1970 Bumper Bracket Alignment

[1970Cuda]

An interesting question came up when my body craftsman was test fitting my rear bumper to ensure alignment was correct with the rest of the vehicle (prior to final painting). The quarters he fitted look fine and the frame is definitely not bent or anything. However the gap between the driver's side rear panel and the bumper is approximately 1/2 inch wider than the passenger's side (which looks correct). (See pictures.) The only idea he had was that when the vehicle was originally put in the jig (if that's the correct word for it) was incorrect. We've seen other things on the vehicle that were definitely off (such as the original trunk floor pan which was about an inch higher on the passenger's side vs. the driver's side). Otherwise, the vehicle looks fine.

Any ideas on this? Is this common or could something else be amiss?

Thanks for your thoughts, and I really appreciate this site.

[Huskidrive]

I just had my car done, and my rear bumper is like yours, a little to much to the left. The body guy said it was the best he could do. AMD repop bumper.

[usraptor]

Don't really have an answer for you, but mine fit pretty much the same on both sides.  Don't have any close up pics but these shows that both sides are pretty much the same.  The issue I had was that the bumperette on the driver's side is considerably further away from the rear valance than the one on the passenger side, almost like being at a different angle.  Not sure why as the bumper is straight .

[1970Cuda]

So I wanted to provide a quick update to everyone on what occurred for the bumper misalignment. At first we thought it might have been an issue with the frame not being quite square; however my body craftsman assured me this couldn't be right because he measured it before he started any body work and it was very close to being square (it needed a very slight straightening, maybe a 1/16 inch). However, based on trial and error, we decided to put a small shim behind the passenger's side bracket. Our final thought is that it was misaligned in the original factory jig and that's why it's off, although that's only our working theory right now. The shim is around 3/16" thick and it's welded to the back of the bracket.

[Rich G.]

I would have done the same thing. These cars weren't right when they left the factory, who knows what happened 50 years later.

[JonH]

So what you are saying is you moved the passenger side out/away from the body, to align it with the other side?

[HEMICUDA]

Do you have original quarters on your car?  All 70-71 (at least) have a longer passenger side quarter by almost 1/4".