After having put it off for so long, I finally decided to get the heavy bumper mounted on the Elco. This bumper is a unit that has the integrated taillights, so it is indeed a necessary piece, otherwise I'd be forced to use universal taillights hung from brackets at the rear, which would look cheesy as hell. Anyway, factory bumper brackets for this generation of car seem to be almost impossible to locate. Luckily I had some scrap metal that was suitable to make a bracket intended to hold something as heavy as this bumper. I would also be using grade 8 bolts to hold the bracket in place, for obvious reasons. After I measured and cut and drilled to get an assembly that would hold the bumper at the top and bottom of the bumper, as well as hold to the frame at two points, I did some light welds to hold the assemble together. I test fitted the piece to make sure all was well then did some reinforcement welds, along with the addition of extra metal to reinforce the bracket as a whole. From there I mounted up the bracket on the left side. The right side bracket was a mirror image of the left side, and would undergo the same treatment. With the extra metal and welds in place, I had the right side bumper bracket done and ready to mount. Of course, after the first bumper bracket, the second one was done rather quickly. With the bracket in place, I could get the whole bumper done and finally integrated with the car. To get the brackets in place, I did have to line up the bumper to make sure it was even on both sides. Funny thing is, this bumper appears to be wider than the rear of the bed of the car, and would have one imagine that it doesn't belong on this car. From what I've seen on other Elcos, this bumper is apparently made to fit like this. I don't know, but either way, to get the unit on right, I had to make sure all was even left and right as well as leveled properly so it would look right. I used lock nuts and large fender washers in spots to ensure a tight hold between the brackets, frame, and bumper. With the bumper hung up and lights plugged in, I can focus on getting the rest of the engine bay taken care of, as well as even start looking at getting the brakes addressed. I'll even do some of the suspension work prematurely, just to get these things done, even before the maiden voyage, so I won't have to worry about this stuff later on. The last big thing that would need to be done on this car is the driveshaft. Unless I can find a driveshaft from a 4 door car that I can possibly shorten, I'll have to resort to having a shop cut one from scratch, which will be a little pricey.
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