Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Squig ...feel free to move or modify the post to suit

anyone who fancies modifying the rear bumper off a GSI to fit the hatchback .. how to

The width of the gsi skin is the same as standard but has a tighter radius on the corners and is longer down the sides .The few hatchbacks I have seen have cut the middle of the longer sides removed the piece and joined it back together .
my method is going to be slightly different ... i dont want to spoil the lines of the bumper so intend to remove the wheel arch lip


Firstly, modified the clip slots by recutting the inner hatch skin to suit the outer gsi skin


The radius is slightly tighter on the gsi bumper so, slightly modify it on the corners to neatly fit the inner hatch skin

once your happy with the fit mark off the excess against the inner skin and cut it off.


Now the gsi bumper is close to the size it needs to be, but without the lip. Next trim the offcut down the original seam and mark its position on the bumper then trim to suit.

Offcut trimmed to size.
this is the offcut that needs grafting onto the end but as you can see its too long and the middle swage line is out
the only way i could think of was to split the offcut and remove the excess

I use the bits and pieces of bumper to make stiffeners. countersink the heads (pop rivits or scews) or use some gripfill to add extra support....you could use anything you have to hand to give it some ridgidity

you might have to fiddle about to get it nice and tight against the inner skin but thats the thick of it done...
all thats left to do is the prep work to get it looking like it was never cut
after a lot of sanding the bumper was re-fitted to my car with a couple of coats of base colour
finishing off with 5 coats of laquer


and thats it ...

Hope this how to gives a helping hand to anyone wanting to do this to their car , was it worth it ? defo!!