Project Greta – Sans Bumpers

One of the things on my list for Greta was ditching the HEAVY front and rear bumpers. Initially I was only going to get rid of the bumperettes but the more I thought about it the more I just wanted them completely gone. If this was an earlier car, with the nice thin bumpers that recess into the body a bit, I’d keep them. But the later, ginormous bumpers are just fugly (and weigh a ton). So I’m ditching them…

I did this on the track Gremlin as well (also a ‘75) but forgot exactly how I did it. I do remember I ended up having to take the grill off. With Greta, again, I tried to do it without taking the grill off but in the end I guess that’s the only way to do it. Just like with the track Gremlin I ended up breaking the bottom tabs on the grill because I didn’t have a trim removal tool (I finally have one now!).

I had hoped to just pull the bumpers and be on my merry way but after the bumpers were off I had two things to deal with. First I needed to repair the tabs I broke on the grill. The second was that the bumpers were SO heavy that with them off, the car seemed like it raised up a bit. Especially in the front. Wasn’t expecting that. It looked like a car that has no engine in it…

Besides looking stupid I was also concerned that it would adversely affect handling. So I decided I’d cut a ½ a coil out of the front springs. In the rear I’ll use lowering blocks (probably just 1”) and see how that looks.

For the grill I repaired the tabs with fiberglass. I also did some epoxy repairs to the driver’s side fender cap. It’s cracked up and missing a chunk and I didn’t have a reflector for that side either. The grill and fender caps on the car are actually from ‘76 Gremlin X. New reflectors are $60. So I’m not doing that. Instead I think I’m going to fiberglass over the stock reflector recess and then mount some cheap LED universal side marker lights…

But for now I’m just sticking this wrong shaped reflector from the track Gremlin (don’t need side markers on a race car).

So here are pics of the car without bumpers and with ½ a coil cut in the front. Curious to see how it runs with all that weight removed. Oh, I weighed everything I took off the car and it came to 120 lbs…

Sans Bumpers!