We are wondering how much of this frame needs to be covered by a bumper. Also, can we taper the bumper in at a 45 degree angle in order to guide the balls into the intake.
You need 6 inches on each side of each corner. You can find all the rules for bumpers here:
The bumper section is 9.5
Edit:
I’m not sure about the 45 degrees. I don’t think it would matter as long as you have 6 inches of full thickness before the taper.
Edit 2: According to other users, the tapering is not allowed.
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I’m pretty sure it states on the manual. From what I remember, as long as you have the corners covered with 6 inches or something you are fine. Dont trust me, let me go and verify on the manual.
Edit: I guess I was right according to @Tinnittin (posted at the same time 
)
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Tapering is not allowed because the bumper must have a consistent cross section, and a taper is not consistent.
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Measure in 6" from the corner of the frame - that’s what has to be covered by the bumper.
Your bumpers may NOT be tapered, as they would not match the bumper cross-section shown in figure 9-6. Please feel free to ask on the Q&A about tapered bumpers - I don’t think that question has been asked yet this year, but it’s always been answered the same way in the past.
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I think Q191 asks the question of tapered bumpers, with the answer that this is not allowed per rule R24-A.
That’s actually not quite it… the taper’s going the wrong direction. It would funnel things traveling downwards, the question is with respect to things traveling inwards.
R24. BUMPERS must be constructed as follows (see Figure 9-6):
A. …
B. …
C. use a stacked pair of approximately 2½ in. (nominal, ~63mm) round, petal, or hex “pool
noodles” (solid or hollow) as the BUMPER cushion material (see Figure 9-6). All pool noodles
used in a BUMPER set (e.g. Red set of BUMPERS) **may not be modified (with the exception of
cutting to length or beveling ends cutting to facilitate mating pool noodles at the corners as
required by R25) ** or deformed and must be the same diameter, cross-section, and density (e.g.
all round hollow or all hex solid). Cushion material may extend up to 2½ in. (~63 mm) beyond
the end of the plywood (see Figure 9-7). To assist in applying the fabric covering, soft fasteners
may be used to attach the pool noodles to the wood backing, so long as the cross section in
Figure 9-6 is not significantly altered (e.g. tape compressing the pool noodles).
Update 12 specifically made this illegal because it’s not cut to match a side.
It was kinda a grey area up until then (and we were going to do it with 9.5" bumpers cut with a 1.5" bevel at the intake*) but with the specific wording of update 12, I’m quite positive they wouldn’t pass inspection now.
*with a backup set of course. Always have a backup plan. 
Under R24C, any sort of taper or deformation was illegal. Figure 9-6 shows the legal cross-section and 9-7 clearly shows the legal joints and “ends” of bumpers. Tapers have not been allowed all the years I have been involved (all bumper required years).
Update 12 just clarified that you could have a some sort of funky joint at the intersection of two planes of bumper sections and that you could not bevel the other end. However, this was already illegal by the language of R24C and figure 9-7.
Based on previous years, there is a bit of latitude allowed in the compression of bumper material that creates a slight taper outside to inside at openings but not at the level created by actually cutting a bevel into the noodles.
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