Fitting blade bumpers to a Super?

[mj2k]

Now I know this sounds like a crazy idea, but I really, really dislike the original 'Europa' bumpers my Super was fitted with, so removed them altogether and fitted wide arches with no cutouts.

However, it'd be useful to have proper bumpers since that takes me way above new proposed EV regulations which say the batteries have to be 40cm from the front of the car, and I think I've worked out a way to fit pre-67 blades to the curved screen Super...

Has anyone ever done this, and if so, how does it look? And how do the blades look with widened arches, if anyone's done that? Pics appreciated if anyone has tried it...
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"I looked for silver linings, But you're rotten to the core" - Devo: Gut Feeling (they must have seen my Super)

[Cjschriver]

Not sure about your curved screen super, but this one might be worth a read anyway

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...highlight=

Love your build by the way 👍

[zerotofifty]

Maybe shoot us some photos of what you have? I dont have an idea of what an europa bumper is or wide arches. Not familiar with those terms.
Now blade bumpers, do you mean blade only or do you mean with the overriders?
The USA Supers all came factory with blade bumpers, these are of the late style, the squared off look blade, early cars through 67 have the more rounded blade.
Then there are overriders, on early cars the over riders came in two main styles, the european type with short over rider and no bar, and American type with tall overriders and overrider bar.

For the curved window supers, all of them were curved, but the later ones had a much more pronounced curve, and different front body sheet metal than early supers.
I assume you mean the later super, correct?

Even standard beetles had curved windows in the later years, the windshield was flat up through 1964.
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Give peace a chance. No American war with Russia!

[mj2k]

[mj2k]

[ashman40]

Two threads which you will want to read thru:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416703
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9440068

You need to pay attention to the outer ends of the bumpers as they appear to get very close to the stock SB fenders. If you are running aftermarket wide fenders they may actually come in contact with the end of the bumper blades. You may need to customize the brackets some to push them further front/rear to gain more clearance.

I seem to recall someone actually made custom early chrome bumper blades that were longer (wider) than stock so they looked better mounted to the SB which was wider. I can’t recall where I saw that reference.


BTW, I believe the adapter bumper brackets you can buy in the aftermarket were only meant for Beetles with solid bumper brackets (‘68-‘73 model years). When VW switched to shock absorber bumpers the mounts changed. I think you ‘73 SB was the last year for the solid brackets so you should be okay.
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AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}

[mj2k]

[H2OSB]

I've wanted to do this for ages. I've vascillated on pulling the trigger because I sometimes think it'll be more work than *I* want to deal with. Everytime I see a fantastic looking car, like Glenn's, I think I'll be fine with factory style bumpers, but then I see a pic of a curved window Super with blade bumpers and I change my mind.

I can assure you, if you go that route and post pics on the Samba, you'll get people saying, either, you shouldn't change the factory look of your car, or they don't like it for one reason or another. Personally, *I* don't give a rats ass about other people's opinion of how my car looks. I'm building my '74 Super somewhere in the middle of the Euro and Outlaw looks and those blade bumpers always make me think of the late 60s Porsche 912s, which
look fantastic in the Outlaw style (in my opinion). As an aside, I bought my car as a incomplete project and it had no bumpers or brackets.


Google images of "vw 1303 with blade bumpers" and you'll find the occasional pic. Also, there's a YouTube video of a road review of a blue '74 Super with those bumpers.

Best of luck
H2OSB
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(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[mj2k]

[mj2k]

I've got the bumpers and a cheap rear wing for experimenting, just waiting for the mounts now.
Are these holes for the Tombstone-type rear clusters?

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"I looked for silver linings, But you're rotten to the core" - Devo: Gut Feeling (they must have seen my Super)

[mj2k]

Think they're tombstones, so have got some on order. Also ordered a pair of 1302 front wings / fenders. The bumper slot is the long slot which matches the rear (the later triangular type bumper slot looks odd to me) and according to the site I bought them from they're slightly more rounded than the later 1303 or Brazilian type, so may suit the blade bumpers better.

Oh, and to go with the 1302 type wings / fenders I've ordered some 1960-63 American-style clear indicators - they're much more subtle and streamlined than the huge bright orange post-1968 European indicators, and I figure they'll fit in more with the 'retro' makeover than the LED headlights with built-in indicators I've currently got fitted.
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"I looked for silver linings, But you're rotten to the core" - Devo: Gut Feeling (they must have seen my Super)

[mj2k]

Got the 1302 front wings (fenders) today. I'm still waiting for the mounts so had to balance the blade bumpers on boxes, but they look a pretty good fit to me:

Same at the rear:

So I'm definitely going with blades

Only compromize is I might need to use standard Super steel wheels rather than my Empis - they stick out too much at the rear, so may earn an MOT (UK roadworthiness test) fail.
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"I looked for silver linings, But you're rotten to the core" - Devo: Gut Feeling (they must have seen my Super)

[Lingwendil]

Strangely I've always thought ealy blades look ok on the back of late model cars, but the front end of the super just looks weird with the blade style for me. However, the fenders that those two fiberglass companies make that are set up for early headlights look much better with the blade style bumpers.
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[mj2k]

[MuzzcoVW]

[quote="mj2k"]

[mj2k]

[mj2k]

Apologies for cross-posting in 2 threads, thought this may come in useful to someone and it'll get lost in my project thread.

Well, here's an interesting something which may come in useful to anyone else considering fitting blade bumpers to a 1302/1303/Super - the front blade bumper converters really aren't worth the bother of purchasing / modifying, just get a cheap set of original rear blade bumper mounts and modify them instead

I got some original cheap blade bumper mounts (15 UK pounds each) to play with - I was planning to try fitting them to the rear in place of the Empi blade converters since they do slightly improve the looks, but the small difference they make vs the Empis isn't worth all the extra welding bother:

Empi rear blade converters:

Standard blade bumper mounts (much cheaper, but would need bumper mount spot welds cut, 2 extra captive nuts added to each side, then weld the mount back on):

So I gave them a quick try at the front in place of the convoluted Empi front converters, which really wouldn't look particularly good even after cutting / reweldng, and they fitted much better

Empi front converters - would need a lot of work to make fit properly, and quite ugly IMO:

Modified rear bumper mounts (look nicer, easier to modify, and approx $100 cheaper):

Making them fit was a simple matter of drilling one bolt hole on each side (front bolt hole is just fine if you choose the bottom one at the front):

Edit: oops, looks like this is a picture of when I first fitted them to the standard bolt holes, deleted the wrong pic! Still, it gives an idea of how they'd fit, even if the angle's wrong.


Bolting it down, checking the angles / spacing matched, and welding the captive nut in (v easy for me since the spare wheel well's out but if you can't reach the nut with a welder you could skip the welding bit and use a normal nut and bolt instead):

Then as a final stage (and this might not be so palatable for some) - drill an extra bolt hole for the outer bumper support, fit the strengtheners, and simply bend it into shape. Metal isn't as thick as the Empi converters, so can easily be done in a sheet metal bender or if you've got decent arm muscles, by hand

Finally get 2 of the short bumper mount bolts, and simply bolt them into the original unused inner mounting holes.
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"I looked for silver linings, But you're rotten to the core" - Devo: Gut Feeling (they must have seen my Super)

[H2OSB]

Could I possibly see a pulled back side view? I would like to see the angle your brackets take, relative to the car (which determines where they sit visually).

After looking at your car, something dawned on me. I've always stressed a bit about fender grommets. My car, being a 1303, has shock absorber bumper brackets. The front is not an issue. The available Euro brackets can be used with no issue, as seen in this pic on my sold '73

(Sorry, I wasn't taking the pic for the bumper brackets...and I can't get a new pic anymore)

The rear has always been the issue. Cars with shock absorber brackets have a diamond shaped hole. The only fender grommets available have a round hole. So I was always limited to making a bracket with round tubing. However, looking at your pics made me realize I could push square tubing through the grommet, as long as didn't go too big. The thought being it would be more visually pleasing to adapt square tubing to some of the existing brackets. Round tubing can be used, but looks a little odd. Anyway, not sure this makes sense.

H2OSB
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(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[H2OSB]

https://youtu.be/5MgQ_OMm-Ls

This is a video of a '74 Super with blade bumpers. It has shock absorber brackets. The front I could live with, but the rear sits a bit too high, IMO

H2OSB
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(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[mj2k]