Bumpers

[akhuntr]

I live in Anchorage Alask and drive a 89 Festy. I'm looking at buying bumpers for it and I have looked at the ones coming out of the Philippines and they are awesome. Only thing that's keeping me from getting a set is I'm concerned about the cold weather and the fiberglass the bumpers are made out of. I recently found a set of bumpers on Ebay for front and back. They are covers only. Does anyone have experience with the fiberglass bumpers in cold weather or experience with installing the bumper shells? Im working on my own stuff and have for he past 35 years, so Ill be doing the work myself. Just wondering if there is anyone out there that has some experience with either of these bumpers?

Dean in Alaska

[Bert]

The Festy LX models feature a painted bumper which seems to be more brittle than the plain rough-textured durable black plastic ones of base models. Fiberglas and even plastic can shatter like glass when we're talking -20F.
I have a spare set of LX bumpers kicking around which had developed cracks and splits from being used as 'curb feelers' and 'tree locators', whereas all of my daughter's attempts to antique an L series car by plunging through snow banks and into the bush, and backing into other cars hasn't done much more than scuff the bumpers.
If I were you I'd stay away from fiberglas. I recall (in the mid-1970s) seeing a Chevy Corvette once that some bozo had decided to drive all winter, and had been in a (should have been minor) fender bender with a pickup truck at -20 in January. Car was a writeoff from having a thoroughly cracked and shattered body.

[akhuntr]

Mine is a L modle and I think that I am just going to go back with the standard bumpers on it. Are aftermarket cover/skins pretty decent? I havent looked at my bumper as of yet to see what it would take to remove it. I'm at work right now and I don't get back to civilization for another 4 weeks. If I can get some positive information on these bumper covers I will most likely order both front and back and replace them when I get home.

[Movin]

Mine are standard grey that I color changed with refllex.