I am wondering if its a bumper top, bumper or car? The top is 914 rubber and was bought a year or so ago. The car is not bashed in any wear and the bumper was rechromed by Oscar about a year ago. It fits the same way on both sides starting at the headlights towards the out fender. Again both sides are the same.

Click to view attachment

Bumper top rubber SHOULD lap over the flange under the turn signal bucket. What year car? 75-76 you have to cut off lip off body.

Do you have the rubber washers installed. If you look at the old bumper they tend to get compressed into the rubber, but they are actually a seporate part.
It changes the geometry by raising it up 1/8".
Could be at least part of the issue.

100%,something odd ? is a delete "dog bone " mod needed here...just saying ?.

Its a 73 .. I did add the rubber washers.

The metal insert that goes into the dog bone hole is about 3/16 longer than the dog bone is thick. This extra length fits into the bolt through hole. If it is not positioned in the hole it will hold the bumper out at the top

Sounds obvious but you have to hold the weight of the bumper up while tightening bolts or they will bind, feeling tight but not really. I used bar clamps to hold the bumper up last time I did it

I actually always wondered why the metal inserts were even in there.. Thought they were kind of silly.. I will try that. Thanks..

Hope that does it Ben. Might want to chase the captive nut threads (M8 x .8 IIRC) and apply a bit of anti seize.

Just changed my bumpers and several of the threads were bunged up. I think it is the unsupported weight of the hanging bumper while wrenching that does it.

Using allthread instead of the bolts makes the installation easier. Then if you like you can remove the allthread one at a time and replace the bolts. cutting a screwdriver slot in the end of the allthread helps when removing them.

My car had work done in the bumper mount area on both sides so I had to adjust the rubber dogbone thickness to get the fit right.

Another good idea

That might work. You could jam nut the all thread in against the captive nut to make a “removable stud”. Just leave it in there

Where did you find the metric threaded rod? It is hard to find in the US.
Most common allthread is grade 2, so I would definitely replace it with the bolts after you have it installed.

Do you have the rubber pads installed on the inner mounts?
Try taking them off.

Hate to mention this but... steel can warp when being chromed, so check the curvature of the bumper. If they fit better without the rubber pad they are likely warped, in this case the curve would have flattened out a bit.

Another idea is to slot the bumper topper mounting holes, so you have more adjustment on the rubber topper.
I know it's a bit of a hack and looks like crap but once the topper is on you can't see it.

How does just the bumper fit? What's the body lines like at the fenders?
Too me it looks way out. Is it the bumper or the topper that's off? Or are they both off?

UhOh….
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=310073

If like above, it looks to me like the whole bumper is tilted forward at the top. You could cut the mounts and see if you can make them fit.


This is just one of the reasons why I abandoned the stainless steel bumper GB, final fitting. The Vietnam bumpers were not that far off but it took me 8+ hours to fit one front bumper.

Buy a metric threaded stud. Pretty common.

How many people shaved some thickness off the dog bones to bring the bumper closer?

I removed the steel inserts on the last car I had so I could squeeze tighter.. Worked well.. I removed 3/16" from these.. Should work just fine.. I have it pretty close now.

I got lucky a couple weeks ago. Original bumper and top fit fine and took about 10 minutes to install.

Ben, do you have a picture if it now? I have a similar issue.

No took it off now to start body work on the front fenders..