I'm Worried My Frame Is Damaged - Please Help!

[Honky Kong jr]

Frame

I have an 89 K5 frame you can have. You come get it

 

[Georgeb]

How far do you need to move the bumper bracket?

 

[Honky Kong jr]

That's what I'm wondering I be drilling new holes and calling it good. But that's me and I don't restore for Concourse events.

 

[yevgenievich]

+1 on just making new holes and maybe hit up the area with a grinding wheel/paint

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

Alright. So I measured how far the outer bracket would need to come out to be even with the other one, and it's an inch and a half. I think I could finagle the inner one to match because it is mildly adjustable. I think that'll work. I need to pull the bracket to see if there's damage in that particular spot, but I think I can mitigate it if there's any.

 

[Georgeb]

I see the outer bracket has a slotted hole where it bolts to the bumper. Are you sure that bracket isn't bent and couldn't be pulled up to the bumper? I wouldn't be too concerned with getting the brackets all lined up before installing the bumper. It is my worthless opinion that you should loosely assemble the bumper and all the brackets ant try to get the bumper as square to the body as you can with the inner brackets. Then see if the outer brackets will pull up to it. From what was said about the hitch, how bent it is and the fact it was bolted to the truck it sounds like pulling things up to position is how it was put back together before. Apparently well enough that you didn't notice until you took it apart. For the record both ends of my 03 Burb are crunched and in order to get it to look right I did a lot of pushing and pulling of the bumpers and the hitch.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

I see the outer bracket has a slotted hole where it bolts to the bumper. Are you sure that bracket isn't bent and couldn't be pulled up to the bumper? I wouldn't be too concerned with getting the brackets all lined up before installing the bumper. It is my worthless opinion that you should loosely assemble the bumper and all the brackets ant try to get the bumper as square to the body as you can with the inner brackets. Then see if the outer brackets will pull up to it. From what was said about the hitch, how bent it is and the fact it was bolted to the truck it sounds like pulling things up to position is how it was put back together before. Apparently well enough that you didn't notice until you took it apart. For the record both ends of my 03 Burb are crunched and in order to get it to look right I did a lot of pushing and pulling of the bumpers and the hitch.

That's how I did my K5 bumper on my truck. Got the bumper whet o wanted it and built inward. Because at the end of the day all your gonna see is how well the bumper matches up with the body. No need to over think it. Lol

 

[CSFJ]

I seem to recall someone telling me that when they used to restore the old Corvettes, they'd bolt the bumpers up first, and line everything else up with those.

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

Finally getting back to this after loosing all brake pressure in my daily and doing a complete brake job and flush. You guys are right about setting the bumper up and moving the brackets to fit. I've done some extensive measuring. My passenger side brackets appear to be correct, and that's what I'm using as a frame of reference. My inner driver bracket needs to move rearward about a half inch so I'm gonna space it with a nut on each bolt. With that done, I should have three fairly accurate mounting points for the bumper. The outer driver bracket that needs to move rearward somewhat more can fit into the bumper's position instead of trying to make the bumper fit to what could be another incorrect position.