My 1970 Chevelle SS's external restoration is done, except for one item: the black, rear-bumper SS pad. I had the bumper rechromed, and they obviously had to remove the old pad in the process. But when the bumper came back and it was time to attach a new pad (ordered from Year One), my restoration guy chickened out. He was leery of scoring the bumper and gluing the pad on, as the instructions said.

So I took the car to a top-notch restorer with many national trophies (mainly custom street rods). He set out to attach the bumper pad....and now he's balking, too! He thinks the pad (which appears to be the correct pad to me) fits the bumper improperly. He's even wondering if there's a difference between a Chevelle bumper and a Chevelle SS bumper, and that perhaps the chrome shop switched bumpers on me. I doubt it.

Here's my question: Are 1970 SS black bumper pads supposed to be a little bit concave once applied? Especially on the ends? That's what my restorer thinks looks bad, but I'm thinking that's perhaps how all SS bumper pads are supposed to fit. Also, do you know of anyone in the Seattle area who's a whiz at restoring Chevelles in particular? Perhaps I can persaude my restoration guy to phone that person and get a tip or two. Thanks!

My understanding from talking to people is that an original SS bumper pad should be concave. Or at least have a contour where the center dips lower than the outer edges. This is along it's length and not just on the ends. (This is how mine (original) is configured.)

It was my belief (haven't actually compared) from hearing about the repros that they do not have a concave face. They therefore do not tend to look original.

It sounds like the one you got from Year One is concave? It should not be only on the ends though. Do you still have your original to compare it to?

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LS6, 4spd, 4.10, Cortez Silver
1 of 231 exported to Canada

After looking at mine I want to ammend my prior description. (I was going from memory at work earlier... but I have no memory!) http://www.chevelles.com/forum/frown.gif I think to say it's concave would be misleading and actually wrong.

I just went out and eyeballed mine. The pad (as installed) is arched outward on the top edge from end to end. This is to conform to the curve of the upper portion of the bumper. Not sure if they are that way before installation. It is actually not concave at all in the sense that the edges would be higher than the middle. It is nearly perfectly flat across it's surface. There is no dip on the ends or the bottom. The lower half is actually very flat as the lower part of the bumper is flat (no curve).

I hope that makes sense. I'm going to shut up now and let the real experts answer.

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LS6, 4spd, 4.10, Cortez Silver
1 of 231 exported to Canada

There are two repo bumper pads out there. One pad is completely flat and will not fit the bumper very well. The other repo pad has a profile molded into the rubber to match the profile of the bumper. This pads fits much better, and is easier to glue on the bumper.

There is a draw back to the pad with the profile. The pad is repo'd by Chevelle World in Oklahoma, the black portion of the pad is is trimmed when it is removed from the mold. I have noticed that the workers that trim these parts are not doing a very good job. I have ordered three of these and had to return them from three different vendors, because the trim job looked as though it was done with a sword. Ground up carries this pad, or you could give Chevelle World a call.If you can look at these pads before you buy it would be best.