‘Rubber bumper’ MG’s

S Line

I was reading a classic magazine and there was rubber bumper MGB in it. Not my first time seeing one but every time I see one I always think jeasus BL really made a dogs dinner of it. I am aware of the reasons for the rubber bumper (US safety reg. that also made them raise the suspension).

I always wondered why when they were new that people did not colour code them?? I know you can get a chrome bumper conversion kit and that the 1990’s ‘MGR V8’ gives us a rough idea of how it would look but given the ugliness of the rubber bumper I would have thought it might have been a popular thing to do since they were new.

I’m sure in the whole history of time it has been done at least once. I would have thought it would have been a very popular modification/upgrade

One theory I have is that that the bumpers are quite ‘rubbery’ and that even paint with added plasticiser would eventually crack??

Any Ideas

unfit2006

S Line,

as far as I recall, a company in the UK produced a kit to convert the rubber bumper Bs to a more modern "plastic" type which could be color coded.

I remember looking at this myself at one stage and then discovered that someone had beaten me to it.

hi5

Colour coded bumpers didnt come fashion until the early/mid 80's.
I suppose nobody thought of it before that.

Blue850

Buy a black one

kev1.3s

I have a car mag from back in the day and there was an advertisement from Baxter ( the pharmaceutical company ) for a conversion kit from the old fashoned chrome bumpers to the stylish new rubber ones!! so they were once seen as state of the art. I allways taught that in hindsight the first series of most cars looked better, they were purer to the designers pen without fussy little details that keep them fresh for the short term, so take the alfa 156 for example, the first series of cars looked awesome when they first came out but were instantly dated when they were facelifted and then again when they were replaced by the 159, will we be all looking for the first of them as oir classic in 30 years time?

Arthur Daley

I've never had a problem with the looks of the rubber bumpered MGB. They were of their time, the late 70s and very early 80s. Chrome bumpers are an older look from the 60s early 70s that would have looked dated by 1980, but I understand they did make a mess of the handling when they updated it, and handling is hugely important on a back road roadster/tourer.

It also didn't work in the MGBs favour that the underlying mechanicals were very dated by the time it got to the early 80s, as it hadn't changed much from the early 1960s.

unfit2006

S Line,

take a look at the MGs in the attached link. I think the front bumper is a neat upgrade for rubber bumper Bs. The back doesnt seem to look quite as neat.

http://www.kewengineering.co.uk/upgrades4mgs/Body/rubber_bumper_upgrades_and_rv8_s.htm

S Line

Good link!!

The MGR V8 style bumpers look a bit out of context on the cars with the rostyle wheels and all the chrome. Maybe with more contemporary alloys and some de-chroming it would work.

The picture of the green car (with the MGC bonnet) is just what I’m talking about. The rubber bumper in body colour – It looks good. Maybe if this was done by the factory the rubber bumper era would have been seen as modern dynamic upgrade to the old design which allowed to MGB stay relevant in the 70’s. Instead we got a trout faced jacked up joke !! Another BL mess up !!!

Dades

I don't get the idea of making an old car look better by doing something to it associated with modern cars.

If you want to convert a rubber bumper MG - why would anyone colour code the bumpers instead of getting some chrome ones fitted?

Reminds me of the final, monstrous evolution of the Alpha Spider:

From this:


To this:


Some rubber bumper models can be really great (but best in black!)

S Line

Just to clarify I’d be a chrome bumper fan all the way. I think they should have kept the chrome bumper. Take a look at a late model Triumph Spitfire; they seem to have US crash bumpers. They have 2 rubber blocks underneath the chrome – not the most elegant solution but a hell of a lot better that an ugly complete rubber bumper.

I haven’t done a price comparison but I would imagine colour-coding the existing rubber bumper would be cheaper than retrofitting chrome bumpers.

I have always liked the GT model and if for some reason I ended up with a rubber bumper model, the first thing to be binned would be the rubber bumpers.

My OP was really about asking why there wasn’t a culture of colour coding them back in the 70’s when they were new models

Dades

S Line wrote: »

My OP was really about asking why there wasn’t a culture of colour coding them back in the 70’s when they were new models

Design evolution, I guess.

Like low-profile tyres, they'd just look wrong on a classic.

kev1.3s

Colour coding was a late 80's /90's thing really, the first car we had that had colour coded bumpers was a Toyota carina 2 and I remember colour coding was the laest sales blurb and allmost the first thing yoou asked when buying a car! Never mind what size engine or how many miles on her lets get down to the really important stuff has it got colour coded mirrors and bumpers? so I'd suppose verry fiew if any MG's were done in the day.
Of course recently some manufacturers taught it a good idea to revert to the old way of thinking
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-auction-car.php/carno/2008-11-26-H&H-61

unfit2006

I have always felt that the Pininfarina styled GT was a very attractive and practical coupe. In many respects the GT was a far better coupe than the MGB ever was as a roadster.
I think the later edition GTs with the rubber bumpers seemed "easier on the eye" than the later roadsters, but even then some colours looked better than others
In particular, the special edition GT which was badged as a MGB GT LE looked very well with its pewter grey paintwork and special alloys.

I had a few Bs back in the day and this thread has got me thinking of maybe looking out for another one soon.