[north]

The factors that become more important than the actual assembly manual is that we have to face certain realities such as bumpers that are not straight and true to their blueprints, rear body cushions that have either collapsed somewhat or have been replaced with cushions that may be different thickness or hardness than factory specified and most important is bodies and frames that might have been bent or twisted after 53 years of life.

My key goal when mounting a bumper is to get a sense of evenness around the taillight bezels and upper rear of the quarters. From side view I strive to get the bumper to have an even gap along the vertical pocket formed into the back of the quarter.

I have six cars that use that bumper and my success level varied greatly from car to car…

My brown GTO ragtop (pictured above) has the best end result because the car was never bumped and the bumper is the untouched straight original.

My 4dr LeMans is also quite nice for the same reasons

My green GTO hardtop is also quite good but the bumper is a rechrome and a good one but it has some slight warp that shows a bit under the bezels. Similarly my LeMans ragtop has a dead straight body that was never hit or worked back there but the bumper is a rechrome and the bottom edge has a bow in it, probably someone backed over something and when trying to go forward pulled out the bottom a bit. Whomever chromed it missed it.

My Judge has very nice body panel fitment even though the right tail bezel area had been slightly pushed in. (Like backing into a sharp vertical column slightly outboard of the passenger side frame bracket. During painting we were able to get the tail panel pulled back just right but the original rear bumper was rechromed but they didn’t get the upper right end of the bumper remotely close to straight. I’m on the hunt for a better bumper as this one would be really tricky to get true.

My worst rear end alignment is the one on my brown GTO hardtop. Car had a moderate hit under previous ownership right at the right rear corner. The subsequent restauration did not correct it properly.

The hit was not enough to put any wow into the trunk pan or frame but the tail panel has some distortion that has the right bezel being in a bit on the bottom and the area of the quarter behind and below the Side marker light was actually pushed in enough that the bumper (which must have been replaced outright as it is a rechrome but with no sign of hammering before chroming) is too proud of the quarter panel on the side view. Car has nice paint but once you see what’s wrong you can’t unsee it! The quarter and tail panel will need to be stripped and straightened one of these days.. since the Expresso Brown on the car isn’t quite right (too brassy) I’m afraid that a full repaint is in its future.