289 Front Nudge Bar

[bernie]

Have a original nudge bar to lend, came from COX 60.. send me a mail

Bernie

[Migge]

[Migge]

[Roger King]

Personally, Allan, I'd take Bernie's very kind offer and get your boat company to make up a whole pile of upper and lower curved sections from his original (with or without the lower curve!). The assembly's a bit tricky as you'd really need to do this on a car, obviously with overriders fitted. Probably the best bet would be to talk to Gerry about this as his fabricator (I guess he uses Andy) must have a jig for this.
Not sure but I think the originals may have been brazed rather than welded. I would definitely go for mild steel over stainless because a) it's easier to work and to weld (and replicate), and b) chromed steel looks so much better than stainless which always has a dark appearance. Stainless also scratches much more easily than chrome, and soon looks a bit 'tired'. And don't think 'stainless' will never rust - my Mini has stainless bumpers, which tends to look more like untreated metal as it dulls, and definitely has rust spots! Mind you, boat grade may be different.

[allan horsfall]

Guys,

Ive contacted Bernie and will let you know how the project progresses. Thanks very much Bernie.

I have an idea about the bottom bend in some of the original nudge bars. I dont think they were intended to be bent, I think the end plates to fit the overriders were fabricated square, so to fit the overriders which are not square, they had to bend the bottom bar to bring the plates in at the bottom???????

Just a thought!!

Allan

[Roger King]

It's possible. Clearly some were curved and some weren't. I think the curved look is not a good one, though. Not sure about the bending to accommodate overriders idea though - I have tried bending these myself and even with a standard type pipe bender they just start to kink as the tubing's pretty thin wall. The angle of the overrider mounting plate is the reason these would have to be fabricated either on the car, or on a carefully-made jig. For my bar, I cut off the lower section (Gerry's wasn't quite right - the top is perfect, but the lower bar hangs down too far), mounted the top section on the overriders and tack welded the new (easy to get made as single curvature) lower section in place. Dismantled, finished the welding and chromed - very happy with the result. The expensive bit is the chroming.
Keep us posted Allan and Bernie, very interested in the result.

Looking again at Migge's pictures, esp. the black car, I think you may actually have a point, Allan. It does indeed look like that may be what happened. It would affect the fit of the top bar too but not much, and would explain the discrepancy.

[Paul Blore]

Wouldn't it be easier to slightly slot the hols in the back of the over-riders in order to allow them to be mounted vertically, or am I missing something?
I think Allan may well be on to something regarding the bottom rail and that had occurred to me as well.

Colin inferred that he had more detail regarding the lower rail, so maybe he can elaborate a little.

Paul

[Roger King]

Missing something I think, Paul - the overriders are mounted on threaded rod with cage nuts. Viewed from the front they are mounted vertically already. If tilted to match a vertical fixing bar they would tip in at the top which would look really weird.

[Colin Newbold]

It's possible. Clearly some were curved and some weren't. I think the curved look is not a good one, though. Not sure about the bending to accommodate overriders idea though - I have tried bending these myself and even with a standard type pipe bender they just start to kink as the tubing's pretty thin wall. The angle of the overrider mounting plate is the reason these would have to be fabricated either on the car, or on a carefully-made jig. For my bar, I cut off the lower section (Gerry's wasn't quite right - the top is perfect, but the lower bar hangs down too far), mounted the top section on the overriders and tack welded the new (easy to get made as single curvature) lower section in place. Dismantled, finished the welding and chromed - very happy with the result.

Now all you need to do to achieve complete authenticity Roger is jack the whole car up on the bottom of the bumper to get the correct look! Careful though, you wouldn't want to break the chrome, let alone close up the tubing where the jack is.

[Colin Newbold]

Wouldn't it be easier to slightly slot the hols in the back of the over-riders in order to allow them to be mounted vertically, or am I missing something?
I think Allan may well be on to something regarding the bottom rail and that had occurred to me as well.

Colin inferred that he had more detail regarding the lower rail, so maybe he can elaborate a little.

Paul

I'm still in the office at the moment so cant check all of this until later...but here are my reasons for being so sure...

1) The many many photos of original cars I have seen on the web, in books and magazines (Migge too!). I don't remember any straight bottom bars (but I'll look again tonight at my Steve McQueen book!).

2) The footage I have accumulated from period films of the 289 street car.

3) The (few, admittedly) original cars I have seen in various places (mainly museums).

4) The various models of Cobras I have accumulated over the years (although there the evidence is mixed to be fair - its curved on one high end model I have for sure).

5) Finally, and here's the clincher, I was lucky enough to visit the workshop of Bill Murray while visiting the Shelby American museum in Boulder, Colorado a few years' ago. He's one of the world experts on Cobras, and a world-class restorer. I had a little list of questions and when it came to the front nudge bar I remember him saying that he thought most were curved at the bottom (I didn't ask him why though, and he didn't offer any explanation)...those that were straight were most likely to be retro-fitted or restored incorrectly.

I rest my case! Certainly, if I were going to the trouble of having one made I'd want the bottom curve! And if a batch were being made, I'd only buy the one with the curve! And that's all I have to say about that!