gotta replace'em

I've tried to pull the bumper on my 82 cutlass out with everything I could think of,, porta power, bottle jacks,, and a chain and a tree, don't try that one steering wheels hurt when they hit ya!! They wont budge sorry dude!

 

They are designed to do exactly what yours did, get another one. And the bumper or bumper reinforcement (I forget whether that bumper has one) is probably bent as well.

Brian

 

O.K. It's someone else's car I'm just painting it. I just don't want to have a crooked bumper on a freshly painted car. I'll just get another bumper mount :thumbup:

 

Did you try heating it up first? I once fixed a 72 Firebird rubber, Endura bumper by heating it with a hair dryer. Worked perfectly.

 

We are not talking about the plastic bumper, we are talking about a "shock absorber" bumper bracket.

You DO NOT want to heat it up! The oil inside will expand and you can end up with hot oil all over you when it blows!!

Brian

 

Grape, I think even if you did get it to pull out, I would replace that part. They are designed to collapse like Brian said. I think most collapse on any impact over 5 mph, and it is a saftey device. Not something to really mess around with.

 

Ahh nuts, you said rear bumper. I should read better.
The part number for the absorber for the rear is 22016700
.4 replacement time. 2.0 hrs refinish time on the bumper cover plus .8 to clear, and remove and install bumper 1 hr.

 

You better put your glasses on next time Kenseth (LOL :thumbup: ) I haven't checked yet to see if he wants me to do anything with the bumper yet (he just said paint). I just figured if I COULD pull it out I would just pull it out, no big deal. But it looks like it should just be replaced, it's easy enough to remove.

 

You would think that they would have made them like a shock absorber so they would spring back after a impact .Guess they wouldn't sell to many at the parts counter if they did that!

 

Bigdog, they do come back, IF they are compressed within their designed range. This is a 5 MPH bumper. That means at 5 MPH the car was to have no damage when the bumper struck a solid object. At 6 MPH things start to fail, at 10, good luck.

You know, I have gotten to know some engineers and designers with GM and Toyota and the myths that the look for someway to "sell parts" is simply that, a myth. It is hard enough for them with all the bureaucracy, demands for crash resistance, fuel economy, etc. designing a car, they are WAY too busy for such nonsense.

Honestly, I have had some interesting converstation with them. Such as why don't you make things symmetrical like both left and right bumper bracket being the same to save on production of parts? Every one of these questions is answered very well, there is ALWAYS a reason why the guy working on the car in the shop screaming is WRONG and the designers had no choice or they are simply right and we are wrong.

Interesting stuff.

Brian

 

Can they be pulled back out? Yes...for sure.

Is it safe? I seriously doubt it. Body shops are required to replace them around here for legal reasons I assume. I don't recommend re-using one thats been hit.

I pulled one out once though. I removed it from the car, welded a plate to my work table at work, bolted it down, put two bottle jacks on it (one on each side), and cranked it back out.

Then again I have straightened bumpers in a similar manner with a porta power. You learn a lot of things growing up in a steel fab shop.

MartinSR (Brian?-good name :welcome: ) is probably correct about the design and having logical reasons for things. To them...it all makes sense and saves $$$ for the company.

For those of us who have to work on them later though....we need to blame someone for the dumb design. ain: :boxing: :smash:

 

Nothing can help you more when you are fighting with something on a car than to stop, sit back, and ask yourself, "how was this installed at the factory?"

I have found that most of these "stupid" designs that we will ***** about have some great thought behind them. If we look at it like the engineer did, there is the solution right in front of us.

I did have one the other day, I forget what kind of car it was, I would pay a crisp ten dollar bill to see how the living hell they get the stationary and movable glass in the rear doors of that car. I can not emagine they do it like I did, fighting all the way.

Brian