Aligning '75 rubber bumper

[PeteD]

Sorry guys but I am one of those folks that
likes the looks of the black bumpers on my
'75... That said, does anyone know how to
align these beasts in/out and up/down. Seems
both the front is a bit too far in on driver
side and the rear is a bit high and out on
the driver side. I will be repainting soon
and thought this was the time to get it
right. (No, the rear has never been hit.
The right front was once though).

...or should I just get the 916 lookalike
bumpers...

[djs]

Am I too late to post a reply to this?

If your car is a California model, there are telescopic shock absorbers that the bumper is mounted on. These are designed to absorb minor impacts (so-called 5 mph crashes). 49-state cars may not have these, using simple fixed brackets instead.

I have a California '75 914, and there is just a small amount of adjustment possible for fore-aft position. You should NOT be able to adjust the bumper from side to side, however. If your bumper is positioned to one side, something is wrong.

Basically, the adjustment is a slotted hole in each telescopic mount. If you are seeing large gaps or a misaligned bumper, you can adjust the fore-aft position slightly. However, you might remove the bumper covers and verify that either your telescopic mounts or fixed brakets are not bent from an accident.

PS: I also don't mind the look of the rubber covers, although for California the added crash support structure adds a bit more weight to the car.

[PeteD]

According to the restoration guide, all '75's
made for North America had the telescopic bumpers. The Californicated cars also had additional protruding pads on the bumpers I understand. The rest of the world did not get telescopic bumpers.

What DJS posted about in/out adjustment looks pretty staight forward. Any wisdom on up/down adjustment out there?

[Ascaris]

I've got a 75 1.8L and recently had my bumpers off. Don't remember seeing any "simple" adjustment. If they are out of alignment as you describe, you probably accident damage that will have to be pulled back into alignment.

Only other possibility I can think of, is that the rubber covering itself is not hooked on right. Check the sides where the tab on the back of the rubber fits into the slot in the fenders of the car. If these aren't fitting right it might raise one corner a little.

[djs]

My mistake:

The "adjustment" I mentioned is actually just the amount of fore/aft play allowed where the mounting bolt goes through the slotted aperture in the telescopic shock. It allows for slight adjustment when inserting the mounting bolts from below, in order to facilitate their insertion. This is true on my front bumper, and the rear is also mounted on telescopic shocks.

The range of movement is probably only about 1/4" - 1/2," so maybe this doesn't fit the definition of "adjustment." If your bumper is seriously misaligned, I would still suspect either accident damage or the cover is not fitted correctly to the underlying steel bar.