For the past number of weeks we have been fabricating a brand new bumper set for a 1930’s Packard 12 build a colleague of ours is currently undertaking.

At first glance they look fairly straight forward but on closer inspection you’ll see subtle curves in the blades and tapered blade end points where they wrap around the ends. With double curvatures within each handed blade it’s important we maintained the parallel straight edges along each length, we took great care in making sure we achieved this.

The chrome dome ends that are a popular design feature on this type of American vehicle are attached in an unconventional way – they’re just bonded in place – so we had to construct the end points in a slightly different way to how we would on a British car of this era. At the end of the day I’m sure they’ll look great when the blades are chromed and irons painted.

Each bumper is detachable from its ironwork configuration by way of a simple nut and bolt hidden within the end point. We were not commissioned to make the over-riders, they’ll be handled by our fellow coachbuilding colleague.

We left the bare metal with a neat hand brushed finish ready for the coppering and chroming processes.

Why not see our our full Packard bumper set photo album in our new Packard gallery.

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