International Lancia Forums

OK,

So someone thought it was a good idea to make stainless steel bumpers out of a grade of stainless that seems prone to corrosion, and then made them even better by making the mouting brackets mild steel, in a move guaranteed to make restoration 35 years later a nightmare.

What advice can anyone offer me on making good bumpers that look OK, but are starting to corrode where the brackets are welded to the stainless? Is it a metter of spliting the welds, and fabricating new brackets? Has anyone tried this?

Or has someone got some very tidy series 2 bumbers they would like to sell?

Thanks Chris

Chris

There are two problems with S2 Fulvia bumpers, firstly the fixings for the rubbing strips rust making them impossible to remove and secondly as you state, the mild steel mounting rust out. In my experience the bumpers themselves are fairly good, prone to staining but not corroding.

In answer to your question, I fabricated new mounts for both the front and back bumpers on my car. I ground the old mounts off along the welds and fabricated new mounts from 3mm stainless steel sheet, using cardboard templates. M10 bolts were welded to the back of the brackets to replace the captive nuts. I then welded these back on to the bumper using mild steel MIG wire along the original weld lines. When welding you have to take it very slowly and avoid melting the bumper face or rubbing strip (if fitted).

Once completed I polished the bumpers with a standard metal polishing mop kit back to a mirror finish.

Hope this is of help and good luck

Julian