Had some time for my '58 low light today

[lonotch]

I looked at some extra brackets that I have laying around and they look the same, sorry, but after looking at the placement of your turn signal, it looks like yours is further down from the headlight than mine, hard to tell with the bubble wrap though.

_________________
It's not about the window, it's about the people.

German Folks

[Porschedave]

Interesting. I don't have great pictures of this setup, but here's one from the early days

And then a test fit of the original bumpers,

and a close up of the run signals, they are certainly lower than yours. I wonder why?

It will be yet another challenge I suppose.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[lonotch]

Looks like the turn lights are closer in the older pic? Maybe see if you can fudge the turns up a little and the bumper brackets down, the lower you place the bumper the farther the bumper bracket covers will be from the body line.
_________________
It's not about the window, it's about the people.

German Folks

[lonotch]

Didn’t you reskin the nose of your car? Maybe the hole you had was a fix from a PO and they didn’t run bumpers since the hole isn’t round and the two mounting holes aren’t there, I’m thinking it’s just mud covering the holes though.

I’m sure some other folks will post theirs to see if yours are right, my car is 99.5 percent original metal.
_________________
It's not about the window, it's about the people.

German Folks

[Porschedave]

Tonotch

I did not have to reskin the whole nose, but I did have to work on the middle section. On the left fender I cut it off but used the right fender for measurements to match the ides. There is very little bondo on these sections but I will remove the lights and have a closer look. There might be a bit of room to raise the lights. Thanks for the advice and comments.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[Porschedave]

Hi Folks

There is a low light not far from here, not driven much but parked on the street. I dropped by to have a look at his front turn signals and they are positioned like in the photo above from tonotch - the rubber seal almost touching the headlight ring. I've taken my turn signal lights off and the bumper will be a much better and easier fit. But the bumper on the neighbour's ghia sits quite a bit lower than mine as well and indeed looking at the red car above the bumper seems to sit below the turn signal. I think that I have to (a) move the turn signal lights up, and (b) look at the vertical position of the bumper to see whether i can lower it a touch. Just one more Gia challenge I suppose.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[Porschedave]

Okay, a few hours later, here is where things stand. I removed the turn signals, assembled the front bumper on the ground and then placed it onto the car. After lots of time, I managed to get it lined up and got those pesky outside fender bolts in place. Heres a shot:

Actually, it looks pretty good and the over-riders re vertical so that is definitely a plus.

I placed a front turn signal base into place similar to the other local notch and it looks like this:

There is still some overlap with he bumper but I do not see a way to move the bumper to reduce the overlap. I may have to work with what I've done so far.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[lonotch]

I’m sure you’ll figure something out, I bet the bumper bracket could be modified where it mounts to the bumper to lower it, even if it’s just a few or more MM’s it would help some, looking great Dave and good luck. If you need some pictures in certain areas of my car just let me know.
_________________
It's not about the window, it's about the people.

German Folks

[aerosilver]

Have you offered up your original bumper to see if it fits differently?

[lonotch]

[lonotch]

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/2083912.jpg

The original bumper in his picture looks like the right side is higher than the left side, could be the angle of the picture though, but you can see the wire hole is very close to the bumper which is the center of the turn signal, that’s what made me look at my car to see if his turn signal was in the correct position, the only other thing a can think of is the mounting holes in the new SS bumpers is a little lower compared to the originals which would raise the bumper?
_________________
It's not about the window, it's about the people.

German Folks

[Porschedave]

Hi All

Yes, I did fit my original bumpers and as you can see from the picture the parking light hole is quite low compared to others. Here is a pic from the other local low light in our hood,

I took this yesterday. Admittedly, his car is not in great shape but you can see that his turn signal lights are very close, in fact adjacent to, the headlights.

I spent a lot of time yesterday screwing around with this fit. I will probably take this bumper off and have a look at the original and compare the position of holes as was suggested by tonotch but I suspect regardless, I will have to remount this turn signal lights - without making a mess of my paint.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[Trylon]

Another data point:

_________________
1973 Porsche 914 2.0
1959 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
1979 Volkswagen Rabbit
1973 Volkswagen Bus
1970 MGB-GT
1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire

More tomfoolery on
The Karmann Ghia Fever YouTube Channel!

[PeteSC]

For whatever it's worth here's mine with the Harrington stainless bumpers. IMO your turn signal location looks good to me in your last mock up photo, but your bumper still seems high in that one. If I were in your position I'd try modifying the mounting bracket, perhaps by elongating the holes downward vertically where they mount to the bumper so that when mounted it sits in a lower position.

[Porschedave]

Interesting.

When I look at these two photos, the bumper itself sits much lower than mine. My brackets are stock and as far as I can tell the mounting points in the fender well inside the truck are correct. So I can only conclude there is something different in these SS bumpers mounting points.

One concern I have, if I am able to lower the bumper I will have to watch carefully where they bolt to the fender so that I do not have a turned up corner.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[lonotch]

I think you mean he needs to elongate the holes upward to drop the bumper down?
_________________
It's not about the window, it's about the people.

German Folks

[Trylon]

_________________
1973 Porsche 914 2.0
1959 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
1979 Volkswagen Rabbit
1973 Volkswagen Bus
1970 MGB-GT
1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire

More tomfoolery on
The Karmann Ghia Fever YouTube Channel!

[PeteSC]

[Porschedave]

Hi Guys

Thank you for all the supportive comments. I would like not to have to drill new holes in the body. I spent a lot of time and money getting the body looking good and to drill new holes scares the heck out of me. Lowering at the bumper brackets alone would simply tilt the bumper forward and not have much impact near the turn signal lights. I will likely spend more time just looking at it and trying to figure out a way forward without doing any damage.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[Porschedave]

One more thought, I was in the garage looking at this situation. I think that I can live with moving the turn signals up without doing much damage to the body. This reduces the overlap between the bumper and the light.

And then I would put a spacer between each of the 4 bolts between the bumper brackets and the bumper moving the bumper forwards away from the nose, by about 1 cm. The lights would still be clear above the bumper. Let's see what that looks like.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139