The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk front & rear bumper question (1953 3100)

Today I decided to install my rear bumper on 1953 half ton project. My truck came with 2 nice original rechromed bumpers that were not installed. I assumed that one was a front and one was a back. I installed the front a while back. Neither one fit perfectly, so I used the one that looked closest to matching up. Now the left over one is much more curved than the rear brackets appear to allow for. According to the LMC catalog, the front & rear bumpers are different, or at least they have different part numbers. Can any of you tell me basically what the difference is? Also, both of my bumpers have the middle hole. I understand what that hole is for in the front, but not necessarily in the back. Also, LMC lists 2 different numbers for front and rear brackets for the bumpers. At a glance, mine look about the same, so maybe mine are not all correct for their location. I thought that this part would be easy, but maybe not. I think that my holes in the rear are close enough in location that I could probably use some long bolts to pull the bumper and brackets together and make it work. I just hate to take a chance on cracking the nice new chrome on the bumper unnecessarily. If one of you can educate me a little here I'll appreciate it.

They are basically the same piece of metal but the front one curves more in the center than the rear one. The rear one is less curved, almost straight across the middle.

The bolt holes are all in the same place. 18" between the mounts on each side and 25' between the two inner mounts.

I'll take pics of mine if you want.

Thanks for that info. I'm not completely sure where to go from here, but at least I know what I'm working with. I'm pretty sure that I used my most curved bumper on the front. I'll just have to see if I can pull my rear brackets and bumper together.

I bought my first '52 3100 40 years ago which unbeknownst to me, came with a front bumper on the back. When I removed the nuts and started to pull the bumper free, it shot off and about catapulted two yards over. The rear bumpers look almost flat compared the the front bumpers.

I have some OEM rear bumper brackets, and bought a repop rear bumper. It didn't fit on the OEM brackets, but did on repop rear brackets. The repop brackets are not as nice as the OEM ones, as the edges are sharp rather than rounded.

What is the difference? Is the hole spacing incorrect on the reproduction bumpers?

Based on the info from all of you guys, I think that I have 2 front bumpers. I think I'll make up some spacer blocks and use one on the rear for now. Then I'll try to find one at a swap meet in Sept. THANKS !!!

I wonder if attaching brackets to the "wrong" bumper and then bolting the brackets to the frame would make it easier to install. Once it's installed, you won't be able to tell that it's a front bumper.

Did they both come to you chromed or did you have them chromed? Are they reproduction bumpers or original bumpers?

As far as I can tell, the hole spacing was the same. The shape of the bumper brackets was the issue. I bolted the OEM brackets to the repop bumper and it was obvious the brackets were not going to fit on the frame as they weren't parallel. I tried pulling them together and actually put a small kink in the repop bumper (which was not spring steel like the OEM bumpers are.) For some reason, the repop brackets were shaped to fit the repop bumper correctly.

It appears that I have 2 front bumpers. Since I am building a driver and not a show truck, I decided to make a couple of spacers for the bumper on the rear. It worked out just fine, and looks OK to me. The 2 outside bolts worked out fine "as is". I made 1-1/4 in. spacers out of wood for the 2 inner bolts. If the painted wood doesn't hold up, I'll make future spacers out of something else. But, for now, I'm good to go.