1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Danchuk Smoothie Bumper and Grille Install - Smoothin' The '57 - Tech

Before loosening any of the bumper bolts, make sure to protect the paint at the fender. The outer section of the bumper is very close to the sheetmetal and when the bolts are loose the bumper will want to rotate and contact the fender.

For this car it's better to remove the bumper from the bumper brackets instead of trying to take off the bumper and brackets as a unit. You will need an 11/16 socket and a short extension to tackle the bumper bolts.

You will need to elongate the holes (bracket to frame) on all the bumper brackets so they will slide towards the rear of the car about a 1/2-inch. You can see the difference in this shot between the stock (top) and modified (bottom). This needs to be done because the new smoothie bumper has shaved bumper bolts so the mounting area is in a slightly different position, but we'll show you a picture a little later. After modifying the brackets, put them back on the car but do not tighten the hardware all the way.

Now the grille itself can be unbolted and taken out of the car. This '57 has aftermarket button-head Allen bolts, but stock will most likely be 7/16 heads. The best way to get it out without damage is to pull out on the bottom until it clears the lower valance, then drop it down to free it from the top.

After all the mounting clips were transferred to the new grille, it was slipped up into place. Once it was all tightened up, the center bar was also reinstalled.

Here is a good look at how the new bumper will attach to the brackets. Danchuk welds on these slotted tabs to the back of the bumper and provides a thin-head carriage bolts.

This new mounting tab protrudes back from the bumper and shows why the bumper bracket holes needed to be elongated a bit.

There is a proper way to hang this new smoothie bumper so you are not pulling your hair out trying to line up all the carriage bolts.

Since the very center mounts are not carriage bolts, these will be installed first. There are nut plates welded to the bumper jack support (the black bracket in Pete's left hand) that will sandwich the tab on the bumper between it and the center bumper brackets once tight. Right now just snug up the hardware so you can still reposition the bumper until you get all the hardware installed.

Now you can slip in all the carriage bolts. Having the bumper brackets loose will help in this step. Once you get them all in, make sure the bumper lines up with the bodyline in the fenders and tighten up all the bolts.

Here is the finished product. The new Danchuk Smoothie bumper and grille will set you back $849.90, which is still less than having a custom bumper made from scratch. If you want to make your '57 look different then the rest of them out there, this is definitely something to consider.