I was recently involved in a minor fender bender from the front end. My bumper was pushed in and the shock collapsed. I've taken the bumper apart I noticed that the bumper bracket was bent and a portion of it was warped around the mount. I cant get it out without proper tools I will deal with that later. Do I need to buy a new front bumper bracket mount? I found one on eBay but it was so expensive. Can I get away without installing a new one? I already have the shocks coming on their way.

That bracket isn't overly expensive, but does it really need replacement? I would think that using pry bar plus maybe vicegrips with a pipe extension or whatever, you should be able to bend the bracket enough to get the shocks out.

The end with two nuts has a u-bolt. Once nuts are off, you can slide the ubolt out towards rear and get at it from inside fender. (On my car at least, it is not attached). If you then remove the single nut on other side, perhaps you can wiggle the shock support out sideways? Once out, the bracket could perhaps be bent back to shape in place or removed and worked on elsewhere. It is just a piece of steel and should be able to be repaired.

I see the pads on the front of the shocks. How did those come out of the bumper? Are the channels on the bumper broken. Or is your bumper bolted on? (don't see what model you have)

You may have seen my other posts when I had to modify my bumper to a bolt-on!

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