[gtobird]

Dataway,

I've been gathering parts to convert my non-hideaway car to hideaway, so I've been studying these same issues for a while. Here is what I believe to be correct

1.) With respect to the "L" brackets, those are only used on endura cars and their purpose is to reinforce the bumper at the jack slot, so damage would be less (or not occur at all) if the original bumper jack is used. I saw a video on youtube of a guy explaining this while assembling his 68. He stated that they can be left off if never jacking the car there. That makes sense to me as the chrome bumpers were much like any other car with all metal bumpers and they didn't need the support (in theory).

2.) With respect to the boxed in bumper brackets used on hideaway cars........... The holes in the bumper brackets for the pivot rods that open the headlight doors are located in a different position than non-hideaway bumper brackets. That said, I have seen non-hideaway bumper brackets with enlarged holes in them to accomodate the rods for hideaway headlight cars. What I'm unclear of is whether or not enlarging the hole is really the only thing that is needed to make them work with a hideaway setup. The boxed in hideaway bumper brackets look to me like they were made that way to move the top half of the bracket further toward the center of the car by maybe a half inch to an inch, with the purpose being to clear the backing plates and other hardware for the hideaway doors. I've been pinging people on this topic, but haven't yet received confirmation if all of this bumper bracket theory is correct.

Old Joe