73-80 Bumper question

[jimmyleetn]

I have went through the ringer with AMD and their premium front bumper. They have treated me right so I am not mad at them, but I'm left scratching my head. They sent two front bumpers. Both had flawless chrome, BUT both also had major flaws. For starts, on one side the holes are off by 3/8-1/2in compared to the other. The second and major issue is both were bent, from the factory (in Taiwan) by 3/8-5/16in comparing one side to the other. You can see this with a straight edge in the photos. Is this normal squarebody tolerance or is it time for them to recalibrate their tooling? My main question: anyone notice variation like this on original bumpers that haven't been damaged through the years? I don't know who to purchase from now, but I need a nice bumper with good chrome and can't justify NOS or rechroming an original. Can somebody check their bumpers if you have original ones and see if this is just me being way too OCD?

 

[Bent77]

Guess it depends how nice the rest of the truck is

I welded a nut on the inside of the frame. My bumper bolts from the outside side with an impact. To each their own?

Oh, and mine’s bent

 

[Blue85]

Have you tried installing it to see how it looks on the truck? Are you saying that you physically can't get the center 4 bolts installed or that it will theoretically be off-center? What is your measurement datum? For the outer holes, just loosen the brackets at the frame until all the nuts and bolts are started, then start tightening. For someone to duplicate your measurement, they have to take their bumper off, so people might not jump in real quick. How do you know the cement is perfectly level? I'm just trying to understand the basis of your measurement. The bubble looks off-center in the pictures.

The tension from the frame and brackets may make it fit a little different than it measures on the ground. If you can get it on, I would think it could be tweaked a little afterwards, like strap to a tree or the like. There are probably also body shops that could move one end 3/8".

 

[jimmyleetn]

Have you tried installing it to see how it looks on the truck? Are you saying that you physically can't get the center 4 bolts installed or that it will theoretically be off-center? What is your measurement datum? For the outer holes, just loosen the brackets at the frame until all the nuts and bolts are started, then start tightening. For someone to duplicate your measurement, they have to take their bumper off, so people might not jump in real quick. How do you know the cement is perfectly level? I'm just trying to understand the basis of your measurement. The bubble looks off-center in the pictures.

The tension from the frame and brackets may make it fit a little different than it measures on the ground. If you can get it on, I would think it could be tweaked a little afterwards, like strap to a tree or the like. There are probably also body shops that could move one end 3/8".

I discovered it when I went to install the bumper last week. I couldn't get it to line up on the frame evenly. The 73-80 bumper brackets don't have the adjustability the 81+ do. I could get one side started but had to lean into it to even try to start the other side. Started from the center bolts with same results and it's was off side to to side since the bolt holes are not the same from center. If the core support were on this would make it over half an inch further forward on the driver side. I about went crazy trying to figure it out which is how I discovered these bumpers were off. I thought my frame was out of square. Took over hour to figure it out. I'll try to hang it again today and snap a pic and measurements.