best rear bumper

[alex 18]

Reading reviews of a new bumper at https://www.cjponyparts.com/bumper-rear-chrome-1969-1970/p/B3R/ it appears that there might be a few fitment issues.  Any suggestions on the best fitting/quality rear bumper other than finding an original?

[Mach1 Driver 560]

I just saw NPD advertise 69 Mustang bumpers on My Classic Car. All I can say is inexpensive and shiney!

[RPM 1,190]

I put NPD front and rear bumpers on my 69 last September. The front has perfect fit and finish, the rear has perfect finish. But I put that crap fit on Ford as any copy of the rear bumper won't fit well without lots of work. Here's part of a long email (I think it shows the length to which NPD goes for quality parts) about the front bumper from Rick Schmidt of NPD:

I had our supplier re-tool the 69-70 front bumpers just a couple years ago. We discovered that their original Ford “benchmark” bumper that they had over there to build the tooling off of had (earlier in its life when it was attached to a Mustang) been “tapped” right on the nose, effectively causing the bumper to “spread” on the rigid mounts, to where it would be a tight-clearance in the center, slowly devolving to too-much clearance at the ends. Probably why the bumper was removed from its original car, and that’s how it wound up in Taiwan as what they THOUGHT was a “good original bumper”, because just looking at it, it looked just fine.

Anyhow, I had to come up with two good/straight original bumpers to send to Taiwan for the new tooling to be made. I had one, but I didn’t want to sacrifice it. I wanted to buy two to send over. So I took very meticulous measurements of the one I had here, and then went hunting. All-Ford Nationals in Carlisle, EVERY used bumper I found, was spread (to some degree) in the same way from being ever-so-lightly-tapped!! When I got home, I called Doug Herr (huge collection of NOS and original/used 69-70 parts), and he said “yeah, I got PLENTY of good used bumpers!!”. I went down there, went through a stack of eight bumpers he had, and they had all been tapped.. No kidding.. Went to my other local NOS/used Ford parts guy (can’t remember name), and out of 10 bumpers he had, I came away with two (thank god) that matched my measurements. And those are what your current repro bumper were tooled from.

Moral of the story?? Beware buying used front bumpers!!! Any one that’s ever had the slightest love-tap, maybe the front wall of the garage, or an accidental parallel parking “oops”, or whatever, well…. They got pulled-off and replaced, and seem to have found their way into the inventories of many unsuspecting Ford parts collectors LOL! Because visually, without measuring, they look perfect when they’re not.

 

 

[barnett468 418]

the best bumper is a rechromed original. all the repos are around 1/2" too long so they stick out beyond the body on both sides and look like crap.

[JET 445 43]

I agree with Barnett, I bought a repro front bumper and it is 1/2" wider on each side, I had to remake the little bracket on the end because the originals would not reach to the new bumper. The rear repro bumper was a good fit, I don't know who made them.

[RPM 1,190]

9 hours ago, JET 445 said:

I agree with Barnett, I bought a repro front bumper and it is 1/2" wider on each side, I had to remake the little bracket on the end because the originals would not reach to the new bumper.

This is the exact issue Rick at NPD wrote about in the email. My front bumper bolted up very easily and fits snug at the ends. 

Imo, the oem rear bumper is too far away from the rear body panel which is due to the stock bumper brackets. They also angle the bumper, which requires shims to level it, which moves the bumper further away from the rear body panel. Again imo, this is all Ford's engineering mistake. 

[barnett468 418]

all the rear bumpers i have seen were too wide but there may be a new one out that is not.

 

most, but not all of the front bumpers i have seen are to wide.

[RPM 1,190]

58 minutes ago, barnett468 said:

all the rear bumpers i have seen were too wide but there may be a new one out that is not.

If anyone finds one let us know. 

[1969_Mach1 333]

I purchased front and rear bumpers from Summit Racing that have the Scott Drake brand on them.  I don't know who is making them for Scott Drake, but, they fit as good as the originals they replaced.  Material thickness and quality of the chrome looks good as well.  In my area of California rechroming the original bumpers was just too expensive.

This is my guess, like all other reproduction parts, only one or maybe two mfgs. are reproducing these bumpers, and from the same dies.  Especially since they are from overseas.  Maybe somebody here knows more about that.  You are very likely to get the same bumpers regardless of where you purchase them. 

[TinMan 77]

I've got a NOS rear bumper I bought 40 or so years ago. Not sure I want to use it. PM me if interested.

[CG in TX 16]

I recently ran into this issue on my build. The rear bumper I bought stuck out too far on the ends. I searched the forums and determined the best reproduction bumper is sold by NPD. I mounted the new NPD bumper and it fit much better.