Been working on adding the bumper I had re-chromed 20 plus years ago onto my 1972 442 and it's challenging. It was on the car when I received it but isn't the original because it didn't have the holes for the OE bumper guards. I had it re-chromed but do not believe either frt or back bumper needed straightening. Seems like I get it in the ballpark and try to make another adjustment and it moves something else out of alignment. The car is on my two post and I have it up high enough to where I can use the tall jack stand to hold the bumper up while I move it around. I have most of the bolts loose enough to where I can move it around a bit. The assembly manual views leave a lot to be desired IMO! There appear to be two tabs just above where the license plate would be and the mounting bars that bolt on there and to the mounting plate appear to be missing?? Any tips, info or experiences would be good.



According to the assembly manual, there are mounting bars and hardware that attach to each hole here and attach to the mount that bolts to the frame. Mine were missing. Good news..... I found the missing bars!

 

Nothing on these cars is perfect. On a 71 i did a few years ago I got one side where I liked it and tightened that side only. The other side I had to bring up with a floor jack to get it straight. I wasn't cranking it hard but it required more movement than I could do by hand. Also the lift isn't great for this job. You have to adjust it looking down at it, not up it's skirt.

 

A picture of the whole front would help a lot.

 

Gary,
This is a two man job. Assemble the bumper with all the support brackets and frame brackets while it is off the car. When you go to install it should be the four nut and bolts that attach at the frame. Two people for this, one on each side at mounting points on frame. You can get them started and let the bumper hang down a bit. Raise the bumper to where you need and tighten.
Trying to get the chrome bumper bolts and brackets in after is difficult. Look at post #965 on my build thread.

 

Well, it's on and the bolts are tightened down. Looks pretty good EXCEPT, the whole bumper needs to move to the right about an 1/8th of an inch (and I'm not sure that is possible)! the whole bumper also needs to move back at least a half inch and maybe even up to an inch more (more than likely 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch). The elongated slots in both sides of the bumper mount need to be elongated that much to allow the bumper to move back! The gap, even though up to an inch is pretty much even all across. Not how that could be. Looks better than this morning though!

OLE442

 

Well, it's all bolted on and looks OK but still not right. First I need it to move about an 1/8th of an inch to the right. I believe that if I untighten the 4 chrome bumper bolts those holes in the mount are elongated rt. to lt. so I can bump it over and re-tighten.

Then, the bumper needs to go back between 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch but on the mount where it bolts to the frame horns, the elongated hole are already used to set it back and have no more space to move. This is odd. There is a bubba cure to this, and it may still happen but for right now I'll leave it alone and put it on my memory list if I don't see an adjustment that I missed.

I did find the two mounting bars that attach to the bumper just above the license plate area and will install them shortly.

BTW......I remembered other posts with the recommendation to put masking tape around the body parts near the bumper during install and that saved some paint! Thanks!!

OLE442

 

As a lot of these bumpers, yours seems to be pushed in in the center from an impact over the years.