So one day I parked my car at a lot and left to go have lunch. I came back and found my front bumper destroyed by some ******* that prolly backed into my car.

The good news is, the damage isn't too severe and i think i can simply replace the front bumper cover. The bad news is, I don't have comprehensive coverage on my insurace, so I'm gonna have to fix this myself.

If anyone close by and has a spare black front bumper cover in good shape, pm me to see if we can work out a deal. If you're in washington I could drive down to bellingham or something to take it off ur hands.

and another question is... would someone be kind enuf to post a pic of the location of all the bolts holding up the bumper? thx in advance.

 

they are a blast to get off. something like 20 bolts Im guessing. theres a row from the top, have to take off the grill, and the headlights and corner lights, on the bottom, theres a row just like the top, then my fav, are the ones in the fender, they are all 10mm and id douse them good with liquid wrench as on the 3 Ive pulled off alot of the bottom and top ones just snap off.

~Alex

 

whoa... looks like i'm in for quite a bit of work..

 

work? naw.... Liquid wrench won't help you much, so just do yourself a favor and go buy a carbide drill bit (for metal uses), becareful with the plastic clips holding the front grill in, use a long flat head when possible, and a needle nose plier is your friend.

If you are getting a used bumper cover, fitment will be fine, but if you are buying aftermarket replacement (in the 20-25 US dollars), there might be a small gap where the bumper meet one of the fender.

It is also good to have a large tree stump or something in your yard if you are installing aftermarket cover, because when I did mine, I needed to use the treestump as a soft wall of sort, had my bumper against the tree stump, and gave it a lil gas then pull the ebrake to lock the car in place. That way, the cover will be held flat against absorbers so that fitment will be a bit better.

for the bolts, I tried my best to remove them, but ended up with most of them snapping off, so i just drilled new holes, used some stainless steel nuts and bolts, and a couple of brass gasket to secure the new cover in place. While drilling, for your sake, wear some eyes and nose protection, as metal shavings are not a friend to either your eyes or your lungs.

edit: forgot to mention, when you drill, to avoid the bit seizing in, slow the speed of the drill down, and apply firm pressure. A 1/2 horsepower drill will do fine, but any lower and I think there won't be enough torque to turn the drill bit if it happens to be seized.

 

meh.. I've pulled off half a dozen bumpers and have never run into problems with those screws. only people with rust problems need to worry about them..

as far as time to replace the bumper, the first cover I pulled off took me about 30 minutes. after I did it a couple times, I can do them in about 15 minutes now.

 

unfortunately, I'm in the northeast, where there is enough roadsalt to eat through the frame in about 2-3 years of driving, and I don't think vancouver is any more different. You're lucky since you are down south (the shape of the car is in awsome condition, whishing I could say the same thing for my car.)

 

Vancouver is in fact different. None of the northwestern states use salt on our roads. You'd be surprised how long cars last here even with all the rain.

 

Now I need to think about getting that bumper cover... x__X

edit: Whoa... I enquired a seller on e-bay for the bumper, the bumper itself was about $30, but they wanted over $240 to ship it up here... holy ****.

 

look at local scrap yards, maybe you can find one

 

i have a front bumper cover if your interested.