I have this 1976 Cadillac convertible
that I bought a few years ago. My son Steve gifted me the money to
buy it. It was missing front bumper fillers. I thought it should be
an easy fix. I found out later that Cadillac = neither easy nor
inexpensive.
So after years of missing bumper
fillers I bought the replacements thinking it should be an easy fix.
The original material the fillers were made were of poor quality
rubber like stuff, and are not reproduced. If you can find new old
stock of these parts more than likely they rotted right in the box.
So you have a choice of fiberglass or ABS plastic. Neither fit as
they should, the molds these company use are at best poor.
After lots of research I found that the
fiberglass were less expensive but most owners preferred the ABS. The
fiber glass ones are sold by one company in Alabama and the ABS are
made by one company and sold by many vendors. I found one ABS seller
recommended by others at a reasonable price. They were slow to ship
and left out two pieces. They quickly shipped the missing pieces
after I called them so no problem.
The installation process was a real
pain. I looked on line and found a very helpful source for
instructions to install the rear set but nothing for the front other
than you need to remove the front bumper. The rear fillers I got
installed after hours of fiddling and cutting brackets and dremeling
the fillers to make them fit.
The front required removal of the front
bumper , parking and headlights. The access to the bolts to attach to
these fillers do not accommodate these huge hands I inherited. So
thanks to my daughter and grandson for their help. Then bumper
removal is not a one person job. Thanks to my oldest son for his
aid..
I now have the replacement fillers on
the car. Moral of the story Cadillac bumper fillers are a pain, not
cheap, not easy to replace.
