Stupid Bumper

[Snibble]

I am attempting to remove my front bumper. I need to take the entire thing off to change the rusted out chrome piece for a new one. I looked under the car to see where I should unscrew things to get it off. What I found is that it looks as if I need to take 4 nuts off the bumper shock on both sides. Then possible just slide it off. However, I can only get 6 of the 8 total nuts off. There are two nuts that won't budge at all. I have busted my knuckles on both hands, scraped skin off both my hands, hit my nail so hard that blood started gushing out under neath the nail. I am not really that happy right now with the bumper. I put WD-40 on the two remaining nuts and I am hoping it will help when I re-attempt tomorrow. IF not, I feel as a sledge hammer to the entire front bumper is necessary By the way... the nuts are 13mm.

I would appreciate it if someone could help me with directions on removing the bumper. Or add anything that I missed, for instance.. am I right in that all you need to do is remove 8 nuts to get the assembly off?

Please help. I have posted about this a couple times and got practically no answer, except for Dirty Ern who was trying to help, but his instructions wouldn't work.

[420SEL]

I had the chrome rust through my 420SEL's bumper and my mechanic told me to buy a whole new used bumper from a salvaged yard as it would be cheaper and much easier than just replacing the chrome, even if the whole bumper needed to be painted. I ended up getting rid of the car before I got serious about replacing it.

Buy some penetraiting oil it works a little better than wd-40 IMO. Also can you get a box end wrench in there? what are you using to try to break it lose with?

[Snibble]

I borrowed my friend's MacTools rachet with 13mm head. I got the other 6 off with no problem, just these 2 are a PITA.

can you get a breaker bar in there?

[Billybob]

Pentrating oil for a day or two if you have the time 4 or 5 days won't hurt, Kroil is the best, use the best fitting longest leveraged (handle) tool you can get on it, apply heat if that doesn't work. You want a ox-acetlyene if you can, but if you don't have it, MAPP works better than propane. Apply the heat to the nut quickly get it pretty hot and throw the wrench/socket on it and it should come right off.

You have to be careful as you not far from the plastic bumper cover that you don't want to melt while your underneath torching!!

Anytime you are contemplating a wrenchfest take the oppurtunity to soak and repeat soaking of all fasteners that might be removed and replaced. Start a week before and the repeated heating/cooling cycles that your engine and the engine compartment endure will compliment the penatrating oil usefulness.

When using a precise fitted tool wrench, socket, allen, etc. a trick like the valve grinding compound method is to use regular toothpaste for it's micro-abrasive quality. The tiny grit will increase the interference fit of the tool (mabye "experienced or worn out) and the fastener (loose spec'd or punished), that will give you a one time advantage, the abrasive will of course be ever so slightly abrading the tool and fastener material away!

The best insurance as you own and maintain your car is to always use an anti seize on all fasteners that dont use a specified thead treatment, copper/lead based on steel and iron and a teflon (Tef Gel, available at West Marine) based on dissimilar metals.

The 6-point socket or wrench is the best fitting most secure for breaking hard stuck fastenings free. Entire face to face tool/ fastener contact is an advantage. Good luck

[Snibble]

Thank you BillyBob, you are always a help. Also, does anyone here know what other bolts or nuts I have to unscrew to get the bumper off? I am not sure that there 8 nuts that I talked about are the only ones that hold it. I need knowledgable w126 owners to help me here. PLEEEEEEEEEEASE

[jwiggin]

For what it's worth, the 1988 W124 has a bolt in the center, too.

[Jim Anderson]

Be careful of the outside temperature behind the licence plate, the weight of the bumper could tear it apart.

[420]

Snibble....
Your bumper is still on the car right?
Once you get the bumper off the car, you'll have to completely disassemble the bumper assembly to replace the center chrome. The fiberglass support, guides on each end, the chrome, and exterior plastic cover are all tied in together. Just remove every bolt you can find on the bumper assembly and it will literally fall apart. Note, you don’t need to remove the bumper shocks from the support when doing this.

[Snibble]

hehehe.. remove every single nut and bolt I see... hmmm

I took the tempreture gauge cable off the bumper.. so its basically hanging off now. Nothing should happen to it, I hope, lol.

Its about 95*F here.. and humid.. so I will wait till evening to get back to work. I will see what happens.