Recently, the rear bumper on my '82 fell off because the aluminum bracket inside broke. Apparently, this is a common problem and good replacement bumpers are hard to find. Here's a fix that'll cost you not even ten bucks for both sides:



Shopping list (per side):
2 carrier bolts, 3/8" x 4 1/2" (Home Depot)
2 lock washers, 2 nuts
2 exhaust pipe clamps 1 1/2" (auto parts store), you won't need the U-bolts

Take off bumper including shocks, drill two holes from underneath, assemble as shown on the picture.

This is all you'll see, and you can see it from underneath, only...



Just an idea, I'm sure there are many more 'fixes' out there...

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'99 S420, 155k
'91 VW Vanagon GL, 150k
'85 VW Vanagon GL, 120k
'82 VW Westy, aircooled, 165k

Hey to Airbus. Great fix. I wish I had thought of that before I spent a hundred bucks on a used one.
The carriage bolt heads look like they belong there. I think you saved a lot of guys a lot of money.

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1984 300SD turbo 126
"My true love"

God made me an atheist and who am I to question His wisdom

Looks excellent!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

NIce fix. I need to do mine.
I just had it off to install my DIY hitch and the bumper was on held on by gravity, as the lower part of the brackets had dissolved.

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I choose to be happy, even when the Mercedes is being awkward, lol

I know this is an old thread but I'm curious
Has anybody tried tig welding new mounts on ?
Aluminum or otherwise?

Oh
And would the above mentioned clever carriage bolt fix enable one to use the bumper and spare tire well type of hitch mounting?

I wouldn't recommend it. It's adequate for keeping the bumper in place, but not for bearing the weight of a trailer.

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I choose to be happy, even when the Mercedes is being awkward, lol

Glad it worked.

In my case the square surround had rotted away, I ended up drilling holes and mounting bolts through the face of the bumper.

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83 SD

84 CD

I just finished repairing the rear bumper on my 85 300D. I accidentally bumped into the pillar on the side of our garage door and the bumper just fell off

As usual, the bottom aluminum channel on both sides was no longer there - totally corroded away. But the top one was still sound. There was some quite deep pitting in several areas inside the bumper. The rubber inserts were not perfect, but I reused them. Outside of bumper is good. One bumper shock had in past been collapsed, but I couldn't get it to release and almost destroyed it trying!

What I did, was

- remove brackets from car
- paint the pitted areas of bumper interior and the steel brackets with POR-15.
- make a cardboard template from the rubber inserts and the square steel end of the brackets.
- Using template, drilled two 1/8" pilot holes through bumper on lower side
- Temporarily installed the brackets onto the bumper along with rubber inserts
- using pilot holes as guide drilled holes through the steel bracket flange.
- Removed brackets and enlarged holes to 9/32"
- Enlarged holes in bumper to 9/32" and then used small file to make them square.
- Bolted brackets and inserts to bumper using 1 1/2" long 1/4" stainless steel carriage bolts.
- Applied some 3M 5200 adhesive between the rubber insert and the bumper for good measure . Also used the sealant to encase the bare edges of the steel brackets in hope that this will prevent salt penetration.
- Reinstalled bumper.

That seems like a lot of words. Perhaps I should have just said that I repaired using a pair of S/S carriage bolts on each side to replace the lower channel Hardly noticeable.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Perhaps not as sturdy as the original uncorroded alloy setup, but 'tres elegant' nevertheless.
Early W123 bumpers have twin channels behind the bumper holding 4 carriage-bolts for each bumper-shock - perhaps a more durable design.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

The design on my 85 was really quite poor. Definitely not suitable for a bumper hitch!

Cheers

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

As beefy as the US alloy bumpers look, I have seen them crack. And the bumper-shocks are designed for compression - not to take an extension load. So regardless of the how well they attach to the shocks, I wouldn't trust a bumper-hitch on these cars.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

One shock on my car was pushed in some time ago and recent "accident" may have pushed it a little further. While I had it out, I almost broke it trying to uncompress it.

I have bumper back on now, so was thinking of evening things out by backing the other side into my garage wall .....

Any better ideas

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Definately.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

another slightly different way if the rubber is shot-

My lower bracket on the bumper itself was broken, just like all of them it seems, and the rubber pad was also ripped and useless




I ground that out, and I bent two pieces of 3/16ths steel in U-shapes that matched the contour of the inside of the bumper



I then wheeled off the rest of the rubber pad and welded the U's to the bumper shock. Im sure you could bolt it same way though

looked like this ultimately-



Similar to the OP, only a pair of carriage bolt tops are visible, though top and bottom vs both on the bottom. Also I used stainless steel bolts

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