BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?

Subject: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 11:37 AM

What ever happened to bumpers ? During the sixties and seventies all cars were fitted with a nice chromed tin bumper (fender) that was there to protect a cars bodywork. Nobody lost any sleep when you got a dent in it, after all, that was it's purpose.

Today cars don't have bumpers, they have colour matched lower body work. It is actually cheaper to prang a door of a car than it's bumper.

I touched one in a car park yesterday and the guy was near in tears. He wanted it professionally assessed in case their was internal fractures !

We live in a society in which professional footballers roll around the pitch as if they had just been shot after a tackle, cracked street pavement stones are the source of a free holiday once your solicitor has finished with the local council. People won't eat food if it is hours out of a sell by date and kids can f*ck you off in the street without fear of a cuff around the lug.

Oh I miss the sixties.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 12:01 PM

And if you look back to the 30s, cars had big spring bumpers that didn't dent, but sprung!

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: bobad
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 12:05 PM

Why do you put "fender" in brackets beside "bumper", is this another word for bumper in the UK? In North America a fender is what goes over the wheel, the bumper is called a bumper.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 12:16 PM

The man at the body shop told me last week that (at least for the great majority, and maybe all cars) there's little or no metal in a bumper. He showed me on his computer the "exploded" view of the bumper system.

Instead, it's built to crunch, absorbing rather than transmitting the shock of a collision to the body. It's a "collision attentuation system", and as such it's built in about four layers or successive portions, each layer technically designed to collapse at a certain point, absorbing an exactly computed portion of the trauma.

The "metal" that you see is only an extremely thin plastic layer with a metal-looking coating.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 12:16 PM

With proper bumpers you could push one car with another as well. There is big money being made in the auto industry of today replacing useless parts like plastic bumpers!

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 12:25 PM

Cars do have bumpers...they are integrated into the design. While they do not contain springs, they have a shock absorber system designed to mitigate forces into the passenger compartment on impact. Ads to the chrome bumper, it's gone the way of all chrome.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 12:39 PM

7 and 9 series Volvos still have sort of hydraulic ram things between the black bumpers and the chassis members.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 01:04 PM

The metal bumper hasn't totally disappeared. Pickups and standard-size vans still have 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Ed T
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 02:00 PM

It now involves a plastic cover to resemble one. Beneath that is a chunk of high density styrofoam and rebar.

A body shop guy recently summed it up to me.

"The bumper rebar is attached to that, which is attached to this, which is attached to nothing".

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Ed T
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 02:07 PM

bumpers

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Wesley S
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 03:23 PM

I also miss wing windows.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 04:04 PM

If 'wing windows' are quarterlights, they had their advantages. Touring the Soviet Union in 1978 in an old Volvo 145, we parked in Tbilisi to take a ride on the cablecar. When we returned, my son's Beatles cassettes and mirrored sunglasses were missing.

Entry had been made via the quarterlight. No damage was done, and the quarterlight, hinge bolt, nut and washer were neatly left on the front passenger seat. Replacement took a couple of minutes.

The thing that really disappointed me was the lack of a 'Спасеба' note.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 04:08 PM

I miss "running boards," like the ones the G-man stood on with their machine guns firing while they were in hot pursuit of bad guys.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Gurney
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 04:41 PM

Wing mirrors are mirrors that pre-dated door mirrors, on the wing/mudguard/(fender?). Unlike the door mirror, you could see a car that was beside/alongside you. Older drivers often prefer them, and you could get extensions for towing.

One of the reasons why 'bumpers' today are expensive to repair is that the paint that is required to stick to the plastic is different to the paint on the rest of the car bodywork. It is expensive and poisonous, which means it isn't applied casually but in a carefully-ventilated paintshop, with the bumper removed.

The earlier black plastic bumpers quickly looked very shabby unless they were treated with silicone spray. Then you had all that silicone smearing the windscreen/windshield.
You still do to some extent, but it is now applied, often by dealers, to make tyres look good.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Gurney
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 04:42 PM

Charley, check out Morgan Cars.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 05:08 PM

Gurney, Silicone in a God send on dull paintwork. Another tip when you are getting an M.O.T. done, is if you have cracks in the outer walls of your tyres, rub in black boot polish with your finger, it fills in the cracks ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 11:01 PM

As Uncle Dave O and John on the Sunset Coast said, bumpers today are part of the safety package. A friend of mine was hit just to the right of headon by another car and although he wasn't hurt his car never ran again.

He told the insurance agent that 'they sure don't make cars like they used to!" and the agent said, Would your rather that it was your body that took the blow?

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 11:59 PM

Some months back there was a video out of a staged head-on between a '59 Chevy and a current model, at enough speed to totally trash both cars. But the current model remained somewhat car-shaped, while the '59 just about splattered. The team of analysts concluded that the driver of the late model would have suffered a probable knee injury. The driver of the '59 would definitely have been killed instantly.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: Gurney
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 12:44 AM

Bluesman, silicone is hard to get off the windscreen, smeary in the wet, and if you use it on paintwork, then some waxes won't stick properly.
It is other people's bloody silicone, too.

If you watch the NZ film 'The Fastest Indian,' that looney used boot-polish on his tyres. I change them, I'm funny that way. I've HAD a tyre blow at speed.

My old Dad was a long-time motorist, and he had lots of wheezes and get-you-home-fixes. Fuller's Earth for a slipping clutch, chewing-gum sticks to a holed petrol-tank, Mint Humbug sticks to oily steel.

Then there were the ones to disguise worn mechanisms when you were selling the vehicle...

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to bumpers (fenders)?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 05:29 PM

The last car I had with a separate, spring-mounted steel bumper was a '56 VW. Trouble was that it was bolted to a sheet metal space frame. If fomeone nudged it, the rear of the spaceframe buckled. Result---I gad to carry a pry bar to force the bumper far enough out to open the engine hatch.