ran a 1/2" x NC 13 die over the the threads to really clean them up. The two bolts that hide under the bumper guards got paint (more Tremclad). In prep for the re-install, I had found and bought two new Dorman brand bumper bolts (No. 45370). They are 1/2" x NC13 x 1.5" with the square shank and a stainless steel cover. (And alternative would be a 1/2" x NC 13 stainless steel carriage bolt that you would polish the head to make it look like chrome). Re-assembly is pretty straight forward. The bumper is disappointingly light (relatively thin (1/8") metal) so sitting at the front of the car you can easily lift the bumper into place and slip in the four carriage bolts. I used new lock washers and re-used cleaned and painted OE nuts (even on the new DORMAN bumper bolts). In my particular case, I had to fuss a bit to push the bumper as far to the passenger side as possible and lock it down before I installed the two bumper guards. I think that the car might have been hit on the front corner at some point in the past because I only have about 1/8" clearance between the bumper and the stone shield on the passenger side and about 5/8" on the drivers side. I need to pursue a way to remedy that so the spacing is more even. Here are some photos, staring with one from August 2019 (two years ago) so you can compare it do the final photo (that I took today) to show what an utter waste of time it all was. Nobody except me can "see" the difference  At least I know that things are better (even if you can't see it).  Added bonus is I guess some of those bumper bolts were loose (or something) because there are fewer rattles now going over significant bumps in the road. Edited by 56D500boy 2021-08-14 10:48 AM (DaveFs56CRD500Sedan_Aug22_2019_1_small.jpg) (1956DodgeFrontBumperAndBumpGuardsAfterWireBrushingSEMRustMortAndTremCladPaint.jpg) (1956DodgeWithBumperRemovedToAllowMinorFixesAndPaintingOfTheStoneDeflectorPanel.jpg) (Dorman45370BumperBolts.jpg) (DormanBumperBoltSizingVsPN_small.jpg) (1956DodgeWithBumperReinstalledWithNewHardware.jpg) Attachments ----------------  DaveFs56CRD500Sedan_Aug22_2019_1_small.jpg (246KB - 81 downloads) 1956DodgeFrontBumperAndBumpGuardsAfterWireBrushingSEMRustMortAndTremCladPaint.jpg (184KB - 73 downloads) 1956DodgeWithBumperRemovedToAllowMinorFixesAndPaintingOfTheStoneDeflectorPanel.jpg (183KB - 72 downloads) Dorman45370BumperBolts.jpg (27KB - 74 downloads) DormanBumperBoltSizingVsPN_small.jpg (110KB - 77 downloads) 1956DodgeWithBumperReinstalledWithNewHardware.jpg (178KB - 78 downloads) | ||
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| dels56 |
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Extreme Veteran Posts: 351  | |||
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| 56D500boy |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9900 Location: Lower Mainland BC | dels56 - 2021-08-14 5:32 PM Getting prettier by the day. I can’t keep up to you. Thanks Del (even if it isn't true). I just broke off a bolt at the bottom of the right front fender, nice and deep in the frame (or something). Now I am in a(nother) world of hurt. (I just wanted to install a missing (for how long?) fender washer under that bolt head. I don't know my own strength. (LOL) I see an "Easy (not)" out in my future (if I can get a drill bit up there). | ||
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