So my dad and I are restoring a white 1977 Corvette and I was wondering the best way to get rid of the spider cracks on the rear bumper? Would touch up paint of the matching color work, or is there a better way to do this? I'm new to this restoration business with this being my first car that I am helping restore.

 

if it the original bumper cover it will need to have the paint stripped off with sand paper or a suitable blast media such as baking soda,and reprimed, sealedand painted. the plastic covers flex more than the paint and over time the paint will crack. make sure that when you paint anything on a vette you put flex agent in the paint. Cheers and have fun reatoreing the old girl.

 

Welcome to the forum. If it's the original cover, don't be surprised if it is extremely brittle and doesn't survive the process. [:@]

 

That's true...And is a big concern if the car spent a lot of time in the eliments for sure. Good point 73shark. Cheers

 

Aren't there after-market replacements for the front and rear bumpers and nose piece? On my '80, the nose has roll to it if you look close or the sun hits it just right. In time, I'm going to replace it as it seriously hurts the looks of the car when it's all cleaned up. In my case, it's the nose material itself and not the paint. I'll be looking to see what you do with your's.

 

Yes. You have three options. Original urethane bumper cover which is expensive but will fit very well. Another is a repro fiberglass cover which is cheapest but will require "fitting" and is rigid. Finally is one made of a slightly flexible fiberglass called Truflex. As the name implies, it is little flexible. It will also require some fitting. One plus of either of the fiberglass covers are that you can, if desired, glass the seam and eliminate the joint.

In the interest of full disclosure, I went with the OEM urethane from my dealer as I get a pretty good discount. Reasoning was that I didn't want to mess with "fitting" and the original lasted almost 30 years, so this one will probably outlast me.