other Front bumper alignment

[deschodt]

Guys,

 

I just got my 73 '02 back after a 2 year long paint job (long story) and 2 months of mechanicals (EFI retuning etc).

 

 

I took a quick shot next to her italian garage mate, and noticed on picture the bimmer bumper looks crooked... Well it looks slanted on both somewhat, but that is the shot/crown of the road, partially. The bimmer though has a distinct 3/4" difference on an even surface - not just that the bumper ends point upwards too much, like the bumper itself is a little nose down. I just adjusted the brackets bolts to the body and recovered 1/4" tops, not much give there... Since this is the only part of the car *I* did not reassemble (back to the paint shop story), and the bumper ends are pointing up instead of being horizontal,  I was wondering: is it possible the brackets are switched side to side and give the thing a nose down attitude ? Is there a side for those Y brackets, or do they interchange side to side ? ( I could try but that's a lot of effort if someone knows they do not interchange)

 

Otherwise do I use shims of sorts to restore the bumper ends to horizontal attitude and adjust the uneven sides  for height between brackets & bumpers ?  Curious, where on the Y bracket is the alignment done generally? they were straight before the paint.... I'll figure it out this w/e but I was wondering if you can save me 30 minutes of cussing ;-) 

Edited June 2, 2016 by deschodt

[jrkoupe]

I cannot offer help/......

 

but man, what a pair!!!

[deschodt]

Thanks ! That's what my wife says too ;-)  about the cars !!!

 

Looks like either the Y brackets are flipped or I need to drill the mounting holes on the brackets to get more upwards motion... Did not find a quick fix, I still got 0.5" difference ;-) 

 

The 2002 is so big next to the Alfa, it's insane !!! But it explains the comfort and better back seats ! Also the door sill plates I got sold on the board are nothing like roundie or later plates I've ever seen. They do not cover the scuff area at all...  Not sure what I'm gonna do there, parts look unobtainium ! 

Edited June 2, 2016 by deschodt

[Mike Self]

Your '73's front bumper uses a mounting system that's unique to that year. The brackets themselves are different from previous years, and they fasten to the body differently.  Check Realoem.com to see if there are two part numbers for the front bumper brackets--IIRC they're the same, but my memory may be faulty, so check for yourself.  

 

The brackets are fastened to the body with bolts that run through the front frame rails, rather than carriage bolts that slip into keyhole-shaped slots in the frame rails as on the '68-72 cars.  Could one side have been fastened using the through bolts and the other with carriage bolts?   That would cause misalignment. A bent bracket could cause the same problem.

 

When I reassembled the front bumper on my '73, I first measured the distance from the bottom of the bumper bracket hole in the nose panel to the ground, and also from the bumper bracket mounting holes to ground--just to make sure the distance was the same on both sides.  You may find the measurements are different for nothing more than tires with different pressures.  Or one spring may be a little longer than the other.  If you find a significant height difference  after equalizing tire pressures and suspension heights, it may be time for a chat with your body or mechanical folks who did the work.  Once those measurements are the same...

 

I then bolted the brackets to the body but didn't fully tighten them.  Finally I bolted all the bumper blade sections together (center, sides, bumper guards and the small diecast spacers) just tight enough so they wouldn't come apart, and bolted that assembly to the brackets.  Then I whipped out my tape measure and determined distances from fixed points on each side of the bumper (like the bottom of each bumper guard) and did some adjusting on those loosely bolted together parts, gradually tightening things as I got equal measurements on both sides. What you really want is for the top edge of the bumper to be visually parallel the bottom edge of the two side grilles.  If it's not, (and yours isn't) the bumper will look crooked even if it's parallel to the ground.  Took awhile, but mine's been nicely aligned since 1991 when I did this.

 

cheers

mike

 

 

 

..  

Edited June 2, 2016 by mike

[deschodt]

Thanks Mike... So there is no magic bullet... I loosened the bolts all around, Y bracket to frame rails, and Y bracket to bumpers. Neither achieved a significant range of motion. I can tell the driver side bracket exits out of the slit in the body lower, that's my issue right there...So bracket to  body. But there does not seem to be much up/down motion on those brackets. I can/will take it all out, and elongate those holes (it's a thick bracket, no worries) and or flip the things side to side, they might be upside down and resulting in a misalignment... I have not seen the car in 2 years + but I owned it for 7 years before that, I'd have noticed... I bet they are flipped! 

 

[deschodt]

OK so I figured it out... on the 73, the brackets are NOT interchangeable SIDE TO SIDE, at least on my car. There are 2 bolt holes in each bracket, the front most one is round and acts a a pivot point. The rear most hole is elongated and allows for adjustment upwards on one side, maybe *my* brackets are odd but as I recall, only one of the 2 had an elongated rear hole to allow enough upside down movement and bolt correctly to the frame. Once I swapped them around I was able to set one, and adjust the other to match - they look wrong until you put the bumper on, because they sit very nose high, but that's the way they are... 

 

Then you can bolt the bumpers on with the guards and the little "maya-pyramid-shaped-spacer" in between and you get the last 5mm of adjustment from that... Ironic, the only thing the body shop did put back together (other than the doors) was put on backwards... Not obvious either. Not saying that's gospel, but I had a full inch of difference and slope before, now I'm within 2mm...  something to keep in mind on 73s. On my car the adjustable bracket went on the driver side.