Bumper height

I have assemble the front bumpers (sorry fenders) and to my mind they look a little high.

The top of the bumper is level with the bottom of the horn grilles.

How do these two line up on other cars? Or is it just how the slots were cut?

I have also noticed a couple of people have seals on the body where the bumper supports go through the fibreglass. I was going to buy some VW seals for this purpose, but there are two different ones depending on model year. Anyone know which would be the right ones to use (2" slot height)?

Cheers,

Jim.

Yup,

The bumper's way to high for an early Speedster. The rubber gaskets that you want would come from an early Beetle, 1967 and down. I'm using gaskets from a 1971 Karmann Ghia.

The only problem will be in trimming the back of them to fit, A SMALL PROBLEM. The gaskets are made to fit to body thickness metal, not 1/8 to 1/4 inch fiberglass. You have to trim the lip off of the back side and "Goop" them in place.

Luck,

TC

I used the same gaskets as TC, trimmed the excess material off the back, and then "glued" them onto the bumper mounting brackets with clear Silicon caulk - works nicely.

I also squished a bunch of caulk into the hole where the bracket goes through the body, effectively filling the void and making a shock absorber for the mounting bracket. Before that, I would get annoying vibration from the bracket moving back and forth in the opening. The caulk filled the void and is still pliable, AND I then caulked the decorative gasket right to the bracket and caulk filler.

gn

Gord; that's exactly how VS does it at the factory...that's a nice coincidence.

So what distance should there be between the top of the bumper and the bottom of the horn grille?

My only concern is if I start cutting the slots in the body to make them longer and drop the bumper that even with the rubber seal on top the top of the slot will be seen.

What is the total height of the gasket where it contacts the fibreglass? If needs be I can use a taller bracket than the VW (if I can find one) to cover the slot in the body, and I can live with a longer slot in the seal than the height of the bumper support bracket.

Cheers,

Jim.

One of the VW bumper mount gaskets (sorry, can't remember which one) has the opening offset high or low depending on how you mount them, giving a bit of excess rubber on the "long" side - that might help if you have to drop things down. Maybe Glenn Pablo can help with which one.....

gn

I have pulled the front bumper apart (again) with the intention of cutting new slots in the body to lower the mounts down about 1". This looks to be about the right sort of height.

Looking at the photo in the classifieds forum of the black CMC has got me thinking about another issue I am trying to tackle - namely how do the horn grille and light bezel fit together.

From trying to match up the two parts together it looks like the bezel of the light should really sit on top of the horn grille as the radii of the light and the grille scallop seem almost identical. MY question is this - the rubber seal that is supposed to go behind the light isn't thick enough to hold the light above the grille (i.e. it is thinner than the grille in profile).

So do I build up the rubber seal with a couple of layers? Which could potentially look a bit naff. Or something else?

I have found the seal that goes behind both the grille and the light ($12 from Tweeks), but this appears to be of uniform thickness and so wouldn't even help with pushing the light away from the body and infront of the grille.

Help! Has anyone encountered this as well? I was even considering taking a Dremel to the horn grille in an attempt to relieve the scalloped area and increase the radius so that the light fit flush.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice.

Jim.

Jim wrote a lot of stuff - too much to include here...

Jim: I used the "signal Stat" light bezel that came with my CMC, but used a repro-vintage (plastic) beehive lens from Tweeks, along with the horn grill/light rubber body seal, also from Tweeks. The light bezel fits just inside of the horn grill radius, and on top of the rubber seal. The lens fits inside of the bezel, but needs to have new foam rubber seals made to make it fit inside the bezel correctly AND center it inside the bezel. Not a big deal, and I used 1/8" foam stuff from Staples for those seals.

I've attached a picture of the finished assembly from the garage moments ago for perspective. If you need more shots/different angles, just let me know (it's a wonderous, electronic age we live in)

Gordon

Gordon,

Thanks for the quick feedback. I too agree about the wonderful world of technology.

I think that I am seeing the picture here. The bezels on the lights I am using are rounded in section and not square. The rounded bezel is about 1mm larger in diameter than the square ones I have that came with the kit.

It is obviously this slight difference that is causing this problem.

I have seen other cars with the same lights as mine, however, so I'm sure that others have come up against this before and triumphed.

It's also about 25C in my garage right now and I am freezing!

Jim.

Gordon,

You go through all that trouble of mixing and matching and even go to Tweeks for "original" 356 pieces and STILL leave that raggedy-ass fiberglass edge showing through the horn grill?!?!?! Get out a dremel and trim that thing!

Sounds like something I might yell to my wife at the start of bikini season . . .

:)

Mr. Evil:

I'll have you know that I did a PRISTINE job of cutting the hole for the horn grill, to the point of using a medium-speed rotary rasp to get it to fit the grill lip JUST SO!

What you see in that photo, my astute and artistic friend, is the raggedy-ass slag of the raggedy-ass Horn Grill that came in the raggedy-ass kit from CMC! You can't see the pristine, Mother-of-Pearl fiberglass edge because the rubber gasket is covering it.

AND........I didn't Dremel the raggedy-ass slag off the horn grill because they chrome plated right over it. If I Dremel it off, then the damn thing will RUST (much sooner) . It was bad enough that I noticed that both grills are starting to pit a lot!!

Cheap foreign imitations - shoulda gone German!!

Gordon
One of the "Speedstah Guys" from Beaufort, SC

BTW: How's the Outlaw coming? Any pictures yet?

"You can't see the pristine, Mother-of-Pearl fiberglass edge because the rubber gasket is covering it."

Of Course! I should have realized that I couldn't POSSIBLY be looking at the fiberglass edge, the gasket would be obscuring it!

My bad! I'll keep a look out for some horn grills for you. I need a set myself so I'm looking al the time.

The Outlaw is in the shop having the trans replaced with a short axle (I need the additional room for the wheels/tires) poor-man's-posi, freeway flyer unit. While it's there, I'm spending weekends playing with the body on the 914. There's a dent behind the driver's door that needs to be massaged out , and a tiny it of rust under the hood gasket towards the bottom edges.

LOVE the photo of your new place! :)

TC