The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Front Bumper On Rear?

The rear lights on my 1951 3600 project had been relocated sometime in the distant past possibly when some sort of calamity derangled things and it seemed too much trouble or too expensive to put things right. I have a new set of brackets and the LED lights to replace the old mess and after removing the old clobber & and bending the body panel under the bed approximately straight found the license plate wouldn't fit. The old plate had been remounted in the center under the tail gate. Now the factory setup is restored and the plate hits the curved end of the bumper. This seems very mysterious! GM would not have made it that way surely?

The other day I took the time to look over a Pal's 51 and found that he had a different bumper, more flat with curved ends than mine which is one gentile curve from end to end with no flat portion. A quick look at the other end of my truck showed that it looked much like the front bumper in shape & size and even bolt locations.

Did Chevy just mount a front bumper on the back on some trucks? If some previous owner installed it they did a fine job, it is straight & looks factory. The brackets even have stenciled part numbers.

I have a set of YOM plates if I can find'em that are registered to the truck. I'll have to try them on the bracket to see what sort of adjusting will be needed to make all sweet.

The 47-55st pickup (and panel-body) 3100/3600 front bumpers were the same.
The 48-53 pickup 3100/3600 rear bumpers were the same, and were different from the front bumpers.

The 47-55st front/rear bumpers were the same on Panel-body trucks
(SGL. UNIT trucks - panel, suburban, canopy)

Thanks Tim, it sounds like Chevy got a lot of use out of the bumpers. From what you said above I have the work a marvelously creative owner possibly using panel truck brackets.

The job was certainly well done and the bumper looks like it belongs there. I have had this project in plain view every day for twenty years and I never suspected anything until last week.

I see I just got elevated to wrench fetcher. That's a nice step in the right direction!