Hawk36

I've been wanting to get a German front plate for my NA. Has anyone done a US to Eruo front end conversion on an NA? The Eruo front end has shorter bumbers so the long plate will fit. Any ideas???
Thanks

Bryan

I'm fairly sure the Euro front bumper and bumper brackets will bolt right onto a US car. The fenders and valence are the same shape. Will take a little wiring to get the Euro lighting in the bumper to work, but shouldn't be too hard.

My '88 is a Euro version. You can get an idea of how it looks and goes together by checking out the pics on my site.

http://home.earthlink.net/~bryangunn

Pics are kinda big.

Bryan

josephsc

It's been done by people here on the board -- the hardest part is finding Euro bumpers. Most Euro cars being parted out are in Europe and shipping a bumper from there costs a good couple hundred bucks. There's a lister -- savage944 -- who's been trying to get a bunch over, but he hasn't been around here much since he's moved.

visualpascal

Keep in mind that if you do this, you'll have two extra foglight holes. The front euro bumper is cool and all, but I'm more excited about putting my rear euro bumper on the car. Just need to get un-lazy and get to sanding!

Eurospec cars are sexy!

--Chris

Zero10

Oh, here's one little interesting fact about the euro bumper.
It uses steel rods instead of the bumper shocks. They are about 2" shorter, which means you will be converting to the snub nose look (also very favorable =), but you will lose your front impact protection.
I don't believe that you can install the euro bumper on the bumper shocks, since it is a little wider on the sides. It seems to fit tighter into the cutouts in the fenders, I don't think it would fit if it was 2" farther forward.
Somebody should try, just to see, but I don't think so.

xsboost90

i have a euro bumper sitting in the garage awaiting me to get around to installing it. It is fiberglass/plastic from factory and uses shorter shocks or possibly just brakets to hold it on, total weight savings=40lbs est.

xsboost90

only pic i have at work and my zoomtown isnt hooked up yet at my new place....

Aleks951

Bryan - I enjoyed your site and reading the tale of building up your car. It looks like you made the entire job look easy. Your final product looks great.

Hawk36

Ok great. Looks like it should work, just have to wait until I can find one. Thanks all for the help

macleod911

That arguement about having more protection on the U.S. cars is not very sound. The U.S. cars had 5mph bumpers and the euro were 2.5 mph. Not a big difference. I start my car at 5mph!

Bryan

And the 5mph law was dropped in June of '88 anyway. It's 2.5mph here now too, if there even is a bumper law anymore.

I have a hard time believing a lot of your newer cars with pointy noses and no "bumpers" at all could contact something at 0.5 mph without damaging paint, cracking something, etc.

I think a low speed impact is supposed to cause "insignificant" damage, according to the letter of the law now. So if the mfgr prices their bumper covers really cheap, then breaking it in a low speed bump is probably fine.

Bryan

Zero10

The law in Canada is the bumpers have to withstand a 10kph impact, and return to their original position, without any safety-affecting damage, i.e. broken bumper, collapsed shocks, bent mounts.
The newer plastic bumpers are surprisingly resilliant, although the paint will definately come off.

The euro steel rods will pass the canadian 10kph test, so they are safe, but if in a minor collision, expect to be straightening a lot of the front end, instead of replacing bumper shocks.

Friendan

Bryan your car is amazing, very nice conversion!