About 2 years ago I spoke to several body shop owners about the options on my original bumpers. They were aged, week and slighty showing spider cracks. Sure they could rework and fix them with bondo and resin but that took time. Time means labor and that ultimately means money. Therefore the option that made most sense was to purchase new FlexiGlass bumpers.

I called up Vol Vette and at the tme they had the best pricing including shipping. I placed an order for a front and rear Flexiglass replacement bumper. The bumpers showed up in about 3 days and over to the first body shop they went.

Now these things are supposedly to mount right up to the existing body. Well, let me tell you now, THEY DON’T. Keep in mind these are man made cars and not robot made cars. Every fiberglass body had flaws and nothing was perfect in the 70’s.

The body shop guy took off the old and mounted the news ones. Geez, now we really got some work to do.  These things had gaps and overhangs everywhere.

Notice I mentioned the ‘first body shop guy’ above. Well, this guy had health issues shortly after the bumper ordeal so I had to go pick the car up. I didn’t bother asking if the bumpers stressed him out and caused his problem. But anyway, I paid him up for the work he did and drove the car back home.

These bumpers ended up getting worked on again by my current body shop guy. In fact the bumpers alone took over 3 days to get them perfect looking. I really don’t know if there are other options to replacing your Corvette bumpers. If you go the Flexiglass route, I must warn you, expect some work to get these things looking right. I’ll upload some finished photos in about a week or so when the car comes out of the paint shop.

JF

While rebuilding the original motor in my Corvette with a one step up cam and minimal 30 over bore, I was a bit skeptical to how she would handle the temparature. I didn’t really care to replace the original radiator because overall it seemed in good shape.

Afew few road test quickly had me counting my dollars trying to figure out a reasonable way to solve my new problem. The car wanted to run right at 200 degrees on the open highway. Funny thing is, it stayed steady. To me, that was a problem.

While researching and pricing out replacements options, I came across the Direct Fit Aluminum radiator. Rik at Rik’s Corvette Parts stated thay have very good success with these models and more importantly no modification to the shroud or mounting brackets were neccessary.

The Direct Fit model was a bit more expensive than a stock OEM replacement. With the added price comes some ‘cooler’ advantages. The weight is drastically reduced and air flow is increased substantially which should help reduce temps. by 10 - 20degress.

Fortuantely I got this baby just in time for the Body Shop to swap it out before painting the car. I’ll give an update on the temperature later. Until then, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.

Today, I purchased a new replacement grille set for my 77 corvette. The original grilles were not in bad shape at all. Unfortunately plastics dries over the years and is pretty hard to refurbish. Going with new grilles definately can’t hurt the restoration project.

I purchased the grill set from Riks Vette Parts out of Morganton NC. Ric shipped the parts out the same day and they were on my doorstep in Davison, NC the next day. Pretty cool customer service if you are looking for Corvette parts.

Part # 

A2179l  Left Grill    A2179R Right Grille

Oh, BTW, I also purchased the Corvette Grille Screws set as well. part # A1626. There’s no good reason to use old screws for new parts.