The original front valance panels on the Impala were pretty well hammered, but in spite of that they are free of rust and savable. So I began by taking the right front panel and media blasting it to bare steel, then hammering it back into shape. I got it looking pretty close, so I then did a test fit on the front bumper assembly from the Biscayne parts car, since I had already disassembled the one that will go back on the car. To my surprise, it didn’t fit! The upper inside corner where there is a mounting tab was about one inch from reaching the mounting hole. DOH! So I got out my spare valance panel that I hadn’t worked on and noticed that the upper inside corner was flared outward… it looked bent, in the exact same way as was the one I had just “fixed”. Could it be that this bend was factory correct, and I had just smoothed that out? When I located a photo of some NOS unused original GM front valance panels, my suspicions were confirmed. So, boys and girls, when you restore your valance panels, DO NOT STRAIGHTEN that bent corner!
