I've been having a few issues installing my 93' front bumper. The rebar has been refiberglassed as it was slightly cracked from a minor fender bender. The spot that was fixed is near the far end, driver side, of the rebar. For whatever reason, the bumper was not pulling up tight against the body on that side. To the naked eye the rebar looks pretty straight, however I thought it may have been why it was not fitting on correctly. I took the rebar off and put the bumper on. I have a significant amout of gap (maybe an inch) between the hood and the front of the bumper.

I bougth the car without the bumper attached and have never seen the car with one on. Would the missing rebar be the reason of such a gap? I can pull up on the bumper skin and it aligns correctly, then. I suppose you could say it is "sagging" a bit without the rebar, but I don't know.

Input, suggestions?

 

would be helpful if you could post some pics

 

You're absolutely right, I apologize.

I'll snap some when I get off work.

 

 

 

 

Here is the engine bay brackets. The passenger side holes line up great, however the driver side ones do not.

close up of the passenger side bolt locations


And, here is the passenger side that I'm having trouble bolting up.



For the bolts to line up with the threaded holes on the front end, the bumper/bracket need to go back (toward the car) about 1/4-1/2 an inch. However, as you can tell from the photos, the bumper seems to be pushed in as far back as possible.

Of coarse, the other minor problem being the small gap. Could it be because I'm missing the foam that sits in the front there?

Anyway, hope the photos help.

The car is going to be sent off in a couple weeks to be completely re-painted (silver stone metallic).

-Marshall

 

bump.

 

Based on your pics above, the right side of the metal plate should be pushed in more right-front (...as in, right towards driverside + towards the firewall). Basically the ribs of the plate, should slightly over extend. Plus, when the front bumper is placed, you sorta' have to "feel" the fitment and push the bumper in....it has to wrap around the rebar which can be tricky. Here's a pic for reference of mine with the correct alignment:

 

The reason why the front of your car is not lining up is because your frame is bent. The best evidence of this is the fact that your bumper reinforcement has been fiber glassed. If you look at the frame of the car just behind the area where it has been fiber glassed you can see where the metal crumpled. You should have this straightened before they paint it.

A minor fender bender would not smash that reinforcement bar.

 

Ah... Yeah, I see the crumple spot now... That would defiantly do it.

Would a body shop be able to correct this?

Thanks for the help, guys!

 

some body shops can do it. I had to call around for a while before I found one, but they were able to straighten mine out for $700

 

Did you just have the reinforcement bar straightened?

The guy doing the paint works at a paint and body shop. I'm told he does body work, too... I'm waiting for him to call me back to see if he can correct this prior to spraying it.

 

I looked over the car again, that's the only spot where there is any "damage". The rest of the frame seems perfect.

Heh, believe it or not, this car only has 58k on the chassis... I'm just glad I can fix her up.

 

Just so you know... You can actually remove that fiberglass bumper reinforcement.

My bumper does not have one due to the type of intercooler that I am running. How ever, if you are looking for a replacement that has not been cracked in half / fiber glassed over. I have one that is in perfect shape and I will let go for $75.00 + whatever the shipping will cost me (probably 60 - 100 bucks)

 

Well, if it were just the fiberglass rebar causing the top mounting bolts to be off, I'd remove it. However, like you said, the reinforcement bar in the engine bay is pushed in about a 1/4 inch or so... I'll have to have a body shop straighten it... I hope.

 

+1 on the frame being bent. any body shop with a frame machine should be able to straighten it.

its not the rebar, although it might be worth looking for an uncrashed one.

 

Yeah, I'll just see about getting it straightened back out.

I'm considering ditching the rebar... I'm going to have a front mount intercooler anyway... I think if I hack it, which I will, it will crumble on that one side.