52's without front bumper pics

[mfd574]

Wondering if anybody out there has pics of 1952 Champions without the front bumper. You see quite a few bullet noses without the front bumper but not much of the 52's. We are looking at maybe doing some customizing on ours and would appreciate pics of others to get some ideas.
Thanks Guys
Dan

[Michidan]

IMHO, Losing the front bumper means you almost have to customize the grill area as well. The grill flows under the bumper, much different than 50-51.
Here's the only picture I could find of a full grill without bumper.
I've seen on ebay in the last year at least two 52's with custom grills and no bumper, but I didn't save any pictures. I wasn't terribly impressed.
The second picture here isn't too bad of a job of doing a slight custom working with the stock pieces.

Start by losing the large outside bumper guards, these ruin the view from any angle but front. Then see where you go from there.

[fatboylust]

A while back I read that Robert Bourke had designed both the 49 Ford grill and the 50 Studebaker. As all of the 1949 Ford grill parts are available (repop), I wondered what might happen if the 50 Ford parts were used to kustomize a 52 Studebaker. I decided not to pursue any kustom options until I exhaust stock options for my own project. The marrage makes interesting food for thought.

[Michidan]

!!!
That looks really good!

[mfd574]

Hey thanks for the replies guys. That bit about ford is really interesting!! Anybody else have any pics?
Thanks
Dan

[52-fan]

The 49-50 Ford grille looks okay, but my problem is that it looks like a Ford. Maybe some elements of the Ford could be used to customize a 52 Studebaker though.

[fatboylust]

The 49-50 Ford grille looks okay, but my problem is that it looks like a Ford. Maybe some elements of the Ford could be used to customize a 52 Studebaker though.

That was what I was thinking, I just put the two images together to get feel for the idea of a custom front end with a tie to the Bourke connection.

[barnlark]

I still like the bumper version. '52s are just cool.

[fatboylust]

I still like the bumper version. '52s are just cool.

Could not agree more, I am resolved to stay all stock, but Dan (mfd574) was wondering what if.