front bumper clearance

[George]

I am putting the front bumper back on my gt and there seems to be to much room on the sides(about 1'') where it starts to turn the coner.This bumper is off another gt but I don't think that makes any difference unless there were more than one bumper used.If anyone has a picture looking down on the coner of the bumper that would help lots.Its been years since I have seen the car with the front bumper on and I don't remember how well it fit in the corners but I think it was better than what it is now.

[opelspyder]

If the new bumper has been rechromed-this may be the problem. They never fit the same after the process is what I have found. Try to keep all bolts loose until all are lined up. This may require pushing the bumper to hold in place. Once bolted it will be fine, if you still have large gaps, I would try another bumper. Basically from a top view, you should maybe see the flange slightly around the side bends of the bumper. It usually fits pretty close in the center that from straight up, you cannot see the flange of the body to belly pan. Off the sides, well, sometimes you get that gap. They are slotted a little for some tweeking though
Keith

[George]

The bumper has not been recromed and I can see almost the entire flang at the bend.I will try losening the two center bolts tomorrow and the four on the bottom of the bumper and see if that helps.The bumper looks to be straight with olly one dent in the bottom.I wish I had another bumper to try but don't.Is it best to put the bumperetts on before installing the bumper or does that matter?

[GTJIM]

If you look at the front of the car with the bumper off you will see that it should have had a wavey shape to follow the body.
Obviously Opel (or the French body builders ... let's blame them!) had considerable problems with getting a bumper made correctly. Witness the fact that the early bumpers were two piece!
The final one-piece bumper shape is far from a shape that follows the contour of the front sheet metal of the body - it merely covers it up.
As a toolmaker who has been involved with trying to make dies for things that Engineers and Draughtsmen draw ... I would say there was a bodgie-up and something straight that fitted near enough was made .. in haste!!
I base this on the fact that to get a front bumper shipped here it had to be cut in half - when it was welded back together considerable changes in shape were made to get the outside ends to conform to the bodywork .... we shortened the bumper by 10mm in the middle and had to slot the outer mounting holes considerably to get any sort of a fit. Still a bodgie-up !

[hallgeir]

Here is a couple of pics. As you can see, there is a 5 millimeter clearence at the corner (I`m not very good in inch and feet). This is a two piece bumper. Hope this helps.
You can put on the bumperettes after installing the bumper. I did.