SB64

So after a bunch of hours I finally fitted the front bumper. You really have to keep a lot of things loose including the center horse shoe bracket to get the bumper centered.
Oh the C bracket at the end of the Bumper extension bracket should be sitting flat on the inner fiberglass pad. You can have some damage if not over a period of time. Know getting it to do that is not easy so your on your own with that part.
Anyway here ya go!

RVZIO

loup68

Do not forget the twist bracket that goes on there also. Lou.

69ttop502

Very nice Roger. If you don’t mind me asking Lou another question here lol?

Lou, here are my extensions. They both have the trademark and are the 257 and 258 castings. My car was hit in the right front at some point, as the headlight support was welded together. However, the left side was unhit and original. The extensions aren’t in great shape as the slotted holes are corroded. Don’t know if these could be welded up. So if I understand you correctly, I could use the new repops with the 70 end bracket? Thanks for the help and Roger for visiting this topic as I am sneaking up on needing to get these together.

Bill

SB64

Bill the picture of your brackets look like that's what needed to be done to get the bumper to fit right. Why that was done, who knows. You do need to massage things a little somtimes. Maybe no the much!

R

loup68

Roger, I forgot to say that your bumper looks beautiful! I wish that mine looked that nice. I was also hit very bad on the driver side and I should have taken my bumper to the body shop, but i did not know that I should have done that. Lets face it, our cars are just a big plastic model car. It is very easy for someone to glue something up wrong.
The driver side of my bumper has over a one inch gap and it is the body work and not the bumper.
Bill, Thank you for showing me your 68 braces. I have had my 68 coupe for over 45 years now. It was all that I had from a divorce and had to drive it for 4 1/2 years in Cleveland, Ohio salt.. I bought a new GM frame and so bought all new brackets, so my 68 ones are long gone. I do not know if anyone is reproducing the 68-69 braces. Maybe someone is. If not you could always buy good used one's. And yes I have the 70-72 braces with the appropriate 70-72 extensions on my car, so you could do that also.
I do not understand why GM changed the number on the 69 braces. Maybe the hole pattern is different. I wish that you had a 69 pair to compare them to. I know that GM would give a new number to a part if something changed on it. Lou.

DUB

YEP..I have seen the slots for the two bolts in these extensions routed out rather well many many times.

this is NOT referring to anyone specially here. but I have dealt with MANY Corvettes that have had this modification done and actually the first place I go and look is under to door sill and verify IF the body is indexed correctly.

So many Corvettes have had issues that cause them to have moved for one reason or another. Because IF the body is not indexed.,...It can throw off all these other parts that have a limited amount of adjustment.

And the crazy thing is that the frame can be collapsed due to front end impact..and the body not move...and you might never find a buckle or crease in the frame anywhere. This is when I check the wheel base....which can give me an idea if things are okay or not.

DUB

marshal135

Hi Lou,
I was working on the receiving end of the parts.
I worked as a GM parts dept counter man from 1980-84.
I remember when they made a slight improvement, they assigned a new PN#.
Then all earlier numbers were superseded to this new #.
My June built 68 coupe seems to be a GM parts clean up.
I have a transitional mix of early to mid features, like low back seats.
TO OP I would use the 69 numbers and locate the correct U brackets if avail.
Ernie @ Wilcox would know if there are avail repro's.
If you need original parts George ....1960FI on here has just about everything.
I needed a front drivers lower grille bracket. He had it.
Good luck to you getting your front end back together.
Marshal

SB64

Thanks Marshal, Lou has so much early C3 knowledge as well as yourself. Funny that both of you have 68's. Lou has always told me that the 68's were put together with different parts from GM. The C brackets came off the bumper brackets which were 69 so I just assumed they were correct. Might have to see if they are right.

RVZIO

loup68

Roger, your extensions are the correct one's. Otherwise they would not be matching up to the bumper hole fiberglass. The 68 & 69 extensions are the same and the bolt hole faces are offset. The 70-72 bolt holes are in line and I think the extension is a little shorter and thicker metal.
When I bought my 68 coupe in 1972, I had no idea that the 68's were so different from a 69. Externally, an uninformed person like me at the time thought that they were the same.
I didn't even know that it had a 327 instead of a 350. Lou.

69ttop502

Ok Lou, another question if you don’t mind. I have my other brackets here, and it looks like I have the correct twist brackets, but the other extension brackets it looks like I may have one 68,69, and one 70-72. Am I right? Sheesh, goes with everything else I have found taking this car apart. Wonder how it fit with the wrong bracket.

DUB

YES...the two brackets on the right are for different designs.

I have the 68-69 and the 70-72's at the shop and can post a photo of them if needed.

And how they got them to fit might have a lot to do with the extensions you posted a photo of back in POST#23 where they were modified.

DUB

loup68

Yes Bill, You are absolutely correct. Those are a pair of the twist brackets on the left and the other pair on the right hand side are first a 68-69 extension and the one on the extreme right is a 70-72 extension. By the way, I am pretty sure that the 70-72 extensions are identical and so used on either side. Of course the 68-69 extensions are different from one side to the other side, and you have to have a pair of them. Lou.

69ttop502

Thanks Dub, yea I was thinking maybe the reason they cut that half circle out of the extension had something to do with it. Now to get the correct bracket. Now I need to figure out if the 69 bracket I have is left or right lol. It looks like the open end goes toward the inside of the car from pictures.

69ttop502

Thank you Lou, I guess we were typing at the same time. I found some correct 69 extensions from geopar here on the forum. They are on the way. Now I need to figure out if I have the correct left or right 69 bracket and get the other side. Thanks for the help guys and sorry for the partial hijack Roger.

Bill

SB64

All good, that's what the forum is all about. I'm glad I posted this thread. Cleared up a lot of stuff for me and others!!


RVZIO

69ttop502

It sure did Roger! Good stuff. Your above picture is going to tell me which side my correct 69 bracket is from lol.

general ike

Hey I don't want to hijack or derail this thread, but I always found it interesting what GM would farm out. So why would GM farm out something that seems simple like these brackets and not just fabricate then in house? What was the logic behind these decisions. I assume it was $$$ but could it be that a outside company could fabricate these cheaper than GM would? Thanks Ike

marshal135

You are most welcome my friend.
Lou has answered numerous rookie questions I have posed over the years. He has always been knowledgeable about the 68's and offers a kind word.
A 68 is not as bad a lets say finding parts for a Kaiser-Frasier, but if you like a challenge the 68 will give you one.
I like the one year styling cues of my 68. Very few passer bys guess the year correctly.
The simplicity of parts interchangeability came in 69-72.
I also believe the 68 was expensive to make since it had new never before seen features like the stand alone push button door.
I'm glad I could offer some worth while advise.
Glad you have the bumper ext straightened out.
It's frustrating when the wrong parts are on our cars.
The best thing is original and clean them up.
Marshal

SB64

I could not have set it better!

RVZIO

marshal135

General,
I handled more GM parts than I can remember in a 4 year period.
The assembly line, I believe was just that an assembly line.
It is very expensive to set up tool and die to fabricate the numerous
parts used in all the different assembly lines. GM had 5 divisions.

GM farmed the AC components out to known AC manufactures already set up for such components. Ford did the same.
They did own some divisions like Rochester, AC Delco etc....
But surprisingly most these parts were made by another company
and branded for the big 5.

In the 1980's most our warranty work was components sent to Mexico for assembly. Lack of quality control in Mexico led to many many parts failing prematurely. Most I saw were electrical.

I believe this assembly mentality was a carry over from how these companies dealt with the government contracts during the second
world war. Our government manufactured very little they utilized existing companies capable of such production.
GM Saginaw division made the M-1 carbine that my father carried during the Korea conflict. All assembled by women.
Auto assembly was no different.

When the assembly line ran out of 1/4 20 by 1" bolts.
They would have the purchasing office reorder some but it was not that uncommon to send the floor sweep kid across the street to buy every bolt that size the local hardware store had to avoid a line shut down.
So hence you may find a bolt with a subcontractors head stamp that
is not going to fly with the NCRS. Yet it came from the assembly line.
Marshal