Straighten a crooked rear bumper

Hey all,

Anybody else's rear bummer have this sort of crooked look to it? The previous owner said the truck wasn't in any accidents which CarFax confirmed, but it was his daughter's truck so it wouldn't surprise me if she backed it into anything without his knowledge and bent the passenger side of the rear bumper out of shape. Another possibility is that the bumper is actually straight and the bed is crooked. When I stand back looking at the bed and compare the line from the top of the tailgate with the bottom of the rear window, they're not quite parallel.

What do y'all think? What would you do or would you say, "Who the hell cares?" Should I use body shims to straighten out the bed?

 

That's straighten up a little pretty easily, you might be able to throw your dirty Willy beaters on there and twist er straight by hand

 

carfax don't mean shit unless a insurance company was involved
and damages were reported.

looks like somebody hit it...
or the previous driver couldn't back up to save 'er life.
just wasn't ever reported.

I'd personally shit can that one...
because... there are plenty of fresh bumpers out 'dere, and for cheap.

I've been trying to get rid of my near perfect bumper since '04.
not a single local interest... and fark shipping 'dat slug.

hell muh buddy has two hanging in 'is garage rafters... Lol

btw...
make sure that hit to the Rr bumper didn't tweak the rear portion of the frame rail
at the driver's side

 

I used:
1 tree
1 come-along
1 floor jack
1 2x4 about 14" long
1 big-ass hammer

Got some pretty substantial dents/warp out the rear bumper. The 2" gap that normally exists between the bumper and the bed was a -2" gap when I got the truck. Carefully look at how the bumper got to it's current shape and try to reverse the process. It helps to take off the plastic top pieces to see what's going on with the top surface of the steel...

 

The 2nd bumper I installed at first was crooked but all I did was loosen the bolts and had someone lift the bumper while I retighten the bolts and its straight.

 

All you need to do is loosen the bolts where it attaches to the frame, straighten it out, and re-secure the bolts. Done!

 

Fixed it today. When I measured the height of the bed rails on the driver and passenger side, there was a little more than a 1/2" difference. I went ahead and just shimmed the bed at the rear body mounts. For the bumper, I did exactly what 45acp and sirsaechao suggested with the assistance of an air impact wrench. I think it turned out pretty good. Not perfect, but way better.



Before: (For side by side comparison)