Customs Smoothed and peaked '58 Chevy bumper build EDIT:It has been chromed!

I thought some of you guys might get a kick out of this front bumper for a 1958 Chevrolet sedan delivery I restyled a while back.

I removed the center "yoke" and scratch built the new center. It was metalfinished to a relatively high degree in preparation for chrome plating.

 

Here are a few build pictures. The first are some wooden profile templates taken from the original bumper profile. A steel profile wad then shaped and used as a control for the dimensions of the the new parts. I also built a super ugly jig but it holds all the parts in alignment and true.

 

A final couple pictures that were taken while metal finishing by hand. Hammers, dollies, files, sanding blocks and a DA sander were used.

 

Wow that's looks great. Thanks for sharing the pictures and info.

 

Nice work, instead of bolting on something from a different car which in some case's is much easier to do

 

Well, the owner of this bumper finally got around to having it chromed and got it on the car. This is such a good look for these '58 Chevys. The chrome looks fantastic.

Here is a picture he sent to me of it mounted. I will go to take more and get them up as soon as I can.

 

Man that is a lot of work but a great result.
I know I shouldn't ask but how many hours would you have in it?

 

I started with a stock 3 piece bumper that was in need of recroming anyway. I removed the center "yoke", trimmed the ends of the bumper and handbuilt about 2 1/2 feet of the middle. All of the bodywork was done in lead. Took about 35 hours.

This also included building the jig, the templates and any R&D.

 

I'll bet chip goose has hard on after seeing that ??? Really nice work !

 

That is some amazing work! Can't hide bad work under chrome, it don't stick to bondo!

 

To my eyes, stock '58 Chevys always look too busy to me. GM styling went to a whole lot of trouble to make them look like a similar vintage Cadillac but not too much like the Cadillac. When a '58 Chevy gets customized, all too often it seemed to get even more gimcracks and geegaws and other "kustom" tricks added to it that made things even busier looking and it usually makes matters worse. Looking at a lot of them made my eyes hurt.

But it looks like your customer, fortunately, took the higher ground in his approach by choosing to eliminate some of this extra 'busy-ness". I'm curious to see if he took this approach with the rest of the car.

Either way it appears that you did right by your customer, and you did right by yourself.

 

Agreed. This modification changed the whole dynamic of the front of the car. It is so much more cohesive and streamlined now. The grille looks so much better uninterupted by the bumper and every line is now parallel and working together.

 

Great results when vision and skills mesh. What gauge steel did you use and how did you make the bends and curves?

 

wow. what a difference. looks good.

 

I used 12 gauge steel and formed it in the brake a little at a time.

 

This sort of mod used to be more common... Nice to see somebody reviving it!

 

I was parked next to it in Emmett today. It really looks nice , truly a great job.

 

Another shot sent from the owner. This simple modification cleans up the front of these cars immensely. I can't get enough of looking at this.

 

And MOST people wouldn't even notice it's been modified it's that good...nice job...

R-

 

I finally got around to seeing this bumper in person and taking a few photographs.

 

The bumper and grille look great but the hood alignment on the passenger side is kicking up my OCD.

 

Me too. He is going to bring it by the shop to get the hood aligned.

 

Nice work. Was the same thing also done to the rear bumper?

I'd like to see it with the factory grill and parking lights.

 

That looks amazing. I would also love to see that with stock grill and parking lamps.

 

I know very little about chroming...I didn't know lead could be chromed...

Great job @Imperial Kustom you have every reason to be proud of that...

 

That's some really nice work, thanks for the update. BigO

 

Lead is the main ingredient in solder, and that's plated all the time.

 

Yes siree Bob. That took it from a 4 to a 12
. Nice work and your customer must be tickled pink to have that fine bumper. Sets that grille off big time.

 

Not yet, but it is in the plans. We are working out a couple different designs at the moment.

 

Really like your avatar Mr. Kustom .