Project Porsche 914 | Bumper Fitment
Words & Photography Luke Ray
Pop open a cold one, it’s time to celebrate a milestone… The bodywork is pretty much complete. The last big slog was to get the new fibreglass bumpers and front lower valance fitted up. I’ll be honest, it took much more work than I was anticipating.
I decided to opt for new pieces from GT Racing in the States. Whilst GT seem to have a solid reputation, I have to say that these bumpers were not good. Of course, I’m aware that any fibreglass parts were going to take a bit of work, but the hours needed to get these mounted on to the car and fitting well far exceeded any expectations. For the hours put in, I could have bought steel backdated bumpers two or three times over. Original parts are much more expensive up front than fibreglass reproductions, but the hours worked pushed the cost past the value of originals by a country mile.
All in all, I’m very dissapopinted with these items from GT but, despite the poor quality, the guys at Rotunda Revival in Melbourne did amazing work to get them eventually mounted up and looking good.
I’ve decided to delete the factory-spec lights and grilles that you’d expect to find in an early 914 bumper. We’ve made up some steel plates to neatly screw in to the available openings. I’m currently working on some designs to fit some modern LEDs in each aperture. We’ll make some simple round openings in the steel plates and slot the lights in.
So, she’s just about ready to go for paint. On that note, I’ve changed my mind on the colour completely. I still dig the grey idea, but another contender has taken the lead but I’ll keep that as a surprise for when we get stuck into it.
LR.
