US to Euro bumper swap on '74 Bavaria

[rblongboarder]

Another question for the community... I've seen articles on swapping USDM bumpers for Euro bumpers on E9's.

Has anyone done this on a Bavaria? If could could you post a link to your discussion thread & build?

 

[JMinPDX]

I’ve done the big bumper to euro swap on both an e3 and and e9. The process is similar on both cars. As I recall it’s slightly easier on an e3 since the holes for the rear euro bumper brackets are predrilled and are filled with plastic plugs that just pop out. E9’s are not predrilled. On an e3, if you use pre-73 brackets, the rear bumper will tuck close enough to the body to hide the large holes left by the big bumper shock absorber.

The front is a bit more involved. Stock brackets will not work bid to the fact that the frame rails that they mount to are slightly fatter on US spec cars. I took measurements and had brackets fabricated to compensate for the fatter frame rails and line up with the bumper bolts.
I have these photos from a thread on this site but I can’t seem to find it. The third photo shows the fabricated bracket with a slight bend to line up with bumper bolts. There are many threads on the forum that discuss the process.
Of course there will be some welding and body/paint work required if you choose to make the swap undetectable.
Hope this helps.

 

[rblongboarder]

@JMinPDX : Excellent photos. Great starting point.

It appears a spacer was welded onto the frame rail to compensate for the difference in "thin" vs "fat" portions of the frame rail underneat the bumper bracket.

I might make my bumper brackets slotted so that I can adjust bumper tuck relative to the car...

 

[JMinPDX]

@JMinPDX : Excellent photos. Great starting point.

It appears a spacer was welded onto the frame rail to compensate for the difference in "thin" vs "fat" portions of the frame rail underneat the bumper bracket.

I might make my bumper brackets slotted so that I can adjust bumper tuck relative to the car...

Welding a spacer is one way to do it. Or you can bend the bracket to fit the contour of the frame rail. The difference between the thin and fat part is about 3/8". It took me two tries to get it right on the e3. When I did the swap on my e9 I purchased a pre-made set from Coupe King. Below is a drawing, with measurements, of the purchased set. This is for the e9 may be different for an e3