Anyone ever wonder what was Ford thinking with our Aerostar front and rear bumpers? Maybe as brand new vehicles, they were okay, but with age, they are extremely brittle. Luckily, mine still look okay, as an '87 XLT, it's only because I beleive my 'Star is a garaged van, and exposed to little or no full parked sun conditions. I see a lot of Aerostars, where the bumpers look like swiss cheese, cracks etc. especially in hard use commercial cargo vans. No rust on our California Aerostars, but the factory bumpers leave a lot to be desired, in my opinion. Those of you, in real winter areas of the USA, the Midwest and snow-belt areas, I am wondering how your bumpers are holding up on your Aerostars? Even junkyard Aerostars in northern California, the sheetmetal, fenders, doors, door skins etc. are rock solid metal. However, 90% of F & R bumpers I see, have "issues". Again, Ford Motor Company, why? I think in an accident, these Aerostar bumpers are flimsy. Anyone else have thoughts on this? PS Just for s*&^s and giggles, wouldn't the Aerostar have looked cool with full front and rear chrome bumpers, from yester-year? Same design as now, only chromed. Even, say, as an option on the XLT or Eddie Bauer model Aerostars?... Yes or No?... Ed

 

car manuf.'s don't produce cars to last longer than 10 years, preferably 5 year turnaround for a decent ROI. Plastic and aluminum bumpers front and rear are the direction we hare headed unfortunatly due to fuel mileage costs rising and federal impact requirements. didn't I read somewhere that the Aero in impact testing had some of the highest $dollar repair costs in low speed impacts, the typical parking lot bump.
love the look of the old heavy thick chrome bumpers. remember as a kid, 50 years ago, snow sledding down a hill on a giant old Buick front bumper, was so large 5 of us could get on. would beat anything on the slopes, who needs teflon coatings.
and it lasted for years, think it is still at the bottom of the hill, bright and shiny as ever.

 

> I am wondering how your bumpers are holding up on your Aerostars

You are correct, very brittle and weak. One small impact the plastic is toast along with the flimsy metal support underneath. My F-100 rolled in my driveway about 15 feet on a slight incline and pushed it hard enough to cave back the front bumper enough to almost damage the cooler.

 

The bumpers on my '91 extended are still in perfect condition. My mom even backed into a tree at about 8mph back in '96 or so, and it only left a very, very small crack, which you can barely see, and it dented the rear quarterpanel...and again, you can only see the dent if it is in the right light.

 

The price of that plastic is $200.00+ without paint!

When mine gets bad I'll just adapt a Roll bar type bumper and mod it too fit. Nothing a welder and a few cut off disk can't fix.

 

Aerostar bumpers crack? How did you guess?



Note the wood and screws installed, keeping the shape of the left side so it doesn't droop towards the ground. Previous owner did that. I just removed the black duct tape covering to show it in the pictures.

 

reminds me of the Red and White Show, duct tape saves a Ferd from junkyard death.

Wife breeds a Ford F150 Lightning in parking lot at work with her Honda, $2000 damage to the Ferd, Honda-light scratch.
Lightning repaired on wife's insurance. 3 weeks later she nails the same Lightning again, $800 tail light assembly. Lightning owner now parks in different lot.

 

i backed into a pole going really slow out of a parking spot and CRUNCH! got out and it looked like someone shot my bumper with a cannon.

it is rather silly that they made the bumpers out of recycled egg shells.

 

i backed into a pole going really slow out of a parking spot and CRUNCH! got out and it looked like someone shot my bumper with a cannon.

it is rather silly that they made the bumpers out of recycled egg shells.

 

Well just to let everyone know..........

I had a tire throw the tread and it hit the exhaust pipe, knocked it up behind the bumper, Cracked it nice and long. Then warped the bracket that slides over the **** that holds the bumper.

So....I'm going to be taking pictures or the repair job I will be doing with a fiberglass kit.
Then put them up on my web site for all to see.

Will let you know when they are there.

Jay

 

JT,

That happened to me too. The end piece of bumper came loose and was bouncing around on the interstate. No one let me know. I don't know how far I drove like that. It beat up the side of the van a little. There is even a small chip out of the tail light. The bumper support kept banging aginst the cubby that holds the jack. It knocked a big hole in the cubby. If the jack wasn't strapped down it might have fallen out.

The tail pipe was hit so many time by the tread that it bent upward until it was against the body of the van. Eventually the bumper end peice came off. I had to replace the whole bumper (from a junk yard), the support rod, the angle iron mounting thingy, and the cubby. If you don't look close you might not notice the buldge in side wall above the tailpipe.

It was a long 11-12 drive on the interstate with the back end full and three kids. I only had a little vibration. Until the tread finally came off completely. You would have thought it would have been a whole lot worse. I like these Aerostars. I've got two.

 

I thought I was going to make out like a bandit today. 1991 extended Aerostar, dark blue like mine, for sale at a charity auction. I figured, hey, I can get front and rear bumpers, carpet, front buckets, middle and rear seats, a spare radio, four spare tires and wheels plus an extra donut, and spare lights all around!

I get to the auction and find that all those parts I thought I was going to get, were GONE. That van had NOTHING I needed. Seats, carpet, lights, bumpers, all gone. And four BALD tires on steel rims. I was so sad. I could have bought the thing for $100-$150. But the only parts left I could use were the right headlight bezel and the donut spare and steel rims if I took the baldies off. Not worth my trouble. But I did score a 1990 Grand Voyager with a bad transmission for $100. Still goes in 2nd, 35-40mph, and I'm hoping to either fix the trans cheap, or strip it out for parts and make enough money to buy a good pair of bumpers, some seats, some carpet, and other parts for my Aero*.

Anyway, upon further inspection of the auction van, I found it was an Eddie Bauer, would have had gold bumpers and tan seats and carpet (had a tan dash, well, what was left of the dash) so I'd have been disappointed no matter what.

 

Yeah way too brittle and I'm having a difficult time finding a replacement. Last week I changed the power steering pump and lost a good portion of the bumper by simply kneeling on it. Wondering if a metal ranger bumper could be made to fit

 

those are BUMPER COVERS, not bumpers. They are crap. The actual bumper is a steel thing welded to the chassis arms, so they needed to cover it up, so they gave the order "DO IT CHEAP !" and it was done cheap.

mine are falling apart and I am tired of gluing them. Nothing seems to stick. Raindrops keep falling on my head they keep falling...

Fortunately years ago I had purchased a flexible material front bumper cover, Still have it hanging from the rafters. All it needs is repainting. I don't know what the material is, but it is flexible, you can twist it, it is not hard plastic that cracks at the slightlest bump. Maybe an aftermarket cover? Must be.

I'm covered for the next millenia.

 

Loading some lumber in over the weekend, and barely leaned on rear (cover) and SNAPOW. Like many I have tried many glues and epoxys. Nothing sticks!