[68ragtop]

Well, it appears its only for the left side..

seriously though I'll bet its some sort of adjustment shim. My car didn't have any, but I could see where fine tuning with those might make sense. I could see installing a few very thin shims on both side, then fit the brackets/bumper to the body that would give you the ability to move the bumper in & out a little bit without loosening the brackets. For that matter I could see doing that to the top bolts too. Would give some fine tuning abilities.
Hhhmmmm.

[66beaumont]

That "shim" is a retainer to hold bolt in place during assembly. Similar to what held brake drums in place until wheels were installed. Were still in place when I did my 69

[Greg Reid]

I don't think that it's for the left side only. Notice that they only show the bolts, nuts and washers for the left side also...and we KNOW that they are for both sides.

[Greg Reid]

Posting at the same time 66beaumont...that makes perfect sense.

[7T-GOAT]

Originally Posted by 66beaumont

That "shim" is a retainer to hold bolt in place during assembly. Similar to what held brake drums in place until wheels were installed. Were still in place when I did my 69

That correct...flat retainer, press on clip, to keep the carriage bolt in place.

Nice car and progress !

Here my similarly optioned '68 I had a few years back. Sold it to the guy that has it for sale on eBay right now...I added the hood tach, headrests and tilt column. I do know that 4-speed convertibles, with AC and power windows are quite rare. Plus you add the rest of those options and colors...Super nice find

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

Well, it appears its only for the left side..

Oops...just noticed the smiley..

[bkmont]

Thanks guys. The drawing I posted was of a 69 service manual diagram. But the part being a bolt retainer explains why there were two round retaining clips included in with my bumper bolt kit.

[bkmont]

Update on this project - Full trunk pan installed. Just need to do some final weld up to say it's complete. I am pleased with how it turned out. Although this 57 year old body is mighty sore from all the crawling in, out, up and over doing the install and welding by myself over the weekend.

Bryan

[68ragtop]

Looks great! Is that a one piece pan, & how did you get it in there if it is? I was always curious if they had to be installed with a quarter skin off or if they can be finagled in from the trunk opening or behind the seat.

[dataway]

Maybe in from the bottom?

[68ragtop]

I suppose if you where replacing the braces & could hold the pan up while installing them its possible?

Makes me laugh that I made a comment on this thread in post #92 about getting my car close to finished up (2 years ago). I am probably at the point now where I thought I would be in the spring of 2017. The details can be agonizingly slow.

[Gtozy]

Yes, also curious to know, I used a three piece just so i could get it i n there. Certainly was hard on the back doing all that welding in there. probably the most sore I had been in my whole project doing that.

[bkmont]

Yes, full pan with all the braces attached. The trunk was completely empty except for a 1" section of the original pan sticking out from underneath the rear bulkhead, the drop offs and wheel houses.

I cut the new pan's front section that goes under the bulkhead. I left about two inches to slide underneath the original 1" section to cut and butt weld to. You can see the original section sticking out from underneath the bulkhead in the pic. This section was still in great shape. I plan on butt welding the original pan to the new pan.

I slide the pan from behind going underneath the tail pan and between the rear frame brace and trunk lock bracket. I had to pull up on the trunk lock bracket as I wrangled it forward. I used an old wooden stool to help balance the rear as I worked it in. I did hammer the pan's flange section that butts up to the rear wheel houses to make sure the fit was not too tight as I slide the pan between the wheel houses.

Once in place as far as I could man handle it, I then stuck a leverage bar into some holes in the rear pans brace that goes between the drop offs. I used the leverage bar in the pan brace holes and rear frame rail to keep sliding the pan forward to line up the pan's cage nuts with the frame holes. Once the cage nuts were lined up with the frame holes, I pried the pan up to slide in the 4 body mount cushions. After I had all the body cushion bolts started, I then used the leverage bar to force the pan in as tight as I could get it to the rear wheel houses. I checked the rear section to make sure it was lined up with the tail panel flange and clamped it in place to the rear tail panel.

I then started hammering and clamping the pan to fit tight against the wheel houses and the drop offs. Spot welded in the pan flange along the drop offs. I'll finish up the welding this weekend.

Mighty pleased with the install it so far.