I wish I had a bumper to copy, stainless all the way and a good polish.
bump for a CAD drawing.

 

Where are you working Andrew?

 

theres a lad in the uk who is making his own up and used solidworks to recreate them. might be worth asking if he'd share his blueprints.

http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?na...er&start=60

 

hasn't Danny a set for sale on the facebooks ?

 

The difficulty is not the bending of the bumper shape but the curve.

Then getting it polished, there are not many places in Ireland to polish stainless to a good finish as it's labour intensive. OMC would probably be the best place to start.

Danny's bumpers are sold

 

I've a rear sitting there if anyone wants to copy it. I'll swap if for a new one

 

Is there much of a curve to the bumpers?
Only the front one is curved or both?

If Im getting these made up- I would only have the facility to make a flat bumper.

 

Both are curved.

 

How much of a curve is in them? A pass through a roll bender might sort the curve

 

Big enough curve in the front one, rear not as curved

 

If you had an english wheel and the necessary dies made up to replicate the middle recessed bit, as well as rolling that in, id say you could replicate the curve in the bumper with enough 'passes'...
There are plans online for making your own english wheel (had it saved to fav's at one time), but i think theres companies in US that sell small basic ones cheap enough.

Gixer750 told me, when i met him one time selling him bits, that he made his own mk1 stainless earley bumper; Im not sure if it had the curve in it - it was for his caddy; later sold to conord, so he might be know...

 

QUOTE (BLZEEDUB @ Mar 27 2012, 10:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If you had an english wheel and the necessary dies made up to replicate the middle recessed bit, as well as rolling that in, id say you could replicate the curve in the bumper with enough 'passes'...

the sides of the "U" shape, i.e. the upper and lower faces of the bumper would pucker and ripple as you stretched the centre face to get the curve going.

if you had the basic shape folded up you would have to "shrink" the upper and lower faces to achieve a curve. As those sides shrink, they'll pull the front face into a curve handy enough.

easy when you say it fast, this kind of thing takes master craftsmen years to develop a "feel" for. It's no accident that these were popped out on massive hydraulic presses in the factory and not individually hand made. I know they look pretty simple lumps of metal at a quick glance but trying to replicate one would be like trying to reinvent the wheel.

It might be cheaper to sit tight til a nice used set come up, swallow hard and pony up the cash...

 

What about getting a sheet of stainless and rolling in the centre channel and then fold both edges with a folding machine/brake press. One of the places making cladding might be able to do the "blanks" with the centre done on their profiling machine and then it'd be just a case of folding top and bottom?

You could do a bumper in two parts (top being mirror image of bottom) and then weld together and polish the join out? Or even 3 pieces, ie front top and bottom, using a brake press to shape the front and weld the top and bottom to that? Or create a jig/mandrel that would shape a bumper say a couple inches deeper (to accout for shrinkage) and either roll the channel into the centre or press it in..

Either way won't get the curve/bend but you could use spacers at the brackets to make the bumper sit our a little if needed, or leave top and bottom a little deeper and trim to match the bodywork, might have to alter or make new corner pieces though..

 

QUOTE the sides of the "U" shape, i.e. the upper and lower faces of the bumper would pucker and ripple as you stretched the centre face to get the curve going.

if you had the basic shape folded up you would have to "shrink" the upper and lower faces to achieve a curve. As those sides shrink, they'll pull the front face into a curve handy enough

Yeah, your right, thinking about it again now, the 'foled edges'/sides of the metal would 'pucker up', and you'd have to heat and hammer that to shrink it down.
In all its proberley labour intensive process, alright... the other 'pikey way' would be many relief cuts along the top n bottom 'folded edges' which you'd have to weld back up, but again its labour intensive...

 

Lads i work with would do this no problem. one chap is a gifted fabricator only problem is the labour costs to have someone like that on it. You can get stainless to a mirror type finish and your best option is electropolishing. If you had a bumper you would draw it on solidworks in an hour very easily.

Have ye got pictures of a stainless bumper? im unsure on how it would look.

 

I could bang up solid works drawings of a rear bumper next week