Much of the time, car modifi- cations are drastic and in your face: top chops, mean rakes, wild paint, ridiculous motors. And then there are times when we get the crazy idea to make changes that only a handful of people will notice, but that subtly can make or break the look of a car. This is one of the latter.
Car designers of the '50s were encouraging the "longer is better" ethos, and while custom car builders then and today might agree in some respects, there are times when this philosophy backfires. Take a look at the cow catcher on the front of a '55 Chevy, for instance.
Remedying this problem is a big job for what some might call a small reward. Personally (and personal taste is what hot rodding is all about, right?), I think it would have ruined the look of this car to have left the front bumper stock; it would have been worthwhile to shorten it at twice the time and money invested. You be the judge.
Roy wanted subtle custom mods...
Roy wanted subtle custom mods all along, so we decided to move the bumper in 1 1/2 inches. Any farther and the front end starts to look stubby. We needed to section the apron and shorten the brackets and framehorns so we made a simple sheetmetal template 1 1/2 inches wide by 3 feet long.
If you decide to take on a job like this, there are a few things to keep in mind initially. First, make sure all of the sheetmetal on your car is aligned properly. Shim and gap your fenders and hood, fit your grille, and shim the radiator support. When you tuck in a bumper, clearances get very small and a slight change in the alignment of the front sheetmetal can be a big headache during final fit.
Second, too much is usually worse than none at all. Just because you're going through all the work to move your bumper a matter of inches, you don't need to move it a lot just for good measure. Try it on in a few locations, stand back, and take a good look at it. Come back in the morning and look at it again. If an inch looks best, weld it up.
Lastly, make sure your bumper is straight. We sent this bumper out to get straightened and prepped for chrome before we began so we could be sure we were starting with a straight piece and that it would be the same shape once it was chromed. You'll have to shorten the ends of the "wraparounds" on your bumper, so re-chroming will be necessary unless you're OK with a little bit of silver paint.
Most cars from the '50s have sheetmetal aprons covering the bumper brackets. You need to be proficient at welding sheetmetal if this is the case. You'll need a welder, a set of body hammers and dollies, an assortment of vice grips, and a die-grinder equipped with a cutoff wheel. And a lot of patience.
The '55 Chevy has a brace...
The '55 Chevy has a brace under the center of the apron. We didn't want to cut out the entire 1 1/2 inches yet, so we cut through the center of the brace, leaving it long enough to clamp together later.
We determined our inner cut...
We determined our inner cut line for the fender aprons by choosing a spot that wouldn't change the overall height of the apron's front lip. If our cut was made any farther in (toward the rear of the car), our apron would get higher as we moved it in.
We cleaned up the edge with...
We cleaned up the edge with a small grinder because we wanted the fender edge to be as smooth as possible so we could use it to scribe our apron for the second cut.
Once we had the apron cut,...
Once we had the apron cut, we used the center brace of the apron to clamp our pieces together with a vice grip for a test-fit. This close-up shows both how much the apron has been shortened and how clean our seam is.
We sprayed the apron with...
We sprayed the apron with layout dye (we could've used a Sharpie, but we wanted this cut to be as precise as possible, so a scribe was preferred).
Instead of making a template...
Instead of making a template for our second cut, we used the apron section itself to mark the second cut on the fender. We made sure the apron fit nicely under the fender before proceeding.
Here we can see exactly how...
Here we can see exactly how much material will be removed from the fender aprons. The cut will not be exactly 1 1/2 inches all the way across because of the compound curves of the aprons.
We used our cutoff wheel,...
We used our cutoff wheel, and again cut on the backside (toward the rear of the car) of our line. We then filed the cut to more accurately match our scribe mark and tacked the aprons in place.
We then mocked the bumper...
We then mocked the bumper in place using vice grips to hold the brackets 1 1/2 inches behind the original boltholes. We were very happy with the new look, so we could start welding everything in place.
We then turned our attention...
We then turned our attention to the brace underneath the center apron. It still overlapped since we didn't section it initially. Now that we knew everything lined up properly, we could cut it.
The basic look and shape of...
The basic look and shape of the front apron was established, but we needed to cut the framehorns before we could check the fit of the bumper. Roy used an Art Morrison frame under his '55, but the concept is the same for stock framehorns.
Since we were happy with the...
Since we were happy with the new location of the bumper, we drilled new holes to secure the bumper brackets to the frame. We measured 1 1/2 inches back from the original holes and drilled pilot holes.
We removed the bumper and...
We removed the bumper and started welding. The center apron lined up all the way across, so we went ahead and finished it. A large portion of the fender aprons lined up, so we welded across the top and outer edge.
We used a small shot bag and...
We used a small shot bag and a T-head body hammer to form the apron. We placed the shot bag underneath the seam and held it as tight as possible while hammering and stretching the high portion of the apron into shape.
With the aprons finished,...
With the aprons finished, we needed to clean up the ends of the framehorns. We saved the rounded ends we cut off of the framehorns to use as a template.
With a few careful hits, the...
With a few careful hits, the apron sections lined up perfectly into one smooth reveal. We filled the small gap at the center apron with a small piece out of sheetmetal bent 90 degrees and welded in place along with the rest of the seam.
We cut straight across the...
We cut straight across the tops and bottoms of the frame so our filler piece will butt up smoothly against them. To recreate the round horn end, we used a piece of 1 3/4-inch round tube.
The aprons looked like they...
The aprons looked like they were always that length after the high spots of the welds were ground with a cutoff wheel, hammer-finished, and smoothed with a 60-grit, 3-inch sanding disc.
After welding up the horns...
After welding up the horns and grinding the welds down, our framehorns look like they came from the factory. Well Art Morrison's factory.
Fortunately, the stock bumper...
Fortunately, the stock bumper braces are one shape their entire length, so we just needed to take a small section out and weld them back up. We first made a straight cut through the center and then measured slightly less than 1 1/2 inches for our second cut. Since the brackets sit at an angle, they weren't shortened quite as much as the bumper was.
With all of our braces in...
With all of our braces in place, we turned our attention to finishing off the bumper ends. Here you can see how far the bumper initially overhangs the fender opening. We considered two options on how to finish off the bumper ends.
We decided to make end caps...
We decided to make end caps to fill up the negative space between the bumper and the body after looking at the bumper ends from the rear of the car.
On this particular car, we...
On this particular car, we welded up the factory seam where the lower portion of the fender apron bolts to the upper part of the fender.
After removing the bumper,...
After removing the bumper, we cut off the excess portion of the bumper ends, leaving plenty of material to grind later in order to fine tune the fit of the bumper to the wheelwell.
It's hard to tell anything...
It's hard to tell anything has been done once the car is painted and chromed, but we feel the bumper would have been too conspicuous if it was in the stock location. Sometimes subtlety takes a lot of work, but the result is worth it.