Yet another Stupid Project:
Front Bumper(s) (oh ya, plural)
OK, we LOVE the front of the 50' Studebaker. The curves, the bullet nose, even the little hood 'mustaches'. With that said however the bumper, in our opinion, has always looked like an afterthought. Side note: we replaced the "EL FLOPO" vanity plate long ago)
It just appears to take over the whole front shape of the car. We where temped to run, and have, without the bumper which makes the car look so much better.
This presents a problem however. In California we have to have a front bumper and at some point we need to have the Chevybaker in front of a California Highway Patrol officer who can verify the year of the vehicle (DMV thinks its a '48) So what to do? Do we put the original bumper back on? Nope: Introducing our newly fabricated push bar style bumpers.
This is the clean/simple design we wanted from day one. We will need to attach the front license plate for the DMS check but that will most likely be a temporary ordeal.
While we are taking full credit for the design of the bumpers we can not take credit for the fabrication. Our first thought was to find a welder in our neighborhood who would like a small side job. As such I (the boy was no help) rode my bicycle (its called exercise) around my entire development and found ONE house with a welding truck in the driveway. I drew up a sketch and presented it same to his son and waited:
After a week we decided to use the Internet (we happen to have the latest version [joke]) and found a local welder who promotes himself well. We used his online contact page and within 24 hours he contacted us with a recommendation to another welder. The second welder is appearently more of a "car guy" and I believe this is the case. The second welder looked at our sketch and gave a VERY reasonable price. We shook hands and 2 days later he called us to pick up the bumpers - cash changed hands and we drove off. After a quick touch of primer and paint we bolted the bumpers (bumperettes?) into the original bumper location on the frame rails.
Update: Sure we tried to paint the bumpers chrome and well, that failed. We then decided to just paint them black.