[dataway]

How many, if any, of you have had to enlarge the bolt holes in the bumper-to-frame mount of your Endura to get the fit right?

Tried all kinds of things today .. bumper just won't go that last 1/4" evenly from top to bottom. I can get the top there, but the bottom gap is way too large, I can get the bottom there but the top gap is way too large.

Typically what I'm seeing is the back of the frame mount is up quite a bit off the top of the frame and the bolt/hole there is pretty much maxed out, but the bumper still needs to be tilted forward a bit for the sides to be vertical and match the front of the fenders.

From the side of the car the top of the bumper is tilted too far to the rear and there just doesn't appear to be enough "slot" to tilt it forward enough.

There is a possibility the right side frame horn has a bit of a tweak in it. I personally tweaked it many years ago in a minor collision.

[Sirrotica]

Back in the early 70s I bought a 69 GTO that someone had elongated the holes with a cutting torch. so the car was fairly new at the time and it was probably a hack body shop that did it. the bumper fit okay against the sheet metal, but a friend of mine customized the front end for me and welded a dechromed 68 Lemans bumper to the front fenders, so there was no parting lines.

The car was painted black, with the front end flamed, entered in the local World of Wheels, and took first place in class. If you look at the third picture in my signature, you can see it in the background behind the Grand Prix race car. Circa 1978 when the picture was taken, car was painted in 1975.

I sold the bumper to a woman that worked with me that wrecked her 69 GTO convertible, and her husband bitched about the bumper brackets being modified, for $30 he paid for it, I really wasn't all that interested in listening to his complaints. it was head and shoulders over the bumper on the car that they wrecked....LOL

At the time I believe a new bumper was $120, so at 25% of new, he could do a little work to the brackets to make it fit. I doubt that his frame horns were straight anyway, it was hit pretty good, likely not my bumper, as much as his frame being tweaked from the collision.

[dataway]

Well, I'd probably use a die grinder rather than a torch I'm talking maybe 1/8" wider, 1/8" longer.

[rasilverbird]

It's too hard to get everything perfect with those four bolts. I feel like those are for Macro adjustments...not Micro. I used shims where the bumper meets the brackets to get the final 10% lined up

[webfoot]

I had to grind mine out and its still not right. Probably need to shim the core support up more.

[dataway]

Both good ideas. I keep forgetting how many ways there are to skin this cat.

Shimming between the mount and those two lower, front bumper to mount bolts would have been a very easy way ... but would move it the wrong way for me.

I think lowering the core support would help in my case, but I'm not sure if that's possible? Might help just a tad with my fender to door gaps at the bottom also.

[dataway]

Well, I got it closer but it's still not "good". If I can shift the hood forward 3/16" it will look better.

So .. the nose of hood is a good quarter inch higher than the nose of the bumper .... front corners of hood are perfect at the fenders, ends of bumper are perfect with the fenders (height wise) ... but the nose of the hood is standing up too high ... what's the cause of this?

It's like the hood's corners are both tweaked down in relation to the nose. I did have to do considerable welding on the hood braces that go from nose to front corners .... did it distort the corners down? Hood still latches fine.

I feel like I should put 2x4 blocks under the front corners and sit on the nose.