1970 Chevelle Frontend Revival

The final bolt can be shimmed to adjust where the top of the fender by the door will rest. Initially, ours looked a little too close; part of the problem turned out to be the lower windshield trim was bowing out ever so slightly. We first placed a shim under bolt C (previous caption) to raise the fender and then added one to bolt D, which pushed the top of the fender out, allowing the fender to fit perfectly flush with the top of the door.

Without adding shims to the passenger side, the fender-to-wheel gap was fine, but you can see that the top of the fender needed to come out in order to match the door's body lines. To fix this, we only needed to add a 1/16-inch shim under bolt D.

Next, we mounted the lower filler panel that rests between the grille and the bumper; while it doesn't do anything structurally, it eliminates the gap between the two pieces. Securing it are three 1/2-inch bolts on each side (two mount onto the core support and one ties into the fender).

If you're unfamiliar with the bumper bracket configuration or don't have a diagram to follow, just know the smaller bracket will line up against the frame, while the larger one will extend to the outer side of the body. For fasteners, as with the frontend kit, we ordered a complete set of Grade-8 bolts for it.

For the heavy metal, we opted for a reproduction bumper constructed of stamped steel and featuring a triple-chrome finish. If you read the description in the catalog, it'll say that it's not a show-quality piece, but we beg to differ. Unless you're going for a concours-level restoration, this baby will do just fine.

When mounting the front bumper, there's a fairly wide range of adjustment. For best fitment, you'll want the bumper to cover half the lower filler panel. Then match center to center for both pieces.