LWB front bumper alignment Question

[xpensivewino]

hello,
I am about to send my 69 coupe off to paint, and doing some test fitting of the components. My question is how should the front bumper ends line up with the fender arch. My bumper which is clearly a LWB bumper seems to be inset quite a bit. Does this have to do with the arrangement of the battery box brackets, or fender fit? Or is this just a case of tweaking the bumper ends to line up, or perhaps the ends are inset to compensate for the later rubber trim etc. that will be attached to the bumper? I tried searching for just the right shots of finished cars and couldn't determine what's correct. Any advice, or photos as to what is correct would be a great help...Thanks Steve

[mac73s]

The two pieces should align - or at least significantly better than what you are showing. I assume that both sides are equally out of alignment, or is one side better than the other? If you have the fender where you want it, i.e. you have done final alignment of the door, and then worked towards the front of the car to position the fender to the door with a proper gap, then the only adjustment left should be in the bumper. Did this on my recently on my 73-S and now on a 70-S. Do you recall (or have pictures) of the 'before' to see if it did align originally?

[xpensivewino]

Yes, both sides are inset the same amount. The fitment was much better prior to disassembly, however that bumper was in very poor shape. This bumper came off of a 72 coupe, and appears to be factory and not a replacement part. Is it best to leave this up to my body man to tweak and fit or do you think there is something else amiss here? Thanks

[Phil Planck]

This is my all original 69 912. Only picture I have showing bumper alignment.

Phil

[xpensivewino]

Amazing paint for original!!! Thanks for the photo Phil..

[edmayo]

That's what the brackets on the battery box are for. You use them to align the bumper ends, and shim up or down to get the correct and even squeeze on the bumper to body seal. You can tell when that hasn't been done because the seal will be more or less compressed across the width of the bumper. I would bolt up the bumper WITH the seal and move the bumper around to ensure that it can be aligned,,,,before paint!