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Q & A: Rubber to Chrome Bumper

Hi John
1. Loved reading your tech accumulated tech tips. Noticed the "sage advice" about converting a rubber bumper MGB to the
chrome
bumpers, and why go through the hassle?

I have a one owner 1976 MGB with only 31,000 actual miles on it. Got it
from
the owner when he retired and moved back to England last fall. I also
have
two MGBGT-(1969 and a 1974) that I brought for parts and the overdrive.
the
74 has lots of rust but runs well and the chrome bumpers are perfect. My
question is that if I have both cars sitting in front of me and I pull
the
rubber bumpers off the 76 and try to swap them out for the 74 bumpers,
can
it be that easy or is there a lot of welding and making of parts
(brackets,
etc.)) I notice that Moss Motors has a kit out to do this but the
bumpers
alone are about two thousand dollars, if you include the grill. They did
tell me that I can buy just the templates and brackets.

And two. I want to lower the 76 at the same time to chrome bumpers
specs.
Can I swap out the 74 gt front and rear springs to lower the 76. The
tech
book says that the gt springs are about one inch shorter than the rubber
bumper car.

If you can give me a simple answer on the two questions,
Why does the 1974 gt handle so much better than the 76 rubber bumper car?

2. Of course you are absolutely right. Its just that I had this wonderful
condition 1976 with very little mileage drop into my hands from a neighbor
who purchased it new. Then from there I bought up two GT's from someone in
Charlottesville, and then you know how it goes from there. Middle age
crazy
I guess.

Will the front and rear sway bar (and mounting hardware) from the 74 GT
work
on the 76? Or should I simply bite the bullet and order it from Moss?

The more I think about chrome bumper swap the less it sounds like I ought
to
be doing it. I am going to change over the su's this weekend though and
pick up an after market exhaust system. And then call it quits. But rubber bumper cars don't seem to bring a lot so I guess I'll be stuck with it.

Bobby!

1. You have to decide what you want. Do you want a rubber bumper
MGB?
Do you want a chrome bumper MGB? You already have the rubber bumper car;
it's already paid for. You could clean up and sell the ... read more