Rear Bumper difference?

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GMC_Nick

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Hey guys looking at getting a bumper for my truck and was wondering if a rear fleet side bumper would look weird on a step side? I have a white painted bumper with impact strips on the front of my truck and want the back to match and the only option for the impact strip bumpers are for fleet sides. I don't care if it looks a little off as long as its not way of and out of place
 

Craig 85

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This is the correct bumper for a step side of that era. A fleet side would look too squared off I believe and the sides extend closer to the fenders.

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HotWheelsBurban

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This is the correct bumper for a step side of that era. A fleet side would look too squared off I believe and the sides extend closer to the fenders.

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Yes. The square body stepsides, at least the 73-80 ones, used a unique rear bumper that looks a lot like the 67-72 bumper. The only way to get the padded bumper to look proportional is to cut it down. Seen this done on a couple of show trucks, back in the day.....
 

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Anyone know of using an s10 truck/blazer bumper for the back? I know some of them have a similar style impact strip and are probably real close to the width of a stepside bed. Figure that's my next best option besides running just a regular stepside bumper which I'm not a huge fan of
 

bucket

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Yes. The square body stepsides, at least the 73-80 ones, used a unique rear bumper that looks a lot like the 67-72 bumper. The only way to get the padded bumper to look proportional is to cut it down. Seen this done on a couple of show trucks, back in the day.....

They went all the way through '87 too. Far as I know, '67-'72 stepside bumpers are the very same part. I bought mine at a swap meet, said to be removed from a '67 and it was a dead match to the '79 bumper I replaced. Just not bent.
 

TotalyHucked

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Yep, as others have said, stepsides had the same bumper from 67-87. A fleetside is gonna be wayyy too wide for the truck, it’ll look really weird. Your best option is to put 2 new bumpers on it with a smoothy front
 

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I think the guys above are thinking about short bed stepsides, half tons.
And while 70s and many 80s trucks came without rear bumpers and a plethora of different aftemarket bumpers were installed. Not the least of which all the cool old heavy steel bumpers with the dealership name and city stamped on the face of the bumper.
I feel 3/4 ton long bed step sides, if factory bumpers were not the little rounded sport looking bumpers. But rather THIS.
I think any era correct GM fleetside step bumper would look real close to matching. Just a tad different in the front edge of the overhangs on each side.
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HotWheelsBurban

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I think the guys above are thinking about short bed stepsides, half tons.
And while 70s and many 80s trucks came without rear bumpers and a plethora of different aftemarket bumpers were installed. Not the least of which all the cool old heavy steel bumpers with the dealership name and city stamped on the face of the bumper.
I feel 3/4 ton long bed step sides, if factory bumpers were not the little rounded sport looking bumpers. But rather THIS.
I think any era correct GM fleetside step bumper would look real close to matching. Just a tad different in the front edge of the overhangs on each side.
You must be registered for see images attach
Yup I remember the heavy steel step bumpers you're talking about. Saw a bunch of em in the Houston area. My favorite was "Ford's Chevy Service", in Tomball, Texas. Now it's called "Parkway Chevrolet".
And of course in the square body days and before, many trucks did not come standard with a rear bumper. Especially the lower trim levels. Our '78 Sierra C15 longbed was like that. The rear plate and license light were mounted on the left rear frame horn.
This was even a thing on the OBS/400 trucks; my '97 C3500 CCLB was ordered with a rear bumper delete. What's on it is an aftermarket parts, similar to the OEM style. It's got a couple of dents in it(that have gotten added to since I bought it, from people backing into it in parking lots!) so it'll be getting swapped out for a factory bumper once I find a nice one.
 

bucket

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Yup I remember the heavy steel step bumpers you're talking about. Saw a bunch of em in the Houston area. My favorite was "Ford's Chevy Service", in Tomball, Texas. Now it's called "Parkway Chevrolet".
And of course in the square body days and before, many trucks did not come standard with a rear bumper. Especially the lower trim levels. Our '78 Sierra C15 longbed was like that. The rear plate and license light were mounted on the left rear frame horn.
This was even a thing on the OBS/400 trucks; my '97 C3500 CCLB was ordered with a rear bumper delete. What's on it is an aftermarket parts, similar to the OEM style. It's got a couple of dents in it(that have gotten added to since I bought it, from people backing into it in parking lots!) so it'll be getting swapped out for a factory bumper once I find a nice one.

Yep. My son's '93 W/T didn't originally come with a rear bumper either.
 

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