Pre A Interim bumper cars

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James Davies
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#16 Post by James Davies »

Hi Joris, there were at least 2 versions of the deco on the export bumpers. The early versions of the deco had the ends on the sides of the bumper as separate pieces, and they were arrow-shaped. The second version had the ends as part of the deco strips themselves, much like the 1953 and later bumper deco. I think the rough changeover time was at the time of change between split-window cars and bent-window cars in the spring of 1952, but as usual with Porsche old stock could have gotten used up on the early bent-window cars. For coupes, the change to the later deco had occurred by chassis 11416 at the latest.

These export bumpers also had very thin aluminum strips lining the edges of the bumpers as seen in Trevor's nice photos of a very original car here.

The size and profile of the export bumper deco did not change as far as I know. And of course both front and rear bumpers had the deco strips split into 3 segments, as the bumper guards attached to the bumpers themselves, and did not contour around the deco strips as they did on later Porsches.

Here are examples of the early and later deco strip end treatment.
split-window export bumper deco
split-window export bumper deco
And the bent-window export bumper deco.

Image

Notice both have the thin aluminum strip bordering the top of the bumper. This is the same front and rear.

These export bumpers were used on some of the very first '53 model year cars produced in late '52 that had the modified '53 chassis features (no spare tire horn, 519 transmission). The car on the Porsche stand at the Paris Salon in late 1952 is a good example of this.
1952 Paris Salon pic1.jpg

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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#17 Post by Tony Proasi »

Here are some pictures of a rear interim bumper I have. I need a front if anyone has one....
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Trevor Gates
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#18 Post by Trevor Gates »

James - Thanks.

Joris - Here are a few more pics I have of that same car where you can see the deco strip on the rear.
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Joris Koning
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#19 Post by Joris Koning »

Hi Guys,

many thanks for the great pictures, this really helps!

@Tony, would you mind measuring the length of all three of the deco pieces? I would also be very interested in seeing the hardware used to secure the strips and if possible some sizes of the nuts and washers

@Trevor, what a great car, any chance you will be near to it again in the near future? I am very interested to learn more about the thin aluminum trim strip which wraps around the bumper. Where do the ends meet (12 oçlock position) and what type of hardware was used to secure them to the bumper?

@James, those early style end caps are interesting. I believe Bata had some made about 25 years ago for two interim cars he restored at that time. Love the Paris salon picture, look at those headlights, they are very funky and unlike any I have ever seen before. The have the black attachment lips which I have seen on more early cars. It looks like the bottom of the lens is frosted, very interesting

Any pointers on the thin alu trim strip would be very much appreciated. I believe that the deco's are the same as early VW bus ones so can probably be sourced from the VW guys. We got some guards from Bata so hopefully we can have the bumpers looking original soon
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#20 Post by Tony Proasi »

Joris,

All three pieces of trim are roughly the same size at 630mm. The nuts holding the trim appear to be 9mm.Let me know if you need anything else.
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#21 Post by Tony Proasi »

If anyone a has detailed pictures of a front bumper off the car I would like to see those if possible.

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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#22 Post by James Davies »

Joris, those funky headlights are Marchal Equilux headlights. They are very similar to the Hella sealed beam lights, but they were not actually sealed beam themselves, though the light looks like a sealed-beam light. Marchal made a kit that included the bucket, the front glass and the light unit (bulb inside a lens). The front glass is clear, but the bottom is dimpled so as to diffuse the light. They used existing Bosch chrome rings I believe. They were standard on French-delivery Porsches 1952 to 1953.

If you look at pictures of Porsche factory 356SL entries at Le Mans in 1952, you'll see that the car with the French drivers has the Marchal headlights.

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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#23 Post by Trevor Gates »

Joris Koning wrote:@Trevor, what a great car, any chance you will be near to it again in the near future? I am very interested to learn more about the thin aluminum trim strip which wraps around the bumper. Where do the ends meet (12 oçlock position) and what type of hardware was used to secure them to the bumper?
Joris - Not unless the owner stops by the shop. On the front bumper on this particular car the aluminum trim strip does meet at 12 o'clock. See the below pic. On the rear I don't see where it meets, so maybe at the bottom???
IMG_1025.jpg
Tony - In your pursuit for a front bumper, you might want to consider an A bumper as a starting point and slice and dice it to fit your car.
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#24 Post by Tony Proasi »

[quote="Trevor GatesTony - In your pursuit for a front bumper, you might want to consider an A bumper as a starting point and slice and dice it to fit your car.[/quote]


Trevor,

Thanks that's Plan B....

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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#25 Post by Joris Koning »

One of the things I am after is some good pictures of how to bumper guards are mounted to the bumper. This appears to be unlike the later bumpers (look at Tony's pictures). We got some reproduction guards from Bata but they require finishing and the installment of a stud or bracket for the mounting.
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#26 Post by James Davies »

There's 2 connecting metal pieces that connect in the inside of the steel bumper guard sides together. One top and one bottom. They are spaced exactly so they sandwhich the bumper. And then two bolts, one top and one bottom, attach to the bumper guard. You can just barely see the top bolt in Trevor's photo above. At least this is how some were originally attached.

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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#27 Post by James Davies »

Oh, and here's another shot of Marchal Equilux headlamps on a French-delivery '53 coupe. This one also has matching Marchal fog lamps. I feel sorry for that 130 watt generator!

Ok, back to export bumpers...
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#28 Post by James Davies »

Tony, what are the dimensions on the aluminum extrusion used as deco on your export bumper? Is it 40mm across? If so, then this might be a source:

http://www.doepper-profile.de/artikelde ... hutzleiste
http://www.doepper-profile.de/artikelde ... &bez=Gummi

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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#29 Post by James Davies »

Here's a period photo of a split-window car with the 1952 export bumpers (rounded ends instead of the spear ends). So that change in bumpers was before the end of the split-window production.
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Re: Pre A Interim bumper cars

#30 Post by Tony Proasi »

James Davies wrote:Tony, what are the dimensions on the aluminum extrusion used as deco on your export bumper? Is it 40mm across? If so, then this might be a source:

http://www.doepper-profile.de/artikelde ... hutzleiste
http://www.doepper-profile.de/artikelde ... &bez=Gummi

James sorry for the delay the trim is roughly 60.00mm wide.

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