Any ideas for small bumpers? I only own the car for 4 days and I'm already tired of these HUGE bumpers. I want to change,... cut, remove them... ugly!

 

You are not the only one! This was posted before by "Scott" , I saved it so I can put it up for you. I'll be doing the conversion/fix myself next fall.


geneo
Coverting american style bumpers to "european"





Am I the only one who does not care for the fact the Jags made for the US have bumpers that stick out about 2 feet? Well I decided to try and "pull them in" with success.

If you are thinking about or want to do this, here are the steps I took.

1. Remove the front turn signal bulbs from their lens/Disconnect horn wire/ground.

2. Remove the black rubber/plastic cover on the bumper.

3. Remove the two 19mm nut/bolt that hold the aluminum bumper to the pistons.

4. The easy part is over. Now you have to get the two nuts off the back of each piston (near the radiator support). These nuts are thin and hard to get to. I was able to do it with a regular sized 17mm open end wrench but I would suggest finding a shorter one that is hinged. This is the hardest part of the job.

4. Once the nuts are removed, I had to put a long screwdriver on the bumper side of these pistons to wiggle them out of their rubber boot. Use anti seize or silicone spray when refitting.

5. Now with the pistons out, you need to remove the little nut on the metal stud sticking out of the back side. Then unscrew the outer part of the piston off that metal stud. Now with the whole stud exposed you will see that is only threaded part of the way down. You need to extend those threads all the way down so the outer part of the piston will move lower thus "shortening" the piston.

6. Take an m10 with 1.0 pitch die and thread the stud all the way down. I did this without any problems.

7. Screw the outer part of the piston back on all the way down. I used anti seize as well. This is tiring, just FYI.

8. Now you have a shorter piston but a longer stud. I measured the reveal I wanted and cut the overall length of the piston to 10" minus the width of the nut. You may want a different measurement so this is for example purposes only.

9. When cutting off the stud, I threaded the die onto it first so that I could clean up the threads after the cut.

10. Once they both are cut to length, slide the pistons back into their hole and put the nuts back on. Be aware, the drivers side you can start by hand but the passenger side you will have to use a magnet or get someone with smaller hands to help.

11. Reassemble the bumper/horn/turn signal.

My bumper now sticks out about 1 3/4 inches in the middle and about 3/8 on either end. I was not able to take pics of the process but I can post on of the finished product and post.

I plan on doing this to the back bumper as well. Will post pics at that time.

If you have any questions, post them here.

Scott

 

Repoduction Euro bumpers are still available. There are some major differences in USA and Euro cars so its not an easy conversion, In the front, you'll need Euro hood hinges, Euro lower valiance and Euro lower front grill. You will alos need Series 2 Euro turning lamps which are very hard to find. On the back side you'll need to cut off the USA bumper shocks then fabricate a patch and simple threaded rod type of mount for the rear bumper. I've converted my car so I have 1st hand experience at this.

Jaguar XJ6 XJ12 Series 2 Bumper Kit New | eBay

 

UK spec hood hinges are really hard to find. My car is an Australian export car so it's already kitted out properly but I may have a spare set from my my parts car I had over there. I think I have a spare set of turn signal assemblies too...
I will dig through my pile 'o' goodies.

 

WOW! thanks guys I was not sure if I could fit the small bumpers without a dramatic modification. It looks doable. These ebay bumpers are 1600 bucks!! They must be my birthday present though, lol.


PS. I wouldn't offend anybody... I'm very picky to preserve the cars originality but SORRY this piece of rubber block on the front of my car... is TOO MUCH for me. Plus somebody add two buzzers under the bumper, OMG!


For the next coming days I'm going to investigate the mechanic issues of my engine (I hope is nothing serious) and then cosmetic. I'm still having a tone of work.


Debbie

 

[QUOTE
PS. I wouldn't offend anybody... I'm very picky to preserve the cars originality but SORRY this piece of rubber block on the front of my car... is TOO MUCH for me.[/QUOTE]

In my opinion, you ARE preserving originality! These cars weren't meant to have a rubber sofa out front and back, smaller headlights, or side marker lights, or chrome latches on the windscreen for that matter. It was the US gub'mint that mandated all of that nonsense.
The XJ has very clean lines interrupted by these "attachments". If it matters, keep all of the original goodies.

 

Really? Do you have an extra set of small hinges? If not I'm going to fabricate them. Does anybody has a picture of them? THANKS!!

 

Sorry Debbie! I didn't see this post. I will try and find the goodies this weekend. I'll let you know what turns up.

 

Here is the company that manufactures the front/rear bumpers.
Originals would be very expensive to locate, ship and re-plate.
This bumper set is really a great deal.

Jaguar XJ6 Series 1 Bumpers | Harrington Group

 

Ok, I've just the Euro hinges and the Euro signal lights. I'm going to modify the lower front grill and fabricate my own. The valance is going to be modified as well.

Thanks, Debbie.

 

Hi Debbie,
How is your bumper conversion coming along??

 

Hi Giovanni,


This week we've painted the hood, the trunk, gas tank covers, front fenders and also the new hinges and all the accessories. So the paint job is done. Hopefully I'm going to start the bumpers job in two-three weeks.
I'll keep you post it!!


Debbie.

 

I'm very interested in your conversion.
I have bought the front valance, Euro bonnet hinges.
Just need the Harrington stainless steel bumpers and lower front grille.
Does someone have detailed photos of the rear bumper retrofit?
It would be interesting to find out the weight reduction, after the conversion.
I'm guessing around 100Lbs. for the front/rear conversion.....

 

Can anyone say whether the S1 and S2 bumpers are interchangeable.

It seems possible to find a set of S1 bumpers pre 74 and I'm wondering if they are a direct replacement.

 

Unfortunately not, because you'll need a whole lot more to fit S1 bumpers, like new hood, new wings, new front valance, and new radiator grill. The S2s were really different to the S1s. It was the raising of the bumper height that did it.