Collapsing US bumpers: safe?

[rogercv1 at gmail.com (Roger concha)]

my 88 still has the 5mpg absorbers

On 7/13/05, Timbo <timjmcconnell@gmail.com> wrote:
> ALL US spec bumpers are designed to take a < 5mph impact and the car
> will have no frame damage. The bumper may be
> scraped/cracked/dented/destroyed - but the car is just fine.
> 
> This aparantly only works on older sciroccos - something like up to 85
> or 86 I think.
> 
> Newer cars just have a solid bracket. Old cars have shocks with
> hydraulic fluid in them. Drill a hole, WEAR EYE GOGGLES - I'm not
> kidding - it will spray right at you. Wear a hat too!
> 
> --Timbo
> 
> On 7/13/05, GGehrke <ggehrke@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm thinking of collapsing my big ugly US bumpers, but I'm curious
> > what sort of crash protection they actually do provide.  Does anyone
> > know what the official spec is (i.e. were they designed to resist a
> > 10mph hit or something to that effect) or what consequence there would
> > be to having the shocks emptied?
> > At this point I'm not terribly concerned with doing it for it's
> > aesthetic value because the car's pretty rough looking anyways, but I
> > have them off for powerwashing and repairing a bit of rust, so I'm
> > thinking I might as well.  The car looks so good without any bumpers
> > on it, too.  If it's genuinely unsafe I'd rather just keep them as is
> > for now, though.
> >
> > Oh, and I just finished power washing the car.  Did a real bang up job
> > on the paint. Flaked right off all over the place.  Now the car's
> > literally about 6 different colours.  It was intentional, but ugh.
> >
> > Other recent projects:
> > My headlights died and I couldnt find the problem (sockets fine,
> > switch fine, fuse fine, etc etc) so I just wired them up with heavy
> > gauge wire to toggle switches on the dash.
> > New cable from battery to starter and ground strap to hopefully fix
> > other electrical gremlins and starting problems.  It does actually
> > seem to run much better!  It starts without me having to give it any
> > gas and idles more smoothly.
> > Painted my dash black to fix scuffs and petrified duct tape residue from the PO.
> > Seafoam!  Timbo was right, fun smokescreen!  This helped reveal, too,
> > though, that my entire exhaust system is shot.  Smoke poured not only
> > out the tailpipe but exited at various other locations down the whole
> > length.
> > Vacuum and febreeze the interior.
> >
> > Plus I helped my buddy cut his M3's exhaust in half, gut the cat and
> > weld it back together.  That was pretty fun too :)
> >
> > -Grant-
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Early 84 Scirocco 8v Alpine White
> Early 84 Scirocco 8v Pewter Metallic
> Early 84 Scirocco 8v Plain ol Black
> _______________________________
> www.vintagewatercooleds.com/tech
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>