Thinking of putting front and rear bumpers from a 93 SSEi on my 94 SE. I have found a complete donor car in a local junkyard. Besides the bumper covers, I understand that I also need the front bumper "beam", as there are cutouts for the driving lights. Is there anything else I need for a front and rear bumper swap? (I will have to see how my dual round exhaust outlets look in the rectangular bumper cutouts. May have to go with rectangular dumps. They are still on the SSEi.)

I have read here that the "body lines" may not line up exactly right, but I have removed the side-cladding from my 94 SE. Is there anything else that might not "line-up" properly?

I will be getting BOTH front and rear bumper covers for $200.00, and (now that I know I need it) have to get a price for the front bumper beam. I am thinking $50.00 is what I will offer the yard. They are giving me the grille for free.

No, not building an SSEi "clone". Just like the looks better. And I like to be "different"! (Plus, this SSEi bumper has the headlight washers, which I am sure will turn into another topic later.)

Advice? Comments?

Well, I have the parts I need, and will get to the body project as soon as I figure out how I am going to defeat the VATS system, which left me stranded today after work. Nice. AAA to the rescue. It really sucks to be a mechanic for a living, and have to rely upon a flatbed for a ride home!

I don't know if you were planning on swapping the body moldings on the sides BUT you can not swap SSE to SE without either some major modification OR swapping the doors themselves and the molding mounting locations are different between the SSE and SE.

But yes, you'll want bumper supports, foam bumper and plastic cover. As well as probably the fog light brackets. (I know some years the brackets mounted differently.)

_________________
Clay
1997.2 40th SLE-138k
1968 Bonneville 400ci w/TH-400-40k
1999 GMC Suburban SLT-191k
2005 Escalade 253k-GINA

I have all of those parts. As far as the side plastic "cladding" goes, I plan on using ONLY the front fender cladding, in order to use the rocker trim pieces/ground effects from the SSEi. It may look OK, maybe not. The bonuses I see are higher driving light position, headlight squirters (when/if I get them working), lower ground effects, and it will be different!

Now that my VATS has decided to take a giant DUMP, my priorities have changed. First, eliminate the VATS, and when running again, do the body mods.

Then it's back to the paint booth...that MAACO job lasted about a year, then.....well....friends don't let friends "go MAACO"! UH-OH!

I'm not familiar with the exact method, but I think a resistor can just be spliced into the wiring of the vats in the steering column which allows it to be bypassed, not needing the chip in the key, thus disabling it.

_________________
Clay
1997.2 40th SLE-138k
1968 Bonneville 400ci w/TH-400-40k
1999 GMC Suburban SLT-191k
2005 Escalade 253k-GINA

That works if the key reader in the lock cylinder goes bad. If the black box that controls the system is the fault, apparently I will need to buy a bypass kit for almost $200.00. Add in the fact that this problem appears to be intermittent...my FAVORITE type of failure!

Just today, I disconnected the battery for a while as I re-connected (soldered) the wires from the key reader (which I had cut and spliced together when stranded at work, forgetting that the PassKey black box is looking for resistance values from the chip in the key, not continuity ), re-connected the battery after about 30 minutes, and the car started right up. With a spare original key, and the key that I was using when stranded also worked. I think I have more than just a key reader or key chip fault.