Front bumper Modification concept
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 9
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From: Clarksville, Arkansas
Car: 86 camaro sport coupe
Engine: LG4 5.0L V8
Transmission: automatic
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
i love it. i have been lookin for ideas for the same thing, and that is spot on
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 10
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Car: 1986 Camaro
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
although I love the front end of the third gen I think that If you like It like that than nobody on here should be able to disuade you from doing what you want its your car! I think it looks good from what i can see dont listen to these stock only freaks! make your car your own and dont listen to any body else
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 91
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From: Milwaukee, WI
Car: 1985 Berlinetta
Engine: 5.0 LG4
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: 3.08 Peg Leg
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
I was thinking too that you could try to build an extension on top of the bumper. This way you would not have to sacrifice the impact absorber and if you ever wanted to turbo the car you still have room for your aftercooler.
It looks like a person would have to cut a lot out of the bumper to make it match the hood like that. The first gen actually had the same concept.
It looks like a person would have to cut a lot out of the bumper to make it match the hood like that. The first gen actually had the same concept.
<-------- Also a stock junkie. Not sure why people cut up perfectly good cars. You want a Camaro, leave it a Camaro. You want something with a flat front, there are tons of options, Mustangs and Challengers come to mind right off the bat. I just see alot of cars on here and other places that people hack up and end up spending a ton of money on to make look.... well excuse my ignorance, stupid. And people do it to ALL cars, people of all ages. To each his own only goes so far before its just a waste of a perfectly good car. Yes I commend your intellegence to do it to a junk bumper first but in the end, just like most "odd mods", like the rice Camaro, it will look bad. The lines on the third gen are priceless, don't alter them!
Whatever you do, good luck. Keep us updated.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 505
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From: 47798 Germany
Car: '89 RS camaro 305 TBI
Engine: LO3
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: yep, has those too (stock)
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
Original post is well over 2 years old. I wonder if someone ever ended up fabricating a new front bumper and would even be more curious to find out if it passes technical inspection.
Anyways, I think modifying a thirdgen into something which more resembles a firstgen is not nescessarily bad. I would personally not do it because I really like the thirdgen design but this did come to mind (sorry for the somewhat messy sketch)
The thirdgen chassis leaves plenty of space to do this once the complete front is removed. Fitting a modern bumper, the roound headlights, extending and accentuating the hood for about 1" to create the same arrow shape the firstgen had and cutting the lower aero back to te exact location of the original airdam would mean you would still have full fuctionality of all parts. Would be a lot of fabrication work and good luck in finding that grille, but when consideing this (and there is still alot to improve i the above sketch) it would not look like a complete waste of a good car.
As said, personally I will not try something like this because I just like the shape of the thirdgen as it is.
Anyways, I think modifying a thirdgen into something which more resembles a firstgen is not nescessarily bad. I would personally not do it because I really like the thirdgen design but this did come to mind (sorry for the somewhat messy sketch)
The thirdgen chassis leaves plenty of space to do this once the complete front is removed. Fitting a modern bumper, the roound headlights, extending and accentuating the hood for about 1" to create the same arrow shape the firstgen had and cutting the lower aero back to te exact location of the original airdam would mean you would still have full fuctionality of all parts. Would be a lot of fabrication work and good luck in finding that grille, but when consideing this (and there is still alot to improve i the above sketch) it would not look like a complete waste of a good car.
As said, personally I will not try something like this because I just like the shape of the thirdgen as it is.
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
Original post is well over 2 years old. I wonder if someone ever ended up fabricating a new front bumper and would even be more curious to find out if it passes technical inspection.
Anyways, I think modifying a thirdgen into something which more resembles a firstgen is not nescessarily bad. I would personally not do it because I really like the thirdgen design but this did come to mind (sorry for the somewhat messy sketch)
The thirdgen chassis leaves plenty of space to do this once the complete front is removed. Fitting a modern bumper, the roound headlights, extending and accentuating the hood for about 1" to create the same arrow shape the firstgen had and cutting the lower aero back to te exact location of the original airdam would mean you would still have full fuctionality of all parts. Would be a lot of fabrication work and good luck in finding that grille, but when consideing this (and there is still alot to improve i the above sketch) it would not look like a complete waste of a good car.
As said, personally I will not try something like this because I just like the shape of the thirdgen as it is.
Anyways, I think modifying a thirdgen into something which more resembles a firstgen is not nescessarily bad. I would personally not do it because I really like the thirdgen design but this did come to mind (sorry for the somewhat messy sketch)
The thirdgen chassis leaves plenty of space to do this once the complete front is removed. Fitting a modern bumper, the roound headlights, extending and accentuating the hood for about 1" to create the same arrow shape the firstgen had and cutting the lower aero back to te exact location of the original airdam would mean you would still have full fuctionality of all parts. Would be a lot of fabrication work and good luck in finding that grille, but when consideing this (and there is still alot to improve i the above sketch) it would not look like a complete waste of a good car.
As said, personally I will not try something like this because I just like the shape of the thirdgen as it is.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 505
Likes: 0
From: 47798 Germany
Car: '89 RS camaro 305 TBI
Engine: LO3
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: yep, has those too (stock)
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
No, I do not have a scanner but as a photographer I could take a picture to the same effect if that would be of use for you? I ocasionally do some repro-photography and have the nescessary equipment for that, which would create a picture as accurate as a scan.
As for the sketch, I went from a picture taken with a wide angle lens to save me some time. The above took me some 5-10 minutes all in all, but still should be within (when enlarging to full scale and taking into account the correction for the perspective of a 28mm focal length lens) 1-2" of the original (car itself) so it is quite accurately the original hood I used and extended towards the front. Here is the picture I used for reference http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96...s/MCR_0013.jpg
That´s my thirdgen, and yes, the rims have to go
From memory the 1st gen hood is a bit less wide compared to the thirdgen hood so fitting would be difficult. Might be misstaking there though. Aftermarket companies offer 1st gen style bolt on cowls however.
Completely extending the original hood I think is more problematic then cutting the nose back. The hood slopes down quite drastically on the last bit so you would have to change the curve the hood makes, then extend it to prevent the Nissan Silvia look from happening (compare with this http://www.240sx.ca/ff_i/mercedeh%20sil80-2.jpg) and re-inforce the bit you weld on to prevent it from curving up when it catches wind.
You would also have to build on top of the stock ABS(?) plastic nose which is problematic. If you would use glassfibre it would be hard to prevent it from cracking/chipping paint at the joint to the original nose cone.
From a technical point of view rebuilding the nose completely is easiest. You can still use the ground effects though as the come seperately.
In the sketch I made I reduced front overhang as far as possile by re using the original light mounts, re using most of the original impact bar. Some cutting will be required there to place the ground effects as far back as I did located behind the original nose cone, and re using the ground effects.
It would be interesting to see a version with extended hood however. Do you intend to use smaller lights or place them further down?
As for the sketch, I went from a picture taken with a wide angle lens to save me some time. The above took me some 5-10 minutes all in all, but still should be within (when enlarging to full scale and taking into account the correction for the perspective of a 28mm focal length lens) 1-2" of the original (car itself) so it is quite accurately the original hood I used and extended towards the front. Here is the picture I used for reference http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96...s/MCR_0013.jpg
That´s my thirdgen, and yes, the rims have to go
From memory the 1st gen hood is a bit less wide compared to the thirdgen hood so fitting would be difficult. Might be misstaking there though. Aftermarket companies offer 1st gen style bolt on cowls however.
Completely extending the original hood I think is more problematic then cutting the nose back. The hood slopes down quite drastically on the last bit so you would have to change the curve the hood makes, then extend it to prevent the Nissan Silvia look from happening (compare with this http://www.240sx.ca/ff_i/mercedeh%20sil80-2.jpg) and re-inforce the bit you weld on to prevent it from curving up when it catches wind.
You would also have to build on top of the stock ABS(?) plastic nose which is problematic. If you would use glassfibre it would be hard to prevent it from cracking/chipping paint at the joint to the original nose cone.
From a technical point of view rebuilding the nose completely is easiest. You can still use the ground effects though as the come seperately.
In the sketch I made I reduced front overhang as far as possile by re using the original light mounts, re using most of the original impact bar. Some cutting will be required there to place the ground effects as far back as I did located behind the original nose cone, and re using the ground effects.
It would be interesting to see a version with extended hood however. Do you intend to use smaller lights or place them further down?
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 39
Likes: 0
Re: Front bumper Modification concept
Wow.....been a REALLY long time since I have been on here. A recent birthday e-mail from the forum reminded me about this post. Unfortunately I had to part with my third gen. Family and financial obligations made it imporssible to keep it.
This project never got off the ground either, so I have no updates as to how it would've worked out. Sorry to those who were expecting a thread on the project.
This project never got off the ground either, so I have no updates as to how it would've worked out. Sorry to those who were expecting a thread on the project.
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