53 XK120 FHC rear bumper bracket question

I have a pair of believed original rear bumper brackets for my car. One of them has been slightly bent out of shape (rear hit) but apparently easily repairable. However, looking at them side by side from the back, it appears that they are both slightly offset sideways in a very similar way. In other words, an imaginary straight line going through the front and rear part of the bracket wouldn’t be parallel to the center axle of the car. I hope I make myself clear. My question is whether the brackets should be that way or not. I know that any imperfection in the rear brackets can lead to serious problems for the boot lid to clear between the rear bumpers and I am obviously trying to avoid that. Thanks to you experts for shedding some light on this.
Bernard

The rear bumpers are slightly offset in order to clear the boot lid.
Richard

The holes in the brackets, where they attach to the underside of the frame, are often horizontally elongated to allow more alignment adjustment. Also, watch to see if your rear bumpers are “handed” when it comes to making the final installation.
The FHC actually has slightly different brackets, than the OTS, because of the fact that the FHC body was raised slightly.
Good luck.
Dick

I did not notice the brackets were offset. The chrome bumpers are though.

the actual bumper irons most cars painted body colour are not handed ie same LH and RH side accidents etc over the year will probably have misshapen them given them appearance of being different. Whilst some people have suggested they are spring steel they seem to bend quite easy.
The chrome overiders are quite clearly LH and RH to clear boot lid ie the bolts in plates inside are offset one way or the other

To Richard, Dick, Phil and Terry,
Thank you for your insight. After carefully reviewing everybody’s information and going back to the books for more research, here is my (hopefully correct) conclusion on this topic :

  • the spare parts catalog supplement for the Fixed head coupe lists only one part number for the rear bumper brackets, with 2 as a quantity. Therefore, both brackets should be the same and cannot be offset in any way, because if they were, that would make them sided and they would carry a different part number.
    So I have to face the reality that both my rear bumper brackets are bent out of shape and will fix them accordingly.
    There is never a dull moment with XKs and I learn something new every day.
    Regards,
    Bernard