Stage 1 V8

For obvious reasons I'm going to be after a bumper. Would prefer a slightly "worn" one!

Let me know if anyone's got one in the way?!

Sorted with a NOS one!

Genuine Stage 1? Any more where it came from?

Yup, genuine stage 1! Dunsfold had it in stock, spoke to them at 5pm last night, went there for first thing this morning just in case they had a rush on!!

I didn't ask if any more apologies, but they are really helpful so worth a phone call

Phoned Dunsfold - yup, you got their only one

Take better care of this one!

I'll kill anyone that even marks it once it's finished this time!!

That's the spirit

What is different about a Standard Series and a Stage One bumper?

This is a can of worms, about which there has been some discussion on this forum before. What I would like to know is: is there any real difference between what I call a Stage 1 bumper (that fits to the chassis by means of the separate plates) and an early 90/110/'Defender' galvanised bumper, apart from the fact that (I believe) the latter bolts directly to the Defender/90/110 chassis? One of my Stage Ones has what I believe is a (black painted) Defender bumper fixed to the chassis with the separate Stage 1 plates and it looks fine (apart from the paint)

The defender one wont have the starting handle hole - which strangely the stage 1 has!

Which is why I asked about 'real' differences - there appear to be a number of merely 'cosmetic' differences which enable them to be told apart, the starting handle aperture the most obvious - 'strangely' (as you say) as it's completely pointless on the Stage 1, as the starter dog is above the level of the bumper on the Stage 1 V8 engine! My 'Defender' bumper also has part-drilled holes for extra spot/driving lamps and for those ugly, equally pointless plastic bumper endcaps you see on some Defenders, and I also think the holes for fixing the bumper to the chassis may be larger. Don't know if the angle of the brackets is different, as mine may have been bent to use the separate Stage 1 plates.

To address fireman's original question more fully, there are two different part numbers for the bumper given in the Series 3 Parts Catalogue. I note that Dunsfold's online stock room and some other online suppliers refer to these as the Stage 1 bumper and the Series 3 bumper, but the Parts Catalogue only refers to them as being 'up to May 1980' and 'from June 1980 onwards', the same time it gives for the special Stage 1 bumper mounting plates ceasing to be used. Someone else on here referred to having a later-type Stage 1 bumper with longer fixing brackets but I've seen no evidence these are any different from the standard Series 3 bumper Part Number 564704. I've never tried fitting one of the latter to a Stage 1 but Dunsfold said it would fit and Craddocks site says use that part number. The separate plates might seem a fiddle but I think they probably still make it easier to get just the bumper off and on more quickly, with the Stage One's radiator panel being further forward.

Anyone else got anything to further clarify, or obscure, this fascinating ( ) subject?!

Jeremy wrote:The defender one wont have the starting handle hole - which strangely the stage 1 has!

Geoff wrote:the starting handle aperture the most obvious - 'strangely' (as you say) as it's completely pointless on the Stage 1, as the starter dog is above the level of the bumper on the Stage 1 V8 engine!

I have on several occasions used the starter handle, for example when the battery was too flat to turn the starter.

In case I was misunderstood, I didn't say the starting handle was pointless, but that the aperture for it in the bumper was, as it doesn't line up with the aperture in the radiator panel, which is not obstructed by the bumper anyway as is the starter dog by the bumper on the 2.25 engine (No doubt the factory used the same bumpers as for the 2.25 but welded different brackets on - in all the publicity/promotional photos for the Stage 1 the aperture in the bumper is covered by the number plate, where one has been fitted, anyway)