The trials and Tribulations of Buying a Euro Bumper
I really wanted to throw this out there so that anyone who is considering this modification for their car won’t have to go through the run around that I did.
For those of you who don’t know me, I own a 2001 Egg-Yolk Yellow ZX3 that I am in the process of doing an ST170 exterior conversion on. With the lights and grille already swapped and rewired, I have come down to the biggest exterior modifications that go with that package; the front and rear bumpers.
The rear bumper is priority #1 right now as I need to have that completed before my cars inspection is up in October, on account of the fact I have no reverse lights at the moment.
First place I looked for the ST170 Euro bumper was the obvious “site-we-don’t-name” (still?) but that idea was kind of blown out of the water by the fact that, at its current state, the dollar is almost useless in purchasing anything straight from Europe. I had priced out my parts from that site about a year ago, and magically, the price for the same parts jumped about $200 US dollars in that time span.
Next I called BAT; British American Transfer, based in Florida. I asked the gentleman there about a possible special order on an ST170 rear bumper because I knew that they had both the RS and ’98 Euro bumpers listed in their catalog. He (Eric) was a great help, but informed me that BAT had tried importing that bumper in the past but ran into troubles with the ancillary pieces that came with it (i.e. the trim molding and tow hook cover); seems that Ford Europe readily shipped the bumper cover, but took their sweet time sending the other little bits. And that in turn cause problems at BAT because no one wanted to pick up an order that wasn’t all there, so the expensive special orders just sat in the warehouse gathering dust until Ford Europe got its act together. It made sense, and Eric said that because of that they no longer accepted orders for that bumper kit.
Boy did I think I struck out there….
….BUT. Eric says. If I wanted JUST the bumper cover, and I felt that I could find the ancillary pieces on my own, they would do it. So of course I was like, wait… what? I told him that I would see what I could do and get back to him.
So I wrote the owner of the “site-we-don’t-name” and inquired about just the trim and tow hook cover. He said sorry, but they didn’t break up the kits. Ok.
Hopped on ffoc.co.uk (that is another great group of Focus owners BTW) and asked in their for-sale/ wanted section if anyone had the bits I was looking for. Pretty sure it was almost instantaneously, I get a message from Tezza, the resident UK parts guru. Says he’s helped other guys in the states get parts. He was an enormous help, let me to you. Got me a quote for the 4 pieces I need, shipping price and BAM. Paypal and en route to the states.
Great, I thought, one step closer.
Called Eric at BAT back and said I had the other parts nailed down and I’d take the bumper cover. He asked me then if I had a commercial address to ship to, as the freight company tended to charge a little more for residential shipping. Talked to my boss at work and he said sure, no problem. Tacked the bumper foam and some sockets for the reverse lights I have onto the order. BAMx2
Done. Billed when product ships.
So I have all the parts for my ST170 bumper on the way within the next month. Not in time for Carlisle, but plenty of time for my fall inspection.
So that’s my story and I’m stickin to it. If you want a new model Euro bumper relatively hassle free talk to Tezza at ffoc.co.uk for the trim (he can get either the black or paintable) and tow hook cover and give BAT a call and speak with Eric for the bumper cover. They’ll hook you up.
-Slip
