Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 18:12:25 -0800
Reply-To: George Wietor <wietorg@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: George Wietor <wietorg@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Stud vs bolt / Merits of Macho Bumpers
In-Reply-To: <d1.3d95335.27e54f4d@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
HMMM....I have a spare set of the older Volvo 240
heavy aluminum bumpers. I think that they have oil
shock struts as mounts. Maybe with a diamond-pattern
aluminum top surface to act as a step...Wonderif they
will fit my '87 Vanagon? George
--- Rico Sapolich <JKrevnov@AOL.COM> wrote:
> In a message dated 3/17/01 2:17:56 PM,
> radish150@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
>
> << One more thing, I'm planning on building some
> burly custom pipe bumpers
> for this van, I like the idea of getting rear ended
> at 20mph and not having a
> scratch on the van. >>
>
> About a year and a half ago a nearly full length of
> 3 X 6 X .375 6061 AL
> structural channel came my way. I started to go
> through the process of
> turning it into a fine set of bumpers for my newer
> Syncro. I talked to my
> buddy at a fab shop and he said he would be able to
> roll the curves into it
> to match the original bumpers. If I did the fitting
> and finishing on the
> bumper ends he would do the weld up.
>
> I was all set to do this when my daily driver Syncro
> was ass-ended. As I
> have mentioned before, I was stopped at the bottom
> of a rather steep hill
> when I was hit by a 101 year old guy. He claimed
> his brakes had failed, but,
> in reality, he had mistaken the throttle for the
> brake pedal and no matter
> how hard he pushed on it, his car refused to stop.
> The damage amounted to
> the left rear corner of the van going bye-bye. The
> left end of the bumper
> was flattened and had a hinge bend at the bumper
> mount. The lower left
> corner of the hatch opening was moved forward about
> 2 inches, the corner
> panel was bulged from the beltline down and the
> trailing wheel opening was
> gone. But, all in all, the damage was skin deep. I
> then thought of what
> might have happened if all the kinetic energy from
> the collision had gone
> into a rigid bumper. Would the damage have been so
> easily repaired or would
> a sturdy bumper have transferred the forces more
> deeply into the structural
> elements of the van requiring repairs which are
> seldom done correctly? I
> have opted to run the stock bumpers and have my
> buddy, Chuck the bodyman,
> bump out the fenderbenders as they occur instead of
> him having to strap the
> van into his frame machine to try to make it whole
> again.
>
> Rich
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
| 
