Bumper Tilt

[canbeam]

I have seen many bumpers on Tigers and Alpines, my Tiger included, where the bumper ends tilt down at the back, instead of sitting level. It seems to be worse on the front bumpers, but also occurs for the rear bumpers. Is this simply a case of the brackets not being beefy enough and twisting over time because of the leverage, or improper installation, and is there a way to adjust this tilt? There doesn't seem to be enough play in the half moon spacer between the bumper and the bracket to adjust anything. I was thinking a quick fix could be a tapered or beveled washer on both sides of the bracket.

 

[mr55s]

Bumper angle

Hi Ron, I had the same problem years ago. It would seem over the years our cars have bumped, or something worse. Either your bracket is bent, in which case you can bend the bracket in a vise the appropriate way, or order new brackets from Rick at SS. Another possible outcome is that your bumper is bent, turning down on one of the ends. You can tell easy enough when you lay the bumper on the garage floor. If both ends do not touch the floor while laying there, it’s bent. If it’s not too bad you can secure the end you like in between the wall studs of your garage and then use a length of 2x4 lashed to the other side with the aid of a rope and twist the way you want it to go. I know it’s a Jerry Mander/ Rube Goldberg way of doing it, but it works. Try a little at a time to see how your progressing. Not the same kind of steel you find in a 1950-60’s domestic Detroit Iron car. Or you can find a back or front bumper off an Alpine (they are the same front and back, but you probably knew that) and use it if the condition is correct for you. The last thing to check for which I hope is not the case, is the frame horn. Either side may be bent due to an accident, enough to visually draw attention to how it lines up with the turn signal lamp housing.
Good luck, I hope some of this helps.
Brian

 

[HolyCat]

I have seen many bumpers on Tigers and Alpines, my Tiger included, where the bumper ends tilt down at the back, instead of sitting level. It seems to be worse on the front bumpers, but also occurs for the rear bumpers. Is this simply a case of the brackets not being beefy enough and twisting over time because of the leverage, or improper installation, and is there a way to adjust this tilt?

I can't speak for all Tigers and Alpines, but I had gotten my bumpers misaligned when I used the factory jack. I found that if I slip the jack all of the way into the receiver until the top of the jack touched the bumper, the tilt of the jack as I raised the car would push against the bumper and distort the bumper and/or the bumper brackets.

So my advice to anyone who has to use the factory jack is to make sure that there is some space between the bumper and the jack before you start raising your car and make sure that there is a gap all the time while raising the car.

 

[cobrakidz]

Even after having them rechromed and supposedly straightened they still tilted at the ends, I figured it was just a Brit thing.

 

[canbeam]

Interestingly enough, and something I didn't realize, until I just read about it elsewhere on the web, is apparently there is a right and left hand bracket, and if they are switched the angle of the bumper can be wrong. I'll have to check my parts book to see if this is indeed true. I have a bin of them packed away somewhere in my shed, and will see if they are stamped RH and LH.

 

[michael-king]

You can tell by the offset in the slots in the vertical axis iirc

 

[65beam]

bumper

Look close and you can see how the rear bumper is set on this car. This was taken when Doug at Tiger Auto was Ding the reassembly after restoring the body.

 

[unbeam]

I had always thought the front bumper tilt was from an older style tow truck with the strap, that lifted the front wheels, thereby tilting the front bumper upwards. Of course my car has never needed a tow..... David

 

[SunbeamTgr]

I have "fixed" numerous tilted bumpers, more front ones than rear. With the help of a buddy, and a couple pairs of gloves, we each take a side and simply twist the ends back up to a parallel position. They seem to be very forgiving! Gary Haslip

 

[65beam]

tilt

Doug set the bumpers on this one.