Tips, tricks, methods for aligning rear bumper 1970 Deville?

[chrisntam]

Got the bumper rechromed, got it assembled and hung on the frame, but having difficulty getting it centered horizontally.  I just need it to move about a quarter of an inch to the passenger side...

FSM says how to do it, but it's not moving.  I've got all the bolts loose.  I'm doing it by myself, perhaps I need a helper...

Anyone suffered a similar circumstance?

[Scot Minesinger]

Installed 3 1970 rear bumpers and never suffered that horizontal centering issue. 

However, I have loosened bolts on a bumper and it takes a lot of force to move it, while not being sloppy loose that it does not stay in place when moved.  More force is probably required.  Guard against hazards from moving it to far to quick.

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Had a similar issue when remounting bumpers on
my '73 Eldorado.  I also did this without help.

These are large HEAVY pieces of steel thus resistant
to movement. If you have a heavy duty floor jack,
put some padding on the lift (old piece of w/w carpet
is good) and gently position it under the bumper center
to take some weight off the piece. 

It's quite heavy so hard to push sideways.  Once you
get it up 1/4 inch or so you should be able to gently
push it sideways.

Good luck!

Mike

[Scot Minesinger]

The floor jack is a helpful, I used for vertical alignment, but never thought about horizontal - good idea.

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

This might be an easy job for your mate. Just ask her to help balance and steady the bumper from the "other" end while you tug gently on the end that you wish to move it towards. That way you won't be in danger of scratching the new chrome as it slides over the carpet. And after the job is done, give her a hug and ask her where she wants to go for supper.

She will be much more amiable towards "helping" you in the future if you say those magic words in her ear. Everything tastes so much better to a woman when she doesn't have to cook it or clean up afterwards. Even when it's only Mickey D's.

[David Greenburg]

Especially if you’re working solo, two jacks makes it a lot easier.  If you don’t have the luxury of two floor jacks, a bottle jack or a couple of jack stand have helped me align 59-60 bumpers, which I imagine are at least as heavy.

[76eldo]

My tip is use a ratchet hold down strap like the kind you use to tie down something to a trailer.

I recently had the rear bumper from my 70 DeVille rechromed.  The finish was fine but it had some scuffing from previously installed bumper guards and the bottom of the bumper had 3 holes in it presumably from a trailer hitch.

Upon reassembly the adjustment process took several hours.  As you guys know, there are the frame bolts and bracket plus the stud that goes through the end of the quarter that gets the rubber block, washer and nut.  This pulls the bumper in and handles part of one adjustment.

For me, there are two critical gaps that have to be right to make the rear bumper look properly installed.  The line where it meets the bottom of the decklid is usually too wide and in many instances it is uneven from left to right.  Also the vertical line where the bumper ends wrap around and meet the line on the rear quarters.

We had a fit trying to line this all up to my satisfaction and kept loosening the bolts, positioning the bumper and snugging up the bolts evenly from side to side as well as the trunk nuts but it kept moving out on one side.  We took a ratchet strap and pulled from a point on the frame to the bumper bracket with the strap to move the bumper in, pulling it towards the front of the car.

When we got done it looked like Chip Foose did one of his bumper mods because it was sucked in nice and tight to the quarters and tight to the decklid.

When I compared it to the before photo the fit was way better than the factory did it.

It's amazing how we need to fuss over this stuff for hours when you know that the factory probably  threw that bumper on in 3 minutes.

Brian