jusplainwacky

Hello....

As usual, I'm dealing with another perplexing issue.

When I put my grill bar/teeth on, a few of the teeth are pretty much touching the bottom grill oval. I thought I had this fixed but it appears something has changed.

I have 62 grill bumpers (thanks to an Ebay seller selling 1958-62 bumpers and I didn't know they were different) and I had them rechromed. I ended up making a bracket to tie the grill bar into them.

These are the things I'm thinking could be the issue...

1. What is the distance between the grill teeth to the bottom oval

2. The grill bar/teeth are not sticking out far enough

3. The bottom grill oval is too high (which is definitely possible with all the work done on this car

4. The left and right bumpers aren't high enough, but I have raised them about as high as I can.

So to help me out...if someone can give me these measurements, I'd be very thankful.

1. Are the back of the bumpers in-line with the back of the grill oval? My bumpers protrude about 1/2" back as I tried to show in the first picture, but it's not obvious. (see first picture).

2. What is the distance from the back of the bottom grill oval to the bottom of the middle grill tooth (closest distance)

3. What is the distance between the top and bottom grill oval from the protruding forward edge (see second picture)

4. What is the distance from the front bumper to the body (between the eyebrow and the top grill oval) (see third picture).

jusplainwacky

Why are two of my pictures sideways?? When I saw this, I opened them back up rotated them, saved them and then uploaded them again, and they are still sideways.

Strange...I tried to rotate them again and one rotated and the other didn't...go figure. They show correct on my PC.

wilbur

Bottom inside Grill oval to the middle tooth 2 inches


dose this help?


I'm around a half inch as well.

wilbur

Maybe the adjustment for your bumpers is not the issue maybe its your lower radiator support shims ?

Maybe not.Your bumper to body gap looks pretty good in the second picture.

thoyer

Original bracket has offset holes, at least the original one on my 58 did. Everything lined up ok before I tore it down for paint.

Tom

rich5962

Hmmmm, the bumper gap to the upper area looks a tad too much to me. The bumpers need to go up a bit more IMO. This will bring the grille up.

I'm not sure why you needed to make brackets for the grille bar, just some flat washers on the mount studs using original brackets would have worked. Tom's pic shows they only go one way. If you're home made brackets are not directional, that may add some extra slop to the mounts.

If your bumpers are tilting when adjusting....
I've had similar issues. When the bolts/nuts are tightened it draws the flat of the welded bumper brackets against the frame brackets which could be at a slight angle. You could pull all the brackets and re-bend and retry, over and over again.....Or ...

I often used U-shaped shims at various points at the bolts to brackets to help alignment. Sometimes under one side to tilt. The AIM often says "Shim as required" in the bumper sections.

Rich

wilbur

Is it possible the he has the bar installed up side down?

firstgear

Your Pc auto rotates them......the ones that aren't right on the forum, rotate them anyways and then repost....my iPad did that to me as well.....

firstgear

I had more than 40 hours trying to get my bumpers and teeth to look right. Spanned over three weekends....on and off..,,lots of F bombs....make sure you tape them up with blue painters tape....you don't want to scratch them now!

When you get frustrated, walk away and come back later...I did that many times....

jusplainwacky

Hey Guys...sorry for the delayed response....I didn't check "Instant Email notifications", so I didn't 'think any one replied, that was until Rich sent me an email this morning saying he responded on the forum.

Wilbur I think those measurements will at least get me in the ball park. Thanks a bunch for taking those pictures...really nice shots!

Last night while waiting for someone to respond to my POST, I continued playing with my bumpers.


I hope Frank isn't reading this POST (put chuckle here)....I got out my laser level and leveled the body, then shot along the bumpers. I noticed the drivers bumper was low so I took it off. The laser level line showed the front bracket hole was low, so I loosened up all bolts and moved the brackets up...this at least got the hole level with the passenger side bumper. I thought I figured I out...but nope.

As I tighten the bolt that I'm pointing to in this picture, the right side of the bumper really starts going up. After this, I did walk away and email Rich. The brackets must not be sitting flush...question now is which way to bend the brackets or shim. What I find strange is that I put all this on before I painted the car and all was fine. Weird.

thoyer

Fighting the same things here........

From the picture it looks like the bumper is tilting up towards the outside. If so, you may have to do some more filing / shimming to get that down.

I know my car had reproduction brackets on it and like most reproduction parts, I had to "file to fit". Probably spent the better part of a weekend getting my grill / bumpers sorted out before taking apart for paint. Can't wait to reassemble...............

Tom

jusplainwacky

Misery loves company?? LOL...welcome to the party!

Actually I thought the same thing, but that was put to rest fairly quickly when I used the laser level and it shot along the front passenger bumper, the front bracket and the side hole on the drivers side....all were perfectly lined up.
It's got to be the front bracket...but what I find strange (as I previously mentioned)...I put all this together before paint and everything was fine. It's like the front bracket got bent somehow, but to bend that is nearly impossible.

wilbur

Will you be painting the area behind the bumper/eyebrow black? Imo it looks better painted black.

jusplainwacky

You know...I was undecided on this...I like the black also, but I also like the blue. I thought I'd put the bumpers on and take a look at it and see. the thing is, you really don't see much of it, so not sure it's worth painting it black.

thoyer

Have you tried assembling everything loosely and getting the grill bar set to the right height then work outwards from there tightening the bolts?

Of course you'll need to protect the paint from the bumpers if assembled loose. Don't want any scratches on that nice paint! I'm not suggesting falling apart loose, just loose enough so you can fiddle. If you go this route, might help to remove the grill teeth first and just work with getting the bar set to the desired position.

Tom

thoyer

Try putting some black electrical tape in there and see how you like (or don't) it.

jusplainwacky

I was actually going to paint a piece of paper black and stick it in there.

rich5962

Please paint them black.

firstgear

Ok...this photo just brought back nightmares.....where the gaps are off, I had to bend the brackets slightly, I had to shim, I had to cuss, I had to put those bastards in and off, those #?%!ers!

I had to walk away.....but yes...I feel your pain!

firstgear

My bumpers we're going on and off so many times that I put duct tape over the blue tape to make sure that there weren't scratches getting on the chrome.

You need to put on and off...,it can be very frustrating, but it can be done. It just depends on the level of fussiness you want to put in and how you want it to look when you are done. Yes it is a major PIA where you are at now.

Some guys put them right on and away they go...others like you and me, we learn new ways to put cuss words together!




My buddy Jeff kept pushing me on getting the build completed..,thank god he was....still might not be done!