bill curnick

I am putting together a 1972 Cutlass and have two front fender braces that are marked R (assume passenger side) and L (drivers side). The L fits perfect the R has a sharper bend in it ( maybe it was bent) and does not fit. It does not look bent looks like it was made this way. Curious if anyone has any ideas before I bend it back, Pretty sure I have the slotted end in the correct position.

Top bar is marked R

green1972

Pretty sure those are the center bumper supports Tim

don71

I agree, those are bumper braces.

classicmuscle442

Could they be the upper fender braces from a W car, that attach to the third hood hinge bolt hole.

vette442

No, the W car fender braces are curved and much longer. What the OP posted are front bumper brackets that shoot out to each side from the heavier center bracket. I'll see if I have a pic from one of my '72s.

Terry

vette442

bill curnick

Great pictures thanks, what I can't tell is if the two brackets are bent the same angle. Again my problem is that it does not fit. So in the bottom photo you can see the top bracket has a sharper bend than the bottom bracket. Your brackets look the same to me so I am thinking mine was bent at some time, but I can't see yours good enough. I know I am over thinking this but before I started to bend a bracket thought I would check, thank you for your time!

joe_padavano

Those struts are supposed to be mirror images of each other, so clearly the bumper they were bolted to got tweaked at some point in the last half century.