Darren is the best. More than likely the side retainers may need some adjustment. The bumper is pretty easy to remove so pulling it off is easy.

 

i have a gap on my ap1 that looks like the pic op posted above of the passenger side bumper/qtr panel from the side. The gap is a bit too wide near the rear light. Might be a bit worse on my car. Which bumper attachment point can be used to tighten that particular spot up a tad?

Also, while we are messing around with the rear bumper - what is the proper way to remove the tow hook cover so you don't bugger it up? Mine was scratched up a bit when the car came to me. I have a new one to install. But, I want to be sure I don't do any damage to the bumper when removing the old tow hook cover.

 

Once tbe bumper is off, you'll see a long, like maybe a foot, plastic mount along the joint where bumper meets qp.

That mount isn't really meant to be adjustable, but with a little creativity you can make it happen.

But that little corner where the bumper sweeps up right at the intersection of bumper, qp, and taillight isn't controlled by a mount. It sorta just sits where it sits, based on shape of bumper.

What happens is people mount the bumper, and don't take time to make sure everything tucks and fits like its supposed to, then over time and sitting out in the sun, the bumper reshapes itself to the direction its being stressed.

So your fix is probably going to involve a heat gun and some gloves that will keep you from burning your hands.

Remove bumper. CAREFULLY apply heat. A little at a time, from the back only. Until heat works its way toward paint (but before paint gets too hot). Think as hot as cars get in the height of summer (the height of summer in places other than Vermont!)

Now work it. Use your fingers to gently reshape the piece to fit properly.

Be very careful not to let seam of glove or anything else put to much pressure in one spot on paint. Don't want to leave a crease.

It will take some amount of good eye to figure out how much to tweak it, since bumper will not be mounted to car as you do this. So telling how much is enough, and where it needs shaping and where it doesn't, is going to need to be eyeballed.

Before you remove bumper, mark where the bumper shape first starts to go awry. That way you'll know which area not to adjust. Then you can sorta make the shape match the contour of the good parts.

Note itd also possible that corner of the qp sheet metal is tweaked. That the fit issues are not just the bumpers fault, but the bodies. In that case just reshape the metal using your gloved hands. The cars sheet metal is so thin its easy to tweak.

Manipulate tbe qp to make sure the body contour matches the taillight. Also note a washer as a spacer under one of the taillight mounting studs could help realign the taillight if its part of the problem.