bumper adjustment
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 4,142
Likes: 24
From: Simcoe Ontario
bumper adjustment
i did a search and found nothing so i was wondering how you go about adjusting the front and rear bumpers to get them straight, is there a sequence or order to do this? ... any help would be appreciated
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 17,692
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From: Central Arkansas
It begins with take two asprin.
I don't know if someone has posted a good procedure or not. A couple things I found out are to loosely fasten both bumpers in place (including cross bar on the front) and work both of them together to try to achieve a happy medium on both sides. I used the thin rubber pads under the bumper mounts to protect the paint from scratches. Have a good number of shims handy including some of the special shims for the rear. Plan on having to do some shimming of brackets to get everything to line up. Shim everything into alignment as you don't want to rely on bolt tension to hold the bumpers in correct alignment. Over tightening the bolts will distort or crack the body. A four foot, or longer level, to lay across the top of the bumper pair helps.
I don't know if someone has posted a good procedure or not. A couple things I found out are to loosely fasten both bumpers in place (including cross bar on the front) and work both of them together to try to achieve a happy medium on both sides. I used the thin rubber pads under the bumper mounts to protect the paint from scratches. Have a good number of shims handy including some of the special shims for the rear. Plan on having to do some shimming of brackets to get everything to line up. Shim everything into alignment as you don't want to rely on bolt tension to hold the bumpers in correct alignment. Over tightening the bolts will distort or crack the body. A four foot, or longer level, to lay across the top of the bumper pair helps.
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Team Owner
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From: Washington Michigan
Slight variation on Dan's post - I use a 4-foot-long piece of 2x2 clamped to the top surface of both bumpers to keep them even and parallel with each other, with a 12" carpenter's level taped to the center; get the assembly centered and level, and shim the attachment of the lower (painted) braces to the crossmember as required to maintain that fit. Works for me. 
