Front Bumper

[robcall]

The weather is getting a bit warmer now-I don't like working on the cars unless its 18oC these days and started some work on the bumpers.
Whilst sanding away it occured to me this is the 3rd set I'd done where the rear bumper is foam filled with nothing in the front.
Obviously these things are designed to take a bit of abuse and are easy to take off/repair.
So were the front bumpers originally foam filled?
If so any pictures-I have a foam kit and was thinking off moulding of the body.

[garyeanderson]

Hi Nigel

A search for "foam front bumper" (upper right hand corner of screen) reveals the following

http://www.lotuselan.net/cgi-bin/search ... oom_sort=0

With this being a likely candidate to answer your question
elan-archive-f16/hollow-bumpers-was-fhc-headliner-t7889.html

or maybe
elan-archive-f16/hollow-bumpers-t7893.html

Brian gets to the point
elan-archive-f16/foam-t7895.html

[robcall]

Thanks Gary-
The question also pertains to future repairs-a rear bumper I repaired would have come off in two parts were it not for the foam-which also managed hold the alignment.

An S4 on front bumper has a bolt in the middle which again will help repair alignment.
Earlier cars do not-I think the foam is a good idea.

[garyeanderson]

All of the S2 and S3 front and all rear bumpers that I have seen have been filled, did it save Lotus money and time by not to filling them, you bet. I hope Brian Walton's post addresses some of your concerns and questions with his reference to 3 part urethane foam.
My guess is that in a front impact it really doesn't matter as you are going a bit faster usually and the damage is into the nose (aka write off the bumper and front quarter nose too. When reversing at a lesser speed a small impact may be absorbed. both are crush structures, how much depends on the speed ant the object impacted.

Gary

[69S4]

An S4 on front bumper has a bolt in the middle which again will help repair alignment.
Earlier cars do not-I think the foam is a good idea.

Over the years I've put three front bumpers on my S4. The first came without foam and was used empty. The next came foam filled
and the third, a few years ago, came foamless but I filled it before use as the foam did seem to make it less floppy. All were supplied by the usual UK suspects. None of them had a bolt or anything at all in the middle. Are we talking about some sort of fixing bolt in addition to the two at the ends?

[types26/36]

None of them had a bolt or anything at all in the middle. Are we talking about some sort of fixing bolt in addition to the two at the ends?

Hi 69S4, Here is a thread with pics of the centre fixing.
elan-f14/front-bumper-removal-t16889.html

[garyeanderson]

Ok , now we have a Discussion going with several folks including the author of the original post. The first thing I think of is what was Lotus trying to do with that design. I guess it was just part of the total crush structure. Its supposed to take an impact and depending how large spread it out, first to protect the passengers next, the nose of the car itself, and third the bumper itself. I had a bit of a think about it and I thought back to the days of Digital when we used to get the power supplies in a box that was 2 or so times as big as the supply inside. The double corrigated cardboard outside box, the next bit was a 3 inch hunk of spounge foam rubber like stuff that was bonded to and inner layer of corragated cardboard. It looked like a lot of added expence so I asked around why, I got an answer in that the boxes were stored in a warehouse in high bay and sometime fell off the fork truck dropping some 40 ft and breaking the contents. the packaging engineers designed the boxes to withstand this type of impact. first the outer carboard would give into the sponge foam and save the 20 lb power supply from damage.

My friend that has done fiberglass work for 30 years has a front bumper mold but no rear mold and its a well used piece of tooling, I have used it 3 or 4 times maybe more myself as most of the Elans I buy are missing the front bumper and the rear bumper are still around. I guess that speaks to the problem that they have been designed to be used and tossed and the front bumpers that I did get were examples of excessive repairs and were tossed out by me. Nigel how is the nose of the Elan, did the front bumper do its intened job?

Gary

[69S4]

Brian, many thanks for that link. You live and learn, I never knew that the later ones - obviously later than my 9562 as there's no hole in the bodywork - had an extra fixing bolt. Seems like a logical and fairly easy thing to do. The amount of time I've spent swearing at the whole arrangement trying to get the bumper fitted evenly with just the two end bolts would have been more than enough to add it to the car.

Stuart

[robcall]

You'll see in the above post the damage was to the rear bumper-the surrounding bodywork was fine!
The exhaust however was driven up into the rear apron.An extensive amount of filler had to be removed before reglassing.
The repair held out ok but the shape was just not right-having a v-shaped contour at the midline.The fracture was repaired from the boot with glass but externally the open margins only covered in bondo.

No damage to the front end-the front bumper has been repainted twice with some minor cracks/bondo.
The glass appears to be thicker-is this an S4 mod too?

[rgh0]

Brian, many thanks for that link. You live and learn, I never knew that the later ones - obviously later than my 9562 as there's no hole in the bodywork - had an extra fixing bolt. Seems like a logical and fairly easy thing to do. The amount of time I've spent swearing at the whole arrangement trying to get the bumper fitted evenly with just the two end bolts would have been more than enough to add it to the car.

Stuart

My S4 FHC 36/8555 made in late 68 has the centre front bumper bar bolt. Interesting that some later cars at least did not have it. Another Lotus control of change issue

cheers
Rohan

[garyeanderson]

Here are a couple photos of some outdoor lawn art that are too good to toss but not good enough to use.
A pair of S2 Elan bumpers front and rear both foam filled



Looking at all of that pink polyester primer that the early cars used I would not be surprised if the front bumper was mounted and foam injected in place. It appears very well bonded.

Spreader blocks 1/2 x 1/2 inch to keep the rear bumper from closing in on itself as the resin continued to cure. I am not sure which Elan they are from but my guess is they came from 26/4020, the Elan that spent most of its life out doors on Long Island

[garyeanderson]

I forgot to ask in the bumper photo post what pictures are you refering to?

ps I fixed the signature for you

Thanks for "filling in"the S2/S3 front bumper info Gary

You'll see in the above post the damage was to the rear bumper-the surrounding bodywork was fine!
The exhaust however was driven up into the rear apron.An extensive amount of filler had to be removed before reglassing.
The repair held out ok but the shape was just not right-having a v-shaped contour at the midline.The fracture was repaired from the boot with glass but externally the open margins only covered in bondo.

No damage to the front end-the front bumper has been repainted twice with some minor cracks/bondo.
The glass appears to be thicker-is this an S4 mod too?

Also do you mind shrinking your 2o avatar?
Not that I have a problem with its contents-just that its size means I have to scroll acrross the screen-and this makes reading everyones posts difficult(at least for me).

[AussieJohn]

Had 2 S2's, an S3 and an S4, not seen a centre bolt.

[msd1107]

My 36/7988 has a hole in the body for a bumper bolt, and the bumper has a bolt. 7988 is one of the first S4s.

We should talk to pamitchel in San Jose. He has an even earlier S4.

David
1968 36/7988

PS: Forgot to say, the bumper is foam filled, but it is not the original bumper. Don't know what the original was. And I am on my 3rd front clip, thanks to some wonderful drivers.

[gordont]

My S2 has a flat square of aluminium fibreglassed into the bumper and then a bolt tapped into it from the inside. Looks very neat with no bolts on the outside.
Front has 2 bolts at about 30 cem off centre either side.
Rear has 2 bolts, 1 at each end.
I believe the PO had seen it done in the UK and replicated it when having the body done.