Front Bumper by Chris Vick
If you are the least bit familiar with the 69 Ford Talladga or Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II cars you probably already know that the cars’ front bumper is manufactured from the rear bumper. Some even know that the rear bumper had to be cut in three locations. But where do you start and how exactly was it done? If you don’t have a correct front bumper there is noway to purchase one so how do you go about making one?
Chris, The Archaeologist, Vick is a regular contributor to this site. As he says, he has had to learn a lot about the Spoiler II because his was so bad it needed everything. Luck for us guys like him make some of the difficult restorations jobs a little bit easier by sharing their experiences, good and bad, with us.
If you are lucky, you can just send out your existing bumper to have it replated. Your biggest problem is finding a quality chrome shop to do the work. Well, Chris was told his was too far gone to fix. He asked “Now what do I do?” The chrome shop told him they had a jig and they could build him a new one. All he needed to do was find a good rear bumper for them to use. Guess what? He did, they did and the new bumper didn’t fit.
It seems they didn’t do their homework. They actually had two jigs. Unfortunately, one was right and one was not so right!
They did the right thing and tried very hard to fix the problem. They sent down a second bumper that they started on 20 years ago. That is the one shown in these pictures for this story. It doesn’t quite fit either. Oh ya, they also told him that his original bumper might be able to be saved after all. They are doing it now.
Here are a couple of more photos that show the cuts from the back. These cuts are made just right of the bumper bolts.
When Chris gets his bumper back and can test fit it he will send us some more photos and information. If his shop gets its jig set up correctly there may be some others interested in having a bumper built.
Trivia question: Are the front bumper brackets the same for a Talladega and a Spoiler II?
The bumper’s were cut in 5 locations with 2 sections not being put back in, this is how the bumper’s got narrower. The cut’s must be made straight…it is clear by the pictures the cuts were not made straight.. look at the cut above the plate location on the front end picture of the bumper….than you can see from the picture of the back side the cuts were made off center.
As to the bumper brackets the Spoiler II uses a different Right and Left outer arm C9GY-177754-A and C9GY-17755-A. Also the Inter right and Left bracket arms are different…C9GY-17766-A and C9GY-17767-A Note these parts carry the G and not the O for the Torino….So in short the brackets are not the same from a T to a II.
I do know that 2 1/8″ was cut from each side . The angle of the bumper is the same as the grille .Part of the bracket that mounts to the frame is from a 1966 Fairlane . I was able to read the number on an original bracket . You can use two bent bumpers to make one as long as they bent on opposite sides . I made a bumper and brackets by coping an original set .
Chris, when you get the bumper jig and plating worked out, I would be interested in a pair of them.