US to Euro Front Bumper Conversion

I did this years ago and sourced fiberglass bumpers from Rennspeed. Note I believe the early OEM euro bumpers are different than the QV Euro bumper in that the shape of the top of the bumper more closely follows the contour of the QV leading edge of the body making for a smaller panel gap than the earlier Euro cars. That said I don’t think it’s that noticeable and, at least the ones I purchased, looked great once done. I want to say Superformance sells a Euro bumper now as well but have not personally tried them.

Fabricating brackets for the front was the most tricky part as the Euro bumper cannot mount to the US front bumper shocks, which just be removed (secured by a couple big bolts). The rear involves drilling the bumper shock from inside the trunk to relieve pressure, depressing the bumper shock, then drilling a another hole in the bumper shock and using a screw to hold the shock in its retracted position. It’s really not that terribly difficult by does require a bit of fabrication skills.

I recommend that if you’re doing it to do both front and rear, it makes a real difference as it shaves a net weight loss of nearly 100lbs.

 

Depending "how much Euro" you want to go, you can go down this route. Not sure why whey don't do the rear bumper? But I'm sure you could just copy the same processes from the front. They just remove the bumper spacers on the rear! This mod maintains the factory US bumpers!

https://www.macarbon.com/component/virtuemart/ferrari-308-bumper-reducer-detail?Itemid=718

Cheers, BB

 

Sam I sent you PM.

 

We did this on my 308 GTB, a QV model. For the rear bumper, we just took the spacers out. I can't recall if it needed new bolts or not, but it was a very simple conversion. Of course, it's not any lighter, but it does look MUCH better.

We also did the front bumper, using a new molding, for which we had to make up brackets (I say 'we' but really Ron McCall did the work and I just followed orders) We added the driving lights in the grille and the Cavallino emblem as well, trying to emulate the Euro front end. End result was well worth the effort.

 

I'm in the middle of this swap right now on my front bumper, replacing it with a factory Euro front bumper. Yes, there's going to be some fabrication needed; I can see the U.S. bumper shocks aren't going to work at all. I'm also looking for a source for the front grill. I'd like to find a euro grill without the provision for the driving lights.

 

There is a difference between the bumpers and grilles in early cars and QV models.

Pre-QV cars have one less horizontal slat on the grille and the grille is full width because there are no factory driving lights on either side. In addition the center section of the pre-QV bumper is significantly taller to account for the grill that is not as tall. Most people don't immediately notice the front bumper difference because the front face is the same height but the bumper tapers to a different height on the back.

Regardless of which car you are working on the grille will need to be changed as the US grille is quite different to the Euro one. This of course is in addition to custom bumper mounts as the Euro cars have a very different frame structure and mounting points than the US cars. This includes the rear where Euro cars have deeper trunks. Lots of differences between the two variants but the Euro bumpers are very much an aesthetic improvement.