Looking for over-riders and uprights - ANY CONDITION

If you get desperate, try contacting Adam Wright at:

1-518-705-1355 or email adam@unobtanium-inc.com

He is a business in buying and reselling 356/912 parts and might have something used that you could agree on.

Also, Rich Drewek, on here, cast some new nudge bars for his car.  Lastly, John Steele (JPS Motorsports) installed a set of over riders on Tom Marantz' Suby Coupe, so he might know where to source replicas, too.

Good luck, Gary!

They are an EXPENSIVE ITEM and hard to FIND.....both IM and Special Edition source them for their builds. GREY EAGLE has a website but NO idea on price or whether or not they are real/available:

http://www.greyeagleoverriderbars.com/

Yes, Grey Eagle is the real dealing has done several sets for me when I couldn't find originals.  Expect to spend $4000 if you go that route, plus round trip shipping.

chines1 posted:

Yes, Grey Eagle is the real dealing has done several sets for me when I couldn't find originals.  Expect to spend $4000 if you go that route, plus round trip shipping.

 

 wowwwww..I knew they would approach 2500/3000...but $4000 ?

Hey, come to think of it, didn't @Manny have a set made up somewhere over there for his "Black Shiela"?

Send him a PM or something and see where he got his! 

Has anyone ever thought of crafting them from Beetles ?

Gordon Nichols posted:

Hey, come to think of it, didn't @Manny have a set made up somewhere over there for his "Black Shiela"?

Send him a PM or something and see where he got his! 

Manny bought the real deal............

Alan Merklin posted:

Has anyone ever thought of crafting them from Beetles ?

I looked at the parts, but I'd pretty much be taking the whole thing apart as all the angles are wrong, the bend to follow the bumper is more round, chopping it up and then welding it back together and locally, the over riders for beetles are already very hard to get a hold of. 

I've looked around and last night I messaged a few companies and pretty much I'm going to be in for at least $3500 without shipping for anything.

I'm going to have to do the African thing on this one...........aka.....wangle something up out of nothing....lol.

Gary,

I did purchase  a used set of  the originals but the EURO version which does not have over-rider bars, the USA version bumper guard is a somewhat taller and makes provision for the over - riders. I will PM you tonight....

Cheers man. I did take a mold off a set that I was loaned from Roger that were the longer US ones. If push comes to shove, then I'll end up finishing the car and then taking a metal work class and learn to make a set....lol. 

I've already started looking into making a pipe bender to do the long bows.

Story of my freaking life.............lolzzzzzz

I've decided........I'm gonna go full African on this thing.  Stay tuned. 

If I were young and foolish I would try to mock up a set by heating PVC pipe to arrive at all the compound angles, then make a real set which I am sure the " Beer Buzzer" will go off dozens of times.

I live on FL Gulf Coast.  I see lots of boats with the custom chrome safety railings.  Apparently there are several versions of that chrome tubing (stainless steel, chromed brass and aluminium) - some is very bendable.  The aluminum is frequently used for Bimini top bows.  Many of the replica  low over-rider stantions are polished aluminum so good match there.  Looks like an electrical conduit bender could be used with some surface protection to bend the towel rack.  You'd just need to source the  tall stantions.

Stoddard has them but appears all the tall rears have the exhaust cut out - $303 each.

Diagram # 14

644-505-031-10 Front Bumper Guard, Left, Fits 356A (155mm) 64450503110

FYI, original guards don't fit the profile of the majority of replica bumpers out there.  There is about a 1" difference in bumper width/height from the original steel bumpers.  We weld in a piece and then cut a new profile, grind, sand, and polish...

@chines1I've given a lot of thought to overriders for my Vintage Speedster, reached out to Glen Eagle and came across the very same "issue" you just mentioned.  (replica bumpers are not the same profile as "real" steel bumpers)

Something I wondered was: you can purchase reproduction steel 356A bumpers for between $400-$600.  Could one conceivably purchase the steel bumpers, have them painted, and "bolt on" the correct bumper guards without any modifications?  Will the reproduction steel bumpers fit our replicas with no mods?

I know this seems expensive, but wondered about what does it cost to fabricate a piece of metal in the bumper guard, cut, grind, sand, polish, etc? as opposed to just buying a new steel bumper and having it painted to match the speedster?

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin,

They can be made to fit, sure, but bumper bracket location varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and while one of them may  match the original car, that means several others do not.  That's an easy problem to solve if you have fabrication skills.  Also, keep in mind that most new repro steel bumpers come in 2 pieces and have to be welded together, so it isn't simply a matter of painting them, there is a lot more involved...  but again, anything is possible with enough skill, but as a cost savings vs modifying bumper guards I don think steel bumpers would be the solution solely for cost savings purposes...

Cheers for everyone's input. We're going to try our hand at making our own. Don't hold your breath, this will take a while. 

Pics along the way would be great!

I think Wolfgang's mention of a place that makes safety rails for sailboats as the most plausible.  There was one near me in Rhode Island and they had all the stuff to do the compound bends and TIG welding, whether Stainless Steel or Aluminum.  Of course, nothing on a sailboat is ever cheap, but these guys had the know-how and the finished product look great.

Cheers for the guys that messaged me and I appreciate the offers, however the amounts of money being mentioned is way above my budget. 

I just thought that I'd show you what I made a while ago. I managed to get my hands on an original unit, so I soft plugged up the holes and gel coated it and cast a mold. I checked yesterday and the mold is still good. It needs some trimming, but the plan is to cast one and then approach Manny who has offered to cast me 4 of them. The smaller one was a regular shorter unit. 

And this was my buddy Roger holding them up to see if it was right........Oh you had better believe that I wanted this. Alas, the parts were not for sale. Still the angles on the cuts as well as slots around the trim was all right, or very damn close. 

Rich Drewek cast his own aluminum bumperettes here a few years ago --- there is a thread on it.  To do only 4 it was costly and he had a lot of hand filling, sanding and buffing .  I think they are still on PePeSpeed's Beck (the one with the Raby T4 twin plug engine).

https://www.speedsterowners.com...c/bumper-guard-nerfs