Removing bumper beam
Do our cars experience "sag" when the inner bumper beam + shocks are removed? Replacing the front bumper on my Lebaron and thought it would be a good idea to make the car less nose heavy (The Lebaron beam is much heavier than the Daytona beam). I believe some do it to make room for intercoolers; just wondering will I have any issues with bumper sag. Thanks in advance.
I can only speak to the P body cars. The front bumper holds up the bumper cover and the cover actually bolts to it. I can't see it doing well without the bumper in there at all.
The 94 Duster that I used to race did not have the rear bumper cover sag when the bumper and supports were removed.....because I used nylon zip ties in maybe 6 locations through drilled holes to hold it in place.
[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]47 Time NHRA/IHRA drag race champ-----84 Plymouth Horizon/1 of 84 HO equipped from the factory/1910 lbs, 2.5 with carb, nearly 315,000 miles-----04 SRT4/S2 with S3 turbo/12.17 @ 119/DOTs/93 Octane/SOLD-----2003 PT Cruiser GT, won a True Street class at the 2017 National Muscle Car Association World Street Finals-----2010 Toyota Prius/my delivery truck, 77.9 mpg best and NOT A PLUG IN, nearly 230,000 miles and way over 5600 miles per month! [/COLOR][/SIZE]
I think I will just leave it on, I like this car too much for it to get backed into w/o a bumper nor do I want zipties all over the place lol. I think I will just go with lighter seats instead.Thanks again.
Just did this to the rear bumper like ATaylor with great results.The car feels quite more nimbler than before and I did not even have to use zipties as everything was still solid with no sags. I might reconsider taking out the front beam if the rear is any indicator on how the front bumper will turn out. The Lebaron is so nose heavy in turns you can feel it..
ive done it to an aries before but i welded a electrical conduit support under the cover so it wouldnt sag.
someone rear ended me and it poked a few holes in the front end of their car. i didnt care (150$ winter beater) and he didnt want to deal with insurance cost increases so we both left.
Brian
Originally Posted by turbovanman
Just now got both supports removed. Holy hell you would not believe how much better the car handles and accelerates; it is a whole different machine. The car no longer feels "nose heavy" around corners and feels like a much lighter platform. Even steering feedback is dramatically quicker. Here are a couple of pictures of how she sits now. Wish there were easier options for lowering K based cars. The car really raised up. No zipties needed for either the front or rear.
its easy to lower. neon struts front, cut aftermarket jeep springs rear and some shorter shocks. slammed.
Just removed that from the front bumper of my 1st gen Neon and used four zip ties across the front to hold it up...looks better than it did before as to gaps.
[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]47 Time NHRA/IHRA drag race champ-----84 Plymouth Horizon/1 of 84 HO equipped from the factory/1910 lbs, 2.5 with carb, nearly 315,000 miles-----04 SRT4/S2 with S3 turbo/12.17 @ 119/DOTs/93 Octane/SOLD-----2003 PT Cruiser GT, won a True Street class at the 2017 National Muscle Car Association World Street Finals-----2010 Toyota Prius/my delivery truck, 77.9 mpg best and NOT A PLUG IN, nearly 230,000 miles and way over 5600 miles per month! [/COLOR][/SIZE]
OK, I haven't had the front end of my L body apart, I'm not sure of which part exactly you all are talking about. I fix late model wrecked cars daily, and it sounds like this part (bumper beam, bumper re-inforcement, etc.) is the part that bolts or welds to the end of both front frame-rails. I've got an SRT Neon that i have had very much apart, people on the SRTForums were removing this part to fit bigger intercoolers.
To cut right to the chase, removing this part will NEGATIVELY effect the handling and crash-ability of your car. Without this part your framerails are not connected, and they will flex much more than the engineers at Chrysler ever intended them to. The Re-Bar (slang in the Auto-Body trade) is an integral, structural part of the vehicle and should not be discarded on a whim
maybe on the newer cars its structural but on the old stuff, its pretty flimsy.... especially the rear bumper support. my old winter beater aries was just about 100% rust when i removed it and replaced it with electrical conduit to hold the cover up.
on some cars, its plastic.
i dont remove mine because i dont want the car instantly totalled if someone hits me or i pop a brake line or something like that.
if i remove mine on the front a piece of bent up DOM steel tubing is going to connect those points that will be stronger than my original bumper. it will still total the car in a crash though because the original one is designed to crumple or snap spot welds to absorb the impact to protect the shape of the structure in a crash.
Brian
Removing the bumper supports on a street car is a really bad idea and could get you killed. The weight saved is minimal. Really, How much weight are you saving? Lets say its 50lbs. That's not even the weight of having a medium sized dog riding with you. All that for the butt dyno feel? Keep it on, ride safe and stay alive. You could achieve better results by removing non structural stuff. Also, That stuff works with the rigidity of the car and the crumple zones.
I agree. I'd be hesitant to even remove the crash bars from a track only car because of the rigidity factor, and I'd never remove them from a street car. I like my knees and feet where they belong.
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