Putting a 1977 Eldorado rear bumper back on the car

[joecaristo]

Hi,
Just had my rear bumper re chromed and it came out beautiful. I did the rear fillers years ago and got them looking great with a close to factory fit. When I put the bumper back together and tried to hang it on the car today, (with help from Brian R. Thanks Brian.) there was a gap between the bumper and the horizontal fillers. You could stick your finger under the fillers. The bumper could not be raised anymore due to the "fin" hitting the uprite filler.  Plus it was adjusted all the way up. Everything was marked tagged and there where no shims when I took off the bumper. This is a 65,000 miles car with no accident damage. Has anybody run into this before? Taking a bumper off and it doesn't go back on the way it came off? I've taken bumpers on and off before, so this isn't new to me. That's why I'm so surprised.  What did I miss? Does the new chrome have something to do with it? I took the whole thing apart and started over. I did get it to look better but theres still a gap. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks Joe

[R Schroeder]

Joe, wouldn't your tail lights be lower too?
It looks good to me, but , I cant see the tops of the tail lights and how they fit around the tail light.
Roy

[joecaristo]

The tails lights look good. That's why this is so perplexing. Maybe because I put the bumper on a sloping driveway? I took it off on a level garage. ( I guess that shouldn't matter ). I got them to look decent, but I know the horizontal and vertical fillers are supposed to touch the bumper. Thanks.
Joe

[Lars Kneller 8246]

Are the horizontal fillers new?  I have found none of them are perfectly straight, and maybe they're the problem.

[joecaristo]

I replaced all the rear fillers in 2005 and had them looking great. I left the rear bumper on when I did that. I decided to re-chrome the rear bumper this month and when I put the bumper back on there was a gap. Its not that bad I guess but I know there was no gap before the re-chrome.
Its a mystery. Thanks for replying Lars as I know you redid an early 70's Eldorado and I'm sure you took the bumper off. lol.
Joe