De-bumpering the Hobbit

I have never been fond of what 1970’s crash regulations did to automotive design. Manufacturers quickly adapted to these new requirements by putting gangly rubber bumpers on everything. In my opinion, the rubber bumpers ruined the looks of the Midget and MGB’s. I knew that I either wanted to convert to small chrome bumpers or delete them entirely. Since the old ones had to come off anyway, let’s see how she looks sans bumper.

Removing the bumpers is a quick affair with simple hand tools. The front turn signal indicators have to be removed from the bumper before removing so they can be used later. On the front, with the bumper out of the way, the frame rails need to be cut back to not extend beyond the grill. This was done with a grinder and cut-off wheel. The rear apron skin will need some as just removing the rubber bumper leaves the sheet metal boss and many holes behind.

The front indicators can be repositioned into the holes left in the front fenders. I used a couple pieces of 1/2″ pvc pipe as a backing to hold the indicator to the fender. I now had a gaping mouth that needed something to help clean it up. I got some perforated sheet metal material from work to fashion a grill. In the center, I removed the MG badge from the rubber bumper and put it the center of the grill. Finally, I rather liked the extra driving lights (though they were not hooked up), so I fabricated some brackets which protrude through the grill and hold the lights in the grill area. I really like the no bumper look!