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V8Festiva and I were at a local junkyard recently, scrounging for some Festiva stuff when I spotted a bright red 2000 Focus with it's front bumper dangling. Somebody in my noggin said, "I wonder if we could make that bumper fit onto a Festiva?" Ignorance is Bliss so they say (I had no idea if any Festy owner had ever tried such a transplant; much less if anyone was successful). So I unbolted the Focus' bumper & carried it over to The Only Festiva in the junkyard. Dang! It almost fits perfectly! We discussed it for a while & made a few quick measurements and I decided to take the bumper home & give it a try.
At V8Festiva's place, I removed all the front end lights, the Festy bumper fascia, the grille, the "eyelashes" and the styrofoam bumper inserts. We used wide tape to hold the Focus bumper as we fine tuned it's position on the Festiva. There was a considerable overhang into the wheel wells. We talked about locating the bumper more forward, but when we mocked it up, it just didn't look right. So we decided to measure, mark and mangle... uhhhh I mean trim off the excess.
Once the bumper was placed to my satisfaction, I predrilled holes with a 9/64" metal bit into the Festy's metal bumper box and sunk 10 or so 3/4 inch long hex head sheet metal screws thru the Focus bumper's mount tabs to secure it to the car. The lower edge of the bumper was floppy (as expected) & needed bracing.
Serendipity, the bottom bumper fastening holes on the Festy's frame were in the same vertical plane as some flat tabs near the bottom inside of the Focus bumper. All I had to do was to drill holes in the Focus bumper's lower tabs and make a semi-accurate measurement from the tabs back to the frame. I fab'd 3 braces from a four foot long section of 1/8 inch thick by 3/4 inch wide flat aluminum bar stock, bought from the local hardware store. I cut 3 braces from the aluminum bar stock and drilled holes in both ends (about 1/2 inch from the end, centered) to accomodate 1/4-20 x 1/2 inch long screws. The screws were installed thru the frame/brace and the bumper tab/brace with Ny-Lok nuts to help prevent them from working loose. After installing these 3 braces the bumper was quite rigid and didn't flex perceptibly when pushed on with a hand.
Now the sides of the bumper at the wheel wells had to be secured to the fenders. Interestingly enough, the Focus bumper was only marginally wider than the Festiva's fenders. I was able to bend the new bumper (it's all urethane) gently to butt up flush with the Festy's fenders. V8Festiva held the bumper flush against the fender while I got under the car to drill holes. I drilled 3 pilot holes (see above) into the fender sheetmetal that is parallel with the ground & snugged up 3 sheet metal screws (each side, left & right).
Then it was time to mark & trim off the excess bumper material that protruded into the wheel wells. I covered a small area of the new bumper with blue tape, visually estimating where I would have to cut the new radius. I taped a string to a magic marker & centered it on the front axle. Then I drew a few passes onto the blue tape, closely mimicking the Festy's fender well radius. Once I was happy with the new radius line, I installed a fine-tooth metal cutting blade into my Bosch (shameless product plug) sabre saw. V8Festiva held the loose end of the bumper while I cut the radius (working from top to bottom). The fine-tooth metal cutting blade went thru the urethane material "like buttaah" and left a nice smooth edge.
Once this was done it was time to re-install the lights. I didn't want to cut holes in the bumper for the turn signals, so I temporarily relocated them to the lower grille on the Focus bumper. I went really low tech for the time being & held them in place with plastic zip-ties thru the mounting holes of the turn signal, wrapped & secured around the vertical grille bars.
I removed my red/white-striped '88 grille and installed a charcoal/black '88 grille that was generously donated by V8Festiva. All I have left to do is fab a valance panel to cover the exposed bumper box that shows between the back edge of the upper bumper & the grille area.
Many thanks to V8Festiva, Smedley, JLock & Cal for their generous assistance & encouragement! You guys are family!
Here are some in-progress pics with more to come later in the week...
Bumper taped in place to adjust final position
Drilling holes for the mounting screws <=== added
Marking the new radius
Cutting the overhanging material off
Here's how much material was removed
JLock & her husband helping me re-install my lights
Lookeee! I cutted this here curve all by my own self!
Relocating the turn signals to the lower grille
The almost finished bumper transplant (I took a little liberty with some mild photo editing... the corner lites really are not black!)
Added these ======================
Mock ups...
Charcoal grille
Red grille /white stripes
At V8Festiva's place, I removed all the front end lights, the Festy bumper fascia, the grille, the "eyelashes" and the styrofoam bumper inserts. We used wide tape to hold the Focus bumper as we fine tuned it's position on the Festiva. There was a considerable overhang into the wheel wells. We talked about locating the bumper more forward, but when we mocked it up, it just didn't look right. So we decided to measure, mark and mangle... uhhhh I mean trim off the excess.
Once the bumper was placed to my satisfaction, I predrilled holes with a 9/64" metal bit into the Festy's metal bumper box and sunk 10 or so 3/4 inch long hex head sheet metal screws thru the Focus bumper's mount tabs to secure it to the car. The lower edge of the bumper was floppy (as expected) & needed bracing.
Serendipity, the bottom bumper fastening holes on the Festy's frame were in the same vertical plane as some flat tabs near the bottom inside of the Focus bumper. All I had to do was to drill holes in the Focus bumper's lower tabs and make a semi-accurate measurement from the tabs back to the frame. I fab'd 3 braces from a four foot long section of 1/8 inch thick by 3/4 inch wide flat aluminum bar stock, bought from the local hardware store. I cut 3 braces from the aluminum bar stock and drilled holes in both ends (about 1/2 inch from the end, centered) to accomodate 1/4-20 x 1/2 inch long screws. The screws were installed thru the frame/brace and the bumper tab/brace with Ny-Lok nuts to help prevent them from working loose. After installing these 3 braces the bumper was quite rigid and didn't flex perceptibly when pushed on with a hand.
Now the sides of the bumper at the wheel wells had to be secured to the fenders. Interestingly enough, the Focus bumper was only marginally wider than the Festiva's fenders. I was able to bend the new bumper (it's all urethane) gently to butt up flush with the Festy's fenders. V8Festiva held the bumper flush against the fender while I got under the car to drill holes. I drilled 3 pilot holes (see above) into the fender sheetmetal that is parallel with the ground & snugged up 3 sheet metal screws (each side, left & right).
Then it was time to mark & trim off the excess bumper material that protruded into the wheel wells. I covered a small area of the new bumper with blue tape, visually estimating where I would have to cut the new radius. I taped a string to a magic marker & centered it on the front axle. Then I drew a few passes onto the blue tape, closely mimicking the Festy's fender well radius. Once I was happy with the new radius line, I installed a fine-tooth metal cutting blade into my Bosch (shameless product plug) sabre saw. V8Festiva held the loose end of the bumper while I cut the radius (working from top to bottom). The fine-tooth metal cutting blade went thru the urethane material "like buttaah" and left a nice smooth edge.
Once this was done it was time to re-install the lights. I didn't want to cut holes in the bumper for the turn signals, so I temporarily relocated them to the lower grille on the Focus bumper. I went really low tech for the time being & held them in place with plastic zip-ties thru the mounting holes of the turn signal, wrapped & secured around the vertical grille bars.
I removed my red/white-striped '88 grille and installed a charcoal/black '88 grille that was generously donated by V8Festiva. All I have left to do is fab a valance panel to cover the exposed bumper box that shows between the back edge of the upper bumper & the grille area.
Many thanks to V8Festiva, Smedley, JLock & Cal for their generous assistance & encouragement! You guys are family!
Here are some in-progress pics with more to come later in the week...
Bumper taped in place to adjust final position
Drilling holes for the mounting screws <=== added
Marking the new radius
Cutting the overhanging material off
Here's how much material was removed
JLock & her husband helping me re-install my lights
Lookeee! I cutted this here curve all by my own self!
Relocating the turn signals to the lower grille
The almost finished bumper transplant (I took a little liberty with some mild photo editing... the corner lites really are not black!)
Added these ======================
Mock ups...
Charcoal grille
Red grille /white stripes
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