pushbar rubber

[sigmfsk]

We had a pretty good thread going on BBC about the pushbar. Eventually we'll get caught up here and stick what we know about the pushbar; in the meantime I thought the pushbar rubber could have its own category.

We don't have many pics of sufficient resolution to examine the pushbar rubber.

But we have the hero shot from the nazi bridge jump:


and this pic at LLoyd's, after Jake gets up from sitting on the bumper:



It looks to me that the hero shot shows black tape wrapped around the rubber, while the LLoyd's shot shows a non-wrapped piece.

I thought that the LLoyd's rubber looked like original CHP pushbar rubber.


from:
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=parts&thread=297&post=1534

but non-wrapped may not mean CHP-style, as this pic outside Ray's shows non-wrapped (at least at the bottom), but no bolts sticking through:


So I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but thought it good to get some pics up.

[tk826]

I don't think you would see bolts in that last photo.

What we're looking at is not the backside of the upright, but the vertical side piece.
If you look at the top of the upright you can see that there are two pieces giving the illusion as one (as you travel downward).
The side piece does not extend all the way down to the lower horizontal brace, also adding to the illusion that it is one piece that we are seeing.

[sigmfsk]

Hi TK:
That's a good idea about the vertical side piece, but I don't completely follow.

As a baseline, let's assume that the pushbar is something close to this:



from JKNLWUD's plans.

If the side of Ray's blumo pushbar was just like this, I can understand not seeing the stud, but it seems to me that the portion outlined in red does not have a side piece and is instead showing the rear of the metal that the rubber bolts to.

So I would expect to see a stud around the spot pointed to by the blue arrow:



You write:
> The side piece does not extend all the way down to the lower horizontal
> brace
which seems to be evidence for the claim that we would see the lower stud if it was there.

But you also write:
> I don't think you would see bolts in that last photo.

So I don't think I'm following your line of thinking exactly.

[tk826]

I believe the bars are very much like JKN's plans.

The side piece must extend lower than what it appears
(your red outline), and reaches almost to the bottom, but not quite.
Because, as you can see, the horizontal cross bars disappear behind it.
(orange arrows):


I believe this is the full outline of the side piece:


It only appears to angle off early because the lower portion is covered in rust, dirt, scratches..what have you.

Upon close inspection, I believe this may in fact be the top bolt/ nut:


.

[sigmfsk]

Thanks, TK.
I don't think the stud would be so high, or it would be right next to the end of the pushbar rubber. But I do think it makes sense that the pushbar had the horizontal piece all the way down, and the picture just doesn't have enough detail to give us much more info.

But I found this pic that seems to show smooth CHP-style rubber:



here's a shot from a few frames earlier:


from this pic:



Notice the non-stock drilled hole in the bumper, circled in red. Not all blumos had it. Here's the blumo after it exits the Cook County building:


But the nazi bridge jump hero shot blumo has the hole:



that crop is from the last cell of the sequence of this pic:



I believe the first pic in the sequence and this last pic in the sequence are the same car.
- same extra hole in bumper
- same rust pattern on white painted area above windshield
- same style spotlight
- same red area on passenger forward area of fender

And, notice that one has electrical taped pushbar rubber, and one has CHP style smooth rubber. On the same car. I can't think of anything that tells us about if the smooth rubber had studs on the back, but thought it was interesting.

[tk826]

I don't think the stud would be so high, or it would be right next to the end of the pushbar rubber.

I thought the same thing, but wasn't quite sure.
Because of what you mention, it probably isn't a bolt, but just another blemish.


Great detective work on the above post.
In the last photo it appears that the bumper has not one, but two extra holes (one on each side).
My guess is that, in the second photo shown above, the matching passenger side hole is hidden by the pushbar upright.

What is your guess on these extra holes?
Perhaps it is the speculated "real CHP police car"?
(And once had a different configured pushbar, much like the CHP car that is owned by 440RULEZ ?)

.

[sigmfsk]

Jul 1, 2012 1:22:58 GMT -5 tk826 said:

I don't think the stud would be so high, or it would be right next to the end of the pushbar rubber.

I thought the same thing, but wasn't quite sure.
Because of what you mention, it probably isn't a bolt, but just another blemish.

Another thing I thought of is that blu-ray remastering process sometimes changes things to be completely inaccurate, like the bridge-to-nowhere scene that removes part of the rim, and adds extra wheel studs:
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=information&thread=242&post=1321

I figure the reason the Ray's pushbar looks so weird is that the blu-ray is trying to give us detail that it can't determine.

Here's a comparison of the DVD and blu-ray:

Jul 1, 2012 1:22:58 GMT -5 tk826 said:

Great detective work on the above post.
In the last photo it appears that the bumper has not one, but two extra holes (one on each side).
My guess is that, in the second photo shown above, the matching passenger side hole is hidden by the pushbar upright.

What is your guess on these extra holes?
Perhaps it is the speculated "real CHP police car"?
(And once had a different configured pushbar, much like the CHP car that is owned by 440RULEZ ?)

.

Hi TK:
Thanks. You're right about the two holes. I believe it likely that the wacker-drive shot has the two non-stock bumper holes, but that the passenger hole is never clearly visible in the blu-ray, usually because it is hidden by the pushbar upright. The sequence isn't that long, and it's also dark, and sometimes individual frames don't have a good focus on the bumper.

So I have to go through frame-by-frame and find a shot that's in focus, with good lighting, where a hole would not be obscured by an upright, that looks clearly enough like a hole that I feel comfortable saying that it's really there (and not an incorrect blu-ray artifact).

As to WHY the holes are there, I haven't formulated a guess. If the CHP used a pushbar like 440RULEZs pushbar (lower portion bolted to the front of the bumper), then this might tell us something. But from what I can gather, the CHP used a pushbar that bolted to the frame underneath the bumper. So I just don't know, but it is a tantalizing tidbit.

[tk826]

The bottom edge of the side piece is another aspect that had me puzzled.
In the Blu-ray photo it appears to be cut at a slight angle.
I thought, if this is true, perhaps in this instance it was just a lazy cut
by whomever built that particular set of bars.

But, looking at the original DVD photo, it appears that the side piece was in fact cut straight across the bottom, as it should be.

In fact the the entire set-up, in DVD photo, looks to be a lot more true to the original piece, than the forced perspective of the Blu-ray.
Although the Blu-ray did do a nice job of cleaning up the top portion of the bars.