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Need quick verification - rear bumper impact bar Q

Jan Larsson

Jan Larsson

Administrator
Staff member
Can a few of you have a look at the rear bumper metal impact bar and see if the middle portion have double sheetmetal on yours or not ... see picture of mine and the red marks I put on there where I have an outer layer of sheetmetal on the impact bar (spot welded in place) and this unfortunatly makes them rust really bad and quick.

You can easily see this if you bend down and look per my picture.

Mine's been replaced I know that from the previous owner and reason for my question is that all others I have looked at (including the reproductions avalible) do not have that sheetmetal portion on them so just like to confirm what actually came on outs before I go get a nice replacement.

Appreciate the help !
 

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  • RearImpactBar.jpg
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robert lee said:
Neither of mine have that...
Click to expand...

Thanks Robert I thought that would be the case ... wonder if the later birds have the one I have or if GM changed them at some point and they were only avalible as spare parts as I remember mine had the GM sticker on it still ... I had it blasted and powdercoated when I did mine but rust is killing this one at the bottom where that outer skin is spotwelded ontop of the large bar :-(
 
Jan I will post some pics tomorrow for you since my car is apart you could get a good look.
 
TTA984 said:
Mine don't have that, and no rust there, at least not yet!
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike ! .... getting a correct OEM style one and it's all rust free just have to pick it up one of these days then when I got some extra time on my hands (this winter) I'll pull the bumper cover and swap them around ...
 
TTA984 said:
I took a pic of mine and it has the vin # on it also:
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, that's exactly what I see on other cars as well as any impact bars on ebay and the one I'm about to buy from a parts car on this side of the pond ... thanks for posting up the picture.
 
Jan - my response is a bit late but I just checked both my cars. My 1982 TA has the double bar like yours. My TTA has the single sheet metal. Maybe the double sheet metal was an earlier design? I have the same rust issue on mine between the sheet metal also so maybe they changed it because of this. Just speculation though. I will try to get some pics today.
 
Here are some pics of the impact bars.
My 82 TA:
DSC07432.jpg

My TTA:


DSC07435.jpg


I am pretty sure both of them are original to the car. The TTA still has the VIN sticker and the 82 looks looks it was never removed. The 82 still has crap on the bottom of her after she was painted, wet sanded and polished. I am still in the process of putting her back together.
 
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Looks original too me, I have the vin # also on mine. I wander if some of the early TTA's or low # cars used the double bar.
 
Thanks guys, I picked up a replacement from a 89 GTA last week and itäs the single sheet version and he also had an 88 sitting there also with the sigle sheet version ... he said he never seen a Firebird with the double sheet version however he did say that some camaro's had the double sheet metal version bar ...

Could be early cars got the double sheet version however the GM parts books list the same part number for all 3rd Gen's ...

So thanks for posting the pictures and double checking for me ... will get mine cleaned up and powder coated and then swap them over this winter at some point.
 
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