63 Rear bumper bolts

[petelempert]

I'm looking for any sage advice on the four bolts that hold the rear bumper on my 63. Mine were rusted and really stubborn when I tried to get the bumper off yesterday. Once loosened, the bumper tends to drop, then the bolt heads spin inside the bumper. All four basically spin. I eventually had to loosen the second bracket that bolts parallel to the frame. The whole mess dropped practically to the ground, even still I had to cut two of the four bolts off. Should I reinstall the bumper with the brackets loose or put the brackets back on, then bolt directly to them? Thx PRL

[petelempert]

OK maybe I didn't ask the question the right way. When you re-mount a 63 rear bumper do you: bolt the bumper directly to the two brackets with the brackets already mounted on the frame OR do you bolt the brackets to the bumper, then bolt the whole assembly to the frame? The chassis manual shows the exploded view but offer no tips on re-assembly. I'm going to try it this weekend, so any advice would help. Thx PRL

[toomuchvinyl]

I've never taken the bumper(s) off of my 64 but with other cars I have owned and worked on I have always attached the the brackets to the bumper first. Mainly due to the difficulty of reaching the nuts once the bumper was in place. Also, there was no adjustment relating to the bracket to bumper attaching points, that's a fixed location. All adjustment for alignment and clearance was at the frame attaching point. It just seems to be easier to have the bracket attached to the bumper. Looking at the size of that thing though, it would be a good idea to have a helper too.

[petelempert]

KD-Thanks for the reply. I think you're right about the brackets and the helper part too. The only complication is that I've got exhaust hangers welded on the brackets. The good news is that I've got duals that sound great and tuck really nicely under the body, the bad news is the hangers and the rear mufflers are fixed to the brackets. I'm going to try it anyway. Thanks for your help. PRL