Grandpa, tell me bout the good ole days............

[grsthegreat]

They don't even call them bumpers anymore. They are plastic bumper covers. The real bumper is underneath them and visible after you hit something at 5 mph and knock your $1000 bumper cover off.

Well i replaced my 2004 f350 front bumper last year after i skidded on a road at 5 mph and hit a snow pile. What wouldnt have hurt my old 1975 f350 bumper destroyed this one. I replaced it with a factory front bumper, and i swear to all that is holy, that new bumper could not have weighed more than 15 pounds. My cat is heavier. My old 75 bumper probably topped scale towards 100#. But then they wernt made of beer cans

Its not just new vehicles with crappy bumpers.... but at least it isnt plastic

 

[Oaktree]

A friend and I were into CBs in the 70s, not yet old enough to drive and met a guy "Rambler Scrambler" who would cheaufer us guys around in his Rambler Ambasador. Thought it quite the novel if not odd car. But it beat walking.

A childhood friend of mine's parents always drove Ramblers. Most were pretty stodgy, but in the mid-ish 70s they had something called a Rebel Machine. In the words of his father, it would pass anything but a gas station. I was a bit surprised to see them with it, sure wasn't anything my parents would have driven!
His brother has a couple early 60s ones he's restored.

To my Dad, if a truck didn't have a radio it was "stripped down".

You used to see a lot of cars in the 60s without a radio. To me one would be indispensable.
From what I understand, GM offered a radio delete option into the early 80s...a co-worker at the time ordered a truck that way. Wasn't that he didn't want a radio, he planned to put in an aftermarket one and didn't want to pay for a factory radio he wasn't going to use.

Well i replaced my 2004 f350 front bumper last year after i skidded on a road at 5 mph and hit a snow pile. What wouldnt have hurt my old 1975 f350 bumper destroyed this one. I replaced it with a factory front bumper, and i swear to all that is holy, that new bumper could not have weighed more than 15 pounds. My cat is heavier. My old 75 bumper probably topped scale towards 100#. But then they wernt made of beer cans

Its not just new vehicles with crappy bumpers.... but at least it isnt plastic

Apples and oranges. In the old days a bumper was there to protect the car from damage, now it's a sacrificial component in a design that's intended to protect the passengers.

Back in the 1960's and up until sometime in the 1970's it was common practice for the dealers to put rear bumpers on trucks with their dealership name embossed in the bumper. " Smith Chev Pineland Texas" comes to mind..

Must have been a regional thing. Don't think I've ever seen that here. Bad enough that dealers put hard-to-remove stickers on vehicles, I would be very p/o'ed if one did something like that...especially if was an option that cost me money!

 

[PILOON]

Friend drove a high end PU that got rear ended.
The replacement bumper cost the insurance co $3000 + as it was loaded with sensors.

My Kia has a back up sensor warning.
Most times I have it off as all it sees is my trailer hitch and the bleep is annoying.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I seem to recall that in the early 60's, turn signals, seat belts and headrests were all optional, until about '68, when seat belts and headrests were mandatory, and probably turn signals too. When I took my first driver's test, we had to learn and use the hand signals.

 

[MossRoad]

Oh yeah! Me and a couple of friends went there three of four times each summer.
One Sunday we got there late and ended up having to park down by the timing lights. About 15 minutes after we got parked, a modified car of some sort got way out of shape and hit the guard rail right in front of us. Everyone dove for the back of the cars. No one hurt, all the debris landed insode the guard rail a little further down the track. Scared the bejesus out of us though.

Then there was this advert too: " Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! At Great Lakes Dragway in lovely Union Grove, Wisconsin"
We went there a couple of times every summer too, even though it was 125 miles further than US30. It was definitely a nicer track than US30.

A few months ago I stopped by U.S. 30 dragstrip just to look at the weeds. Sad.

 

[MossRoad]

Well i replaced my 2004 f350 front bumper last year after i skidded on a road at 5 mph and hit a snow pile. What wouldnt have hurt my old 1975 f350 bumper destroyed this one. I replaced it with a factory front bumper, and i swear to all that is holy, that new bumper could not have weighed more than 15 pounds. My cat is heavier. My old 75 bumper probably topped scale towards 100#. But then they wernt made of beer cans

Its not just new vehicles with crappy bumpers.... but at least it isnt plastic

Just yesterday I lifted the chrome front bumper from my '85 Chevy 1/2 ton. I bet it doesn't weigh anywhere near even 50#. I can pick it up with one hand. I might weigh it today, just to satisfy my curiosity.

 

[MossRoad]

A few months ago I stopped by U.S. 30 dragstrip just to look at the weeds. Sad.

Here it is from Google Earth... on Clay St. just north of U.S. 30 and east of I69 in Merrillville, Indiana.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Just yesterday I lifted the chrome front bumper from my '85 Chevy 1/2 ton. I bet it doesn't weigh anywhere near even 50#. I can pick it up with one hand. I might weigh it today, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Just remember that trucks are exempt from the law that say they have to survive a 5mph collision without damage or something to that effect.

 

[MossRoad]

Just remember that trucks are exempt from the law that say they have to survive a 5mph collision without damage or something to that effect.

The point I was trying to make was that even old chrome bumpers are not that heavy. As we get older, everything from the past seems bigger, heavier, etc... than it really was.

 

[tallyho8]

Apples and oranges. In the old days a bumper was there to protect the car from damage, now it's a sacrificial component in a design that's intended to protect the passengers.

Must have been a regional thing. Don't think I've ever seen that here. Bad enough that dealers put hard-to-remove stickers on vehicles, I would be very p/o'ed if one did something like that...especially if was an option that cost me money!

I didn't get the optional bumper with my 78 F100 because everyone sold generic step bumpers without the dealers name for about half of what the dealer charged for them.