1968 Pontiacs - the Endura rubber bumper

NY Times

DETROIT - August 5, 1967. The General Motors Corporation's Pontiac Division said this week it would put on 100,000 of its 1968 models a rubberized front bumper that takes a dent and then bounces back into its original shape.

"Wait a year or two," said one Pontiac public relations man. "You'll see it on all our cars."

The new bumper is made of a rubberized plastic, a dense synthetic urethane elastomer, which is molded around a C-shaped reinforcing bar.

If the bumper is struck in a minor collision - a parking scrape, for example - it compresses, then returns to its original form. Sometimes it bounces back immediately; sometimes it takes 10 minutes or so for the dent to disappear, and sometimes it may take 24 hours.

John Z. DeLorean, Pontiac's general manager, hit the bumper with a steel club at a recent demonstration and newsmen threw 16-pound bowling balls at both a steel and rubberized bumper. The bowling ball put a noticeable dent in both but the rubberized bumper cured itself.

Mr. DeLorean said the new bumper was functionally superior to any metal bumper in use. Its surface feels almost as hard as metal to the touch except where the bumper meets the car fender and hood. This section is softer, allowing the bumper to compress more easily against the sheet metal of the car body in collisions.

Today a bumper is more of a styling ornament than a protector of a car's front end. The typical bumper appears to be part of the car grille and the bounce-back bumper may eliminate small but costly repair jobs.

There may be some small safety feature, too, since the rubberized bumper absorbs more energy in a collision than a steel bumper. The more energy absorbed at the front end, the less is passed back into the passenger compartment.

But Pontiac men concede they are sold on the new bumper because of its styling potential.

"We've been trying to de-chrome our cars," said a Pontiac man, and the new bumper removes much of the chrome at the front end. It is to be painted to match the car's body color.

The painted bumper gives the automobile a cleaner and longer appearance. The paint is made of the same rubberized plastic and will not chip, as paint chips from metal in collision, Pontiac said.

Because the bumper is molded, auto stylists may begin creating new "way out" shapes and designs for future bumpers and front ends. These may have been impossible in the past because of the difficulties of stamping some shapes from steel.

"This bumper allows a new and unique design approach that has unlimited possibilities for future styling," Mr. DeLorean said.

The new bumper will be standard on the 1968 Pontiac GTO model

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- a higher-priced version of the intermediate-size Tempest car.

The "Endura" bumper, as Pontiac calls it, can be gouged and damaged in serious collisions despite its bounce-back qualities. But Pontiac said damage could easily be repaired by a car dealer. To repair a damaged spot, the damaged area is cut away, and adhesive is put into the hole and then sanded and painted.

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Repairing an Endura bumper:

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