04.08.2003, 07:51
Someone took a chunk out of my rear bumper a few months back at the mall and didn't leave a note. My 86 vert is my daily driver and has 150k, so I like to keep it nice but don't want to sink a whole lot of money into it (except the $1k in stereo equipment that I enjoy daily). Bumpers are at least $150 used, and there's painting costs, flex agent, etc. And if you went to a body shop, you'd be looking at a $1000 bill. Anyway, I searched around and finally found a bumper in white (my color) on ebay. Contacted the guy in Colorado when no one bid. I offered to pay his asking price, $175, if I could find a reasonable way to ship. Went with https://www.shipgreyhound.com. It cost $40 to ship from Colorado to Maryland when trucking companies wanted $250. A little more hassle since you have to go the bus station to pick up/drop off, but I was doing this on the cheap, so it was worth it. Oh, and I kid you not, my bumper missed a connection at some stop along the way and was a day late getting in.
On to the install - The bumper is bolted onto the rear of the car. To remove it, you need a 10mm socket, 7mm socket and a Torx15. It also helps to have a whole lot of socket gizmos, but I'll get to that later. So, you can start with the fender liners which are screwed into the bumper with four Torx 15 screws each. It is best to have a short Torx tool because the clearance between the tire and the fender liner is pretty tight. I bought a Husky Torx set (kinda like a swiss army knife with foldout Torx) from Home Depot for $9. It worked like a charm. If your Torx driver is too long you can pull off the rear wheels, but it seems unnecessary if you can just get a tool to do it for $9.
Next, remove the license plate and reverse lights. Now you should be able to reach inside the bumper and behind the two center-most tailights. Each taillight is held on with two 10 mm screws. Use your ratchet to undo these. A 1/4" ratchet with a short handle is fine but a ratchet head without a handle is better. I got a set of two ratchet heads (1/4" and 3/8") from the auto parts store for $8. It's basically a circular ratchet head without a handle, textured for an easy grip. Very helpful. Once you have the two taillights off, you can move to the outer taillights and unscrew them the same way. Note: It is very tight and there are lots of thin metal plates in there. I am thin (5'11", 170 lbs) and have long arms and I left a LOT of skin inside the bumper trying to get at some of the bolts. If you are big, it will be a painful job.
Once you have the taillights out, you are ready for the hard part. There are 5 more 10mm bolts on each side running along the curve outside the taillights and outer edge of the bumper. (I have pics of all this but need some help posting if anyone is interested.) You can get at some of them from the empty taillight hole, but others are easier if you lie on the floor with your head near the tire and reach up around the muffler with your ratchet and an extension. This is especially true on the driver's side because of the way the power antenna is mounted. As long as you are under the car, there are two more 10mm bolts at the bottom center of the bumper. They are right out in the open and are not a problem.
Once you have the ten 10mm bolts out, all that is left are eight 7mm bolts along the top inside of the bumper. One of them in particular is a bear. Use your 7mm socket and ratchet head to loosen them. The bolts are parallel to the floor and screwed towards the rear of the car. They are accessed through the taillight holes. So if you can picture this, you are basically giving the car a rectal exam up to your elbow to get to them, with your hands pointing back at your face to unscrew them. And the 16 years of accumulated dirt and grime that covers your arms ... nevermind. (Sorry for the mental image!) The bolts are long, like 1 1/2" with fine threads, so it takes a lot of turns to get them out. Best to have a ratchet head gizmo with no handle for this job. There is one bolt l spent hours trying to get. It is located just to the right side of the gas lid. It is so close to the top of the bumper that there is no room to fit the ratchet, even though the socket will fit on it. I can tell you I tried everything over parts of two days to get this bolt. No dice. So... the solution was to remove the black plastic gas door liner (4 more Torx15 screws) and drill a 2" hole through the fiberglass. I didn't want to do it, but it was the only thing I could think of. I made sure repeatedly that I wouldn't hit anything important (especially since I was right next to the gas line) and drilled straight down. Got the bolt out no problem and the liner screwed back in and covered the hole completely. Note: I dropped sockets and bolts a number of times while reaching inside the bumper. Some fell to the floor, others got hung up inside the spare tire carrier, so I left that down after lowering it the first time.
Once you have all eight of those bolts off the bumper will just slide back. During the removal process, you would have also disconnected some of the metal braces that protect the car (and occupants) in case of a crash when you removed certain of the 7mm and 10mm bolts. It's pretty logical, but make sure you remember where they go when you put your vette back together. You also are going to need to disconnect the various lights when you go along.
That's about it, although I had one more wrinkle. The bumper I bought was from a coupe and I have a vert, so I needed to add a spot for the third (or 5th?) brakelight. I unbolted the third brakelight from my bumper. It's just a flange bolted through a slot cut in the bumper. I then measured, measured, measured and drew a rectangle on the new bumper with a ball point pen. I used a drill to put in a few pilot holes and then took a high speed orbital jigsaw with a brand new blade designed for cutting thin metal (very fine teeth) and cut out the slot. Worked like a charm (though I have to admit that I was wondering if I would waste 9 hours work and the cash for the bumper in one fell swoop by destroying the new one!) Screwed in the light and put the bumper back on. There you go. I am pleased with the way it looks and happy to advise if anyone is considering the same project. It took about 10 hours total (but I wasted about 1 1/2 hours on that one dastardly bolt near the gas door. Hopefully I will save you that experience!
zu finden in
https://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=373934
Grüße von Marco
PS: was machen die breakes?
On to the install - The bumper is bolted onto the rear of the car. To remove it, you need a 10mm socket, 7mm socket and a Torx15. It also helps to have a whole lot of socket gizmos, but I'll get to that later. So, you can start with the fender liners which are screwed into the bumper with four Torx 15 screws each. It is best to have a short Torx tool because the clearance between the tire and the fender liner is pretty tight. I bought a Husky Torx set (kinda like a swiss army knife with foldout Torx) from Home Depot for $9. It worked like a charm. If your Torx driver is too long you can pull off the rear wheels, but it seems unnecessary if you can just get a tool to do it for $9.
Next, remove the license plate and reverse lights. Now you should be able to reach inside the bumper and behind the two center-most tailights. Each taillight is held on with two 10 mm screws. Use your ratchet to undo these. A 1/4" ratchet with a short handle is fine but a ratchet head without a handle is better. I got a set of two ratchet heads (1/4" and 3/8") from the auto parts store for $8. It's basically a circular ratchet head without a handle, textured for an easy grip. Very helpful. Once you have the two taillights off, you can move to the outer taillights and unscrew them the same way. Note: It is very tight and there are lots of thin metal plates in there. I am thin (5'11", 170 lbs) and have long arms and I left a LOT of skin inside the bumper trying to get at some of the bolts. If you are big, it will be a painful job.
Once you have the taillights out, you are ready for the hard part. There are 5 more 10mm bolts on each side running along the curve outside the taillights and outer edge of the bumper. (I have pics of all this but need some help posting if anyone is interested.) You can get at some of them from the empty taillight hole, but others are easier if you lie on the floor with your head near the tire and reach up around the muffler with your ratchet and an extension. This is especially true on the driver's side because of the way the power antenna is mounted. As long as you are under the car, there are two more 10mm bolts at the bottom center of the bumper. They are right out in the open and are not a problem.
Once you have the ten 10mm bolts out, all that is left are eight 7mm bolts along the top inside of the bumper. One of them in particular is a bear. Use your 7mm socket and ratchet head to loosen them. The bolts are parallel to the floor and screwed towards the rear of the car. They are accessed through the taillight holes. So if you can picture this, you are basically giving the car a rectal exam up to your elbow to get to them, with your hands pointing back at your face to unscrew them. And the 16 years of accumulated dirt and grime that covers your arms ... nevermind. (Sorry for the mental image!) The bolts are long, like 1 1/2" with fine threads, so it takes a lot of turns to get them out. Best to have a ratchet head gizmo with no handle for this job. There is one bolt l spent hours trying to get. It is located just to the right side of the gas lid. It is so close to the top of the bumper that there is no room to fit the ratchet, even though the socket will fit on it. I can tell you I tried everything over parts of two days to get this bolt. No dice. So... the solution was to remove the black plastic gas door liner (4 more Torx15 screws) and drill a 2" hole through the fiberglass. I didn't want to do it, but it was the only thing I could think of. I made sure repeatedly that I wouldn't hit anything important (especially since I was right next to the gas line) and drilled straight down. Got the bolt out no problem and the liner screwed back in and covered the hole completely. Note: I dropped sockets and bolts a number of times while reaching inside the bumper. Some fell to the floor, others got hung up inside the spare tire carrier, so I left that down after lowering it the first time.
Once you have all eight of those bolts off the bumper will just slide back. During the removal process, you would have also disconnected some of the metal braces that protect the car (and occupants) in case of a crash when you removed certain of the 7mm and 10mm bolts. It's pretty logical, but make sure you remember where they go when you put your vette back together. You also are going to need to disconnect the various lights when you go along.
That's about it, although I had one more wrinkle. The bumper I bought was from a coupe and I have a vert, so I needed to add a spot for the third (or 5th?) brakelight. I unbolted the third brakelight from my bumper. It's just a flange bolted through a slot cut in the bumper. I then measured, measured, measured and drew a rectangle on the new bumper with a ball point pen. I used a drill to put in a few pilot holes and then took a high speed orbital jigsaw with a brand new blade designed for cutting thin metal (very fine teeth) and cut out the slot. Worked like a charm (though I have to admit that I was wondering if I would waste 9 hours work and the cash for the bumper in one fell swoop by destroying the new one!) Screwed in the light and put the bumper back on. There you go. I am pleased with the way it looks and happy to advise if anyone is considering the same project. It took about 10 hours total (but I wasted about 1 1/2 hours on that one dastardly bolt near the gas door. Hopefully I will save you that experience!
zu finden in
https://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=373934
Grüße von Marco
PS: was machen die breakes?
![[Bild: bannercag2.jpg]](https://www.corvette-association-germany.de/images/bannercag2.jpg)