VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1928 AB Front Bumper Mystery

Need some help...Were there two styles of front bumpers for a '28? The bumper with my car has two spring brackets and medallions instead of one continuous bracket/medallion like most I have seen. If it helps, the car was assembled in late January 1928.

The car has only 22,000 miles on it and is very original with no body damage so I belive the bumper is original. The car has been in the family for almost 50 years and nobody remembers replacing the front bumper.

From what I have heard, with all the aftermarket bumpers, there was something like over 10 different types.

A Chev history guru might be able to confirm or adjust this, and my comments are about the States.

Over here in OZ we got basic bumpers.

Cheers

Ray

Thanks Ray!

I am not going to change it, I just thought it was interesting there was a difference from all the other '28 models I have seen. I thought maybe mine was a left over from the '27 model year or a '29 version.

Speaking about originality; after hot tanking the engine parts I found the engine/car number from the block stamped into the exhaust flange area of the cylinder head. I am still amazed of the originality of all the parts after so many years! I have a matching numbers car...

If the number stamped in the head matches the number on the block, that indicates the block and head left the factory as a pair.

Thanks Ray, that is good information to know about the matching numbers. What is your take on the front bumper?

I think it is after market as Chevrolet did not sell a bumper like that. The Chevrolet dealer may have been out of the correct bumper and picked up an aftermarket bumper and installed it to satisfy the customer.

Antique mechanic,

After further research I found some pictures of a '26 front bumper that looks alot like mine! I will source a '28 and sell mine...

Does it look like this "original" 1928 bumper?




Well why not?....maybe "Original" doesn't mean it came with a bumper from the Chevrolet factory?.....Anyway?

Good Day Mr Mack,

Good question to prompt another question.

Did a standard issue USA 28 Chev come from the factory with no bumpers, and they were fitted by dealers, or were they ordered from the factory with bumpers?

Its a diffeent story in OZ, as I have been told we only had flat bar bumpers with no profile.

Cheers

Ray

As far as I know the Fisher bodied (closed cars) 28s all came to the dealers without bumpers. I would think that exports were also shipped knocked down without bumpers installed. Domestic dealers could buy bumpers from Chevrolet, but if the buyer wanted he could take the car without a bumper. Also I am sure that certain "dealers" had other options for bumpers than Chevrolet. I have only seen one other Car with the tubeular front bumper and bumperttes, like those on my car. It was build in Janesville, Wi. All of my information shows it "lived" in IL until I bought it. It has the original Car Identification plate on the seat and the original Fisher body tag. I do kind of like the odd round ones, it certainly makes it easy to spot my car in a row of 28s and in a picture!

Also Mr Mack,

The round bar makes some tough looking 28. I would suppose a crash would have been a crash in those days, and any bumper would be better than an open and exposed front, but what would you consider would take the impact better, the round type as shown , or the flat strip spring steel.

Cheers

Ray

My 28 coach was built in Janesville. It has the fancy sculpted bumpers with one medallion in front. I was always under the impression that all 28 cars came equipped with bumpers as standard equipment. Trucks of course didn't have them till mid year 28 with the LP model and those may have been optional.

Down here is Aus. our 28 models did not come with bumpers from the factory. Even my 'top of the line' fully imported RHD Fisher bodied converible sport cabriolet didn't have bumpers. I have an original 1928 Saturday Evening Post Chevrolet double page advert for the CSC and it does not show a bumper which suggests that it was a only Chevrolet factory option. It is also shown as a factory option (only) in the 1928 Chevrolet Service News.

My Janesville USA build 28 coach came with the factory bumper which was probably ordered from Chevrolet when the car was new.

I have an original GMA (General Motors Austrailia) illustrated parts book that does list bumper bars but I think it is a US parts book which GMA copied for thier Aus parts. However they were definately not available as an option in Australia and I've never seen a 28 with the US bumper, other than the few imported ones like my coach.

But! there were many accessory houses supplying after market bumpers with possibly the biggest being Story Bros. Sydney who offered about 20 different styles.

They came in many styles, the flat type were called 'town and country' there were grooved or plain 'shepards hook' styles and even those 'pipe' versions.
Chris

I like the tubular bumper, it is easy to wrap a 2" Nylon strap around it and tie the car down in the trailer. It is original an you can see with some paint missing.

I have a 2 bar spring steel bumper, needs Chromed, but I don't have proper brackets that I received in a mess of 28 Chevrolet "Junk" a Ford Model T guy was glad to unload on me, for a small sum. He had to buy a trailer load of Chevy "Junk" to get a couple of 36 Ford engines-transmissions and a Model T engine I only had to drive up to Central Kansas in the aftermath of a February blizzard several years ago. This fellow was a real jewel. We arrived there after 5 PM on a Sunday evening, they knew that there would not be a cafe open and fed us homebaked PIZZA, after loading us up with his shop chain hoist!
Fine folks, indeed!
Some of the junk was two 28 engines complete with manifolds, distributors generators a Exhaust heater manifold, and flywheels, starters and clutches, two working transmissions complete with cross member and stop light switch, a couple of water pumps and a fan, a complete steering column with spark and throttle linkages. and three rebuildable starters. I stopped at a motel to spend the night coming home and a junk dealer, staying there that night, offered me $200 for the whole mess. Ha! I am still proud owner of the whole mess......

Well done Mr Mack,

You guys pick up so many parts over there that we can only dream about, still its the scale of manufacture. USA made over 1.1 million 28's and Australia under 20,000.

Cheers

Ray