Lude Generation

Dear All,

Further to an ignoramous scuffing my rear bumper.

My local bodywork guy has sorted the paintwork out to perfection.

However, I've noticed the bump has also dropped the rear bumper a fraction of an inch. It's only noticeable on left/right side profile, however, I'd like to refit it to ensure it fits as original. (It's not lose).

Can anyone please advise how I remove and refit it please?

Many thanks,

David

Take off the bumper and bend the mounting brackets up a bit?

Pics would help, so we can see where exactly it is misaligned (there could be a couple of possible reasons).

It'll most likely be the bumper bar that's bent (This is what the bumper attaches to/hangs off of). To remove it there are (If my memory serves me right) 4 nuts, all accessible once you've removed the boot lining across that face. You'll need a 10mm socket on an extension as there's a hole in the inner skin to reach through. Make sure you don't loose the nuts in between the two skins.

You'll also need to remove the screws from around the arch (Where the mudguards would go), and there's also a screw about an inch and a half in from top corner (screwing vertically up into the rear quarter). Remove these and pull the sides of the rear bumper out to unclip.

The bumper is secured to the bumper bar by a number of push fasteners along the top edge (The centre ones are visible when the boot is open. The rest are hidden under the lights. Once you've undone all the fixings I mentioned in the first two paragraphs this whole bumper/bumper bar assembly will pull out in one piece. Be weiry of foglight wires pulling if you have one though. You may need to disconnect this prior to removal or in some cases during.

Once removed you can seperate the bumper from the bumper bar. To do this unscrew the push fixings with a cross-head screwdriver. You can unscrew them the majority of the way and then pull the screw to pull both bits out.

Once you've seperated the two items, refit the bumper bar to the car on it's own. Do all the nuts back up securely and you'll be able to see where the bar is sagging. You then need to physically bend the bar back to shape. You'll want a uniform distance running between the bumper bar and the underside of the lights. Not too close thought as you obviously need to slide the bumper back in.

Once you think you've manipulated it enough, try the bumper back on (without any fixings), just by sliding it into place. Be weiry of the sides of the bumper scratching on the paintwork though. Clip these sides into place as well though. You might need to get down level with the clip just to understand what you're clipping it into, sometimes you can slide the bumper over the clip. Once clipped in stand back to check out your realignment. It'll be a trial and error affair, so remove and amend if necessary.

Once happy, it's a reversal of removal, although I'd do the bumper bar nuts up securely before fitting the wheel arch screws back. The vertical screws into the rear quarter should be the last fixings to do up.

Senninha wrote:Can anyone please advise how I remove and refit it please?

Merlin wrote:Take off the bumper and bend the mounting brackets up a bit?

Helpful

"NafemanNathan"

Wow!

That's like a Haynes Manual description.

Will give it a go.

Many thanks for taking the time to write it out.

Im sure i have heard of a fix where you simply stick on some foam to the bumper bar on the area where it has dropped - this should take up some or all of the gap at one side.
Reason for suggesting this is i have a spare bumper bar and have tried reshaping it off the car and its not an easy part to bend as it is a relatively thin pressed steel part and prone to twisting etc

No probs. Just sorted out my typos now as well

Nick, it's much easier to bend to shape with it bolted back on to the car

mmm your probably right about that

NafemanNathan wrote:

Senninha wrote:Can anyone please advise how I remove and refit it please?

Merlin wrote:Take off the bumper and bend the mounting brackets up a bit?

Helpful

Its the ghetto fix. Fook it, bend it