Post #200 - DONE!

Dateline - 10/27/2018 - I just noticed that this is Post #200 in my blog, and it just so happens that this is also, what I consider, the LAST post of the restomod!  Yup!  I put the bumpers and the nameplates on this weekend, and now, I can officially say that the car is 99.9% done!  You really can't ask for more then that on a restomod because there will always be some tuning, shakeout and slight tweaks to be made.  But, for I'm calling it done!  So there!

So, bumpers.  This turned into an all day affair on Saturday.  I ended up needing to get all new hardware, so several runs to the local hardware store were in order.  I started with the front, since that appeared to be the easiest.  The bumper is held on by two large nuts that screw onto studs in the front of the car.  There is a steel bracket that mounts to the bumper and also holds the front over rider in place.  The over rider has a rubber strip that fits between it and the bumper.  Fortunately, I had purchased that a couple of years back, so it just required cutting and fitting.  Once I got the bumper together, it was a simple process of fitting it on the car and bolting it down.  Easy!  Here are pictures of the front bumper in pieces and together.

Parts for the front bumper

Front bumper bracket and over rider installed

Next was the back bumper.  This turned out to be more of a challenge.  On this bumper the over riders bold on to the bumper with a spacer behind the bumper. Not too hard.  There are also brackets that fit on the sides of the bumper that also bolt to the car.  I put those on the car first so that they could support the bumper as I put it on. Now I put liberal amounts of masking tape on the car body to keep from scratching the paint and started fitting the bumper. 

Parts for the back bumper

The bumper mounts to the back of the car with two 2.5 in, 1/2 x 20 thread bolts that screw right into the body.  The hard part is that there needs to be spacers in between the bumper and the body to align it correctly.  The car originally had a rubber 3/4" hard rubber doughnut on each side, but I only had one from the original and these are no longer made.  So I used flat washers instead.  But the car had been hit from behind in its past so getting the correct number of washers in pace was a serious challenge.  Finally, after about an hour of fiddling, I finally got the back bolts in place. 

But the challenges didn't stop there.  I didn't know it, but the brackets that mounted on the side of the car are side specific (one was modified by the body shop as part of the rear end repair!), and of course, I put them on the wrong side.  I did have a 50/50 chance!  AND, I had completely fitted one side, which worked fine, before I found out that they were side specific.  So I had to undo the one I had just finished to swap things around!  Another hour gone!

Next it was time to install the license plate light on the bumper.  I'm not going to use this light, opting for the lights in the plate bolts that I had purchased, so this is just being used to plug the hole in the bumper.  I had found on ebay an good light housing and internals, and the lens from the one on the car was in good shape, so I put the two together got one good light.  I mounted that with a piece of rubber channel gasket between it and the bumper, and it looks like factory!

Finally, I put the Jaguar and V8 / 350 badges on the car.  I had these mounted before I had the paint redone, but I'm glad I took them off because I had them centered on the sides and it didn't look very good, so this time I favored the outside edge of the trunk, which looks a lot better.  It's subtle, but makes a difference.

Sunday was overcast and rainy, but I did get a clear moment to put the car in the driveway and take some pictures.  Here they are: