Modifying/shortening NA bumper "bracket not shock." Need advice

[Finsol]

First some humor. So I'm at work today and the guys were asking me about the rocco, I was telling them about the bumper mod and since it was slow I pulled it in and took it off with the impact, took more time finding the 4 bolts than taking them off . I drove it home without the bumper and parked it, when I jumped out I was shocked to believe I came so close to smacking my lower front GFX I mean 1-2 cm from contact.

Onto buisness, here is a picture of the bracket, now what am I supposed to shorten or cut???

Modified by Finsol at 5:50 PM 9-28-2006

[Chris16vRocco]

OK, first, you're gonna have to lose the tow hooks. You need to remove the covers from the bumpers, they have tabs on the back that pop through the metal. On the back, you might as well break them off, as they won't line up later. Then remove the bolts that attach the bumper to the brackets. There's one on each side. Decide how much you want to shorten them. I shortened mine about 1 1/2", IIRC. Mark the locations for you new holes now, before you cut anything off. Take a sawzall/hacksaw/angle grinder and cut off the proper amout (mark it first) off each side. Make sure you cut the same amount off each side. Then it's time to drill ze holes. Bolt the brackets back on to the bumpers and put them back on the car. On the rear, you need to flip the bumper upside down (with the brackets normal) so the bumper isn't too low. This renders the tabs on the cover useless. You need to screw the cover on in discreet locations, or come up with an alternative method .

Here's the after pics of mine:

rear:

front:

[Finsol]

So you shortened yours 1 1/2 inches "from the bolt hole" correct? Or did you use another reffernce point for shortening. I'm gona go for 2 1/2 inches.

The upper bumper skin that's still on the car "visible in pics looks like a mustach lol" can be removed without effects? could it be left on the car to help blend in or better off removing it? I'm worried it's gonna affect the grill because the lower tabs are busted.

[Chris16vRocco]

Yes that measurement was from the center of the bolt hole. I didn't have very much room left to shorten it farther.

Those filler pieces are just for looks, you really don't need them with the bumpers closer to the car, my car had Euros on it before, and so those pieces were gone when I got it.

[Finsol]

For anyone interested in doing this mod these are probably the best how to pics there is for the bracket method "that I've found."

I hacked off the tow brackets and cut down 2 1/4 inches from bolt hole to bolt hole, I decided to leave the hole drilling to a local machine shop, I don't want to screw it up and they charged my like 10 bucks + I started to drillt he holes at it tok me 15 minutes to get it that big then I ran out of sizes lol. I test fitted the naked bumper and it sits much further back than before, way closer to the body. 2 1/4 inches doesn't sound like much but trust me it's more than you think.

brackets shaved


Modified by Finsol at 9:56 PM 10-4-2006

[Chris16vRocco]

Yep, that's exactly what I did. Looks like it's coming along nicely.

[jettasella]

Thanks for the link!
Can you keep posting pics of your progress? I want to see how yours turn out.

[Finsol]

Sure, catch is I work 11 hrs. a day and my next day off is Wednsday so I wont be able to pick the brackets up from the shop until then.

Once the bumper is done I plan on shaving/shortening the sides and paingint the bumper satin black.

[jettasella]

i work 6 out of 7 myself... i can relate to wanting more personal time....
however long it takes for you to finish this one, if you could post step-by-step pics along the way i'd be really interested the process... cheers!

[Finsol]

UPDATE:

I picked up the brackets, my local machine shop did a better job drilling out the holes than I ever could lol, charged me 15 for both wich was a very good deal.

Brackets once bolted on fit like a glove, I'll post the pic of the bumper with the skin in a fe wminutes, I need to go to the store and pick up a nw bolt, my rocco ate one .

[Finsol]

Ok here it is with the skin put on, final product as of now total amount shortened I'd say 2 1/2 inches. On my next day off "Friday" I'm tking the skin back of and seeing just how much more i can gut from the inner skin to shirtn it even more, then I'm gonna trim the sides off.

I think it's a great improvment over the stock length.

unfortunatly i do not have a before bumper length pic.

Modified by Finsol at 1:55 PM 10-11-2006

[Chris16vRocco]

looks good.

[crazycommie]

Looking good so far. I shortened the bumper by cutting the brackets also. I noticed if you really want that euro look you have to get rid of the bumper bar otherwise the bumper will still stick out too much. I used pressure treated wood instead of the metal and I trimmed the plastic off where the bumper meets the body as well as the sides. Good luck

[jettasella]

any shots of the rear?

[Finsol]

Mik:

Do you have a pictureof your front bumper I can use as a refference??? Also when you say "pressure treated wood" do you mean so it has a curver like the metal bumper?

Jetta:

Here is a pic of the Hideous rear, my next mod is shortening the rear bumper, these are both going on future Scirocco I'm planning on purchasing if all goes well.

[jettasella]

i'm pretty impressed with how the front turned out! let me know how much you intend to shave off the sides. every time i see a US S2 with euro bumpers, you always see the where the US bumpers were "supposed" to be... any way around that outside of filling it in at a body shop?

[crazycommie]

Actually I shortened the rear bumper, I have a big bumper in the front which was already short. That could be another avenue, using a newer vw brace which does not stick out as much and drilling the mounts so it goes in further. The wood I used is not curved. Because the curve is so slight it does not make a difference in how far the bumper sticks out. I also wanted less weight. Hope that helps

[jettasella]

mik:
got a link to pics of yours?

[mr lee]

click my gallery for pics of my shortened bumpers.

Mine are held on by 6-8 custom aluminum brackets. I'll take some undershots if anyone is interested.

lmk

p.s. there is no rebar.. no nothing, except the plastic covers.


Modified by mr lee at 6:44 PM 10-11-2006

[Finsol]

holy crap dude your bumper sits way further back lol, I'm totally down to see the underside. please take some pics.

On friday I am planning on doing some more modding ot the frotn bumper and removign the rear so anything to help me make it shorter will help.

[crazycommie]

http://65.55.131.124/cgi-bin/g...33b85
ok, here is the link to how far the bumper sticks out, I cut off and added the side piece after the pic

[Finsol]

im not sure whats going on witht ha link, can ya host the pics on imageshack?

[jettasella]

definitely want to see undershots of what it looks like without the rebar....

[crazycommie]

this should work now, I added the end pieces so they line up with that trim piece, I could have reduced it more but I like it better this way

[vdubkid06]

bump

[pbpube16v]

DANG you got that rear short!

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Man, I would really like to know how this came out. I got a zero dollar budget and gigantic bumpers I really want to resize.