I just realized just how bad my rear bumper brackets have gotten from sitting down in my basement for way too long - do we have any year of Mustang that have these brackets that might be interchangeable? Thanks
My interchange manual shows them as Maverick specific, but that doesn't necessarily mean Mustang ones can't be made to work....
Good used ones will work for me so I'll put a post in the "Parts Wanted" sub forum - thanks Dave :Handshake
Well, there is a good ending to this after all and a lesson learned I went down to the basement, took one look at the bumper and brackets and, from first look, the brackets were junk. They looked like a ship's hull that has barnacles growing on them from the Titanic era. So I came upstairs and got to work looking for another set. I put an ad in the Parts Wanted section and then took the bumper outside to remove brackets and to keep the bumper as a core. This has to be the first time in 20 years this bumper has seen the light of day. It turns out that every bolt loosened right up even though I had to pound the socket on the nut. The tension washers that sit against the inside of the bumper are completely intact and reusable. I let the brackets hit the driveway from sawhorse height and I looked down to see them sitting in a pile of brown rust. It turned out that a lot of the rust "fell" off. I took a wire wheel to them and they are totally reusable. You can see some surface damage from rust but they still have to be 99% intact. For something that I will not see when the car is assembled, I'll clean them up, replace the hardware, hit them with POR 15 and I should be good to go. Lesson learned: don't jump the gun until you actually take a look at what you're trying to replace
If your not concerned about everything looking OEM you could just make your own. I did, they are easy to make.
I have not compared them but the early small rear bumper brackets look very close to the ones on my 70 Mustang, so much so that if mine had been unusable I would have tried them.
