front bumper removal ideas

[samuraibaz]

trying to remove front bumper with no joy as 2 main bolts will not budge so was wondering if there are any options/access other than an angle grinder as seems a little excessive? cheers all

[povertyspec]

spray them liberally from above with WD40 or anti seize lubricant and leave for bit, with a good splined socket and a bar on the end of a quality ratchet theres no reason why they wont shift. try a bit of hammer shocking to the ratchet with a mallet,to loosen the grip. ive just shifted some bumper bolts of an 88 model that had rusted into place from new. just takes time and brute force. took me half an hour to get them both,but always make sure the socket it aligned correctly, once the splines have been caught and rounded youre left with few options. ;-(

[samuraibaz]

have spent nearly an hour with both bar & impact driver & cant see anyway of spraying anti seize on anything but the head due to no visual access to threaded part????

[hennared323i]

T55 torx heads right?

Stupid question - you are trying to turn the bolts the right way?

[samuraibaz]

using snap on gold torx & anti clockwise lefty loosey mate yes lol

[Johnaldridge101]

drill the head off the bolt

then with bumper removed, weld a bolt onto the remains of the bolt, the heat will free up the bolt and remove easily

[Brianmoooore]

Unfortunately, drilling the head off of the bolt won't help a lot - the bolts are just pins locating the bumper, and the pin part will still be there, unless you can drill about 60mm dead straight. WD40 and the like won't help either, because the threaded part of the bolt and the nut are at the top, and unlikely to be reached.
Apply too much torque to the bolt, and the nut a the top (mounted on a sort of spring clip) will just tear away and turn with the bolt.
The outer painted skin of the bumper (the most valuable part can be forced of by pulling forwards - it's held to the real bumper by a series of plastic pop rivets, which can be sorted out/replaced later.
With the skin out of the way you can just about get a spanner on the outer 13mm hex. bolts that hold the bumper mounts to the chassis rails, but the inner ones require some butchery of the resin bumper rail.
You can also see the large torx bolts that hold the beam to the mounts with the skin off, but unfortunately there's no way of getting at the nuts to hold them still, but you might just get lucky and get them to undo.
When you finally put it all back together, use plenty of copper grease on the T55 bolts, and don't tighten them more than just enough than is needed to stop them unscrewing and falling out.

[scallyally]

drill the head off the bolt

then with bumper removed, weld a bolt onto the remains of the bolt, the heat will free up the bolt and remove easily

You've obviously never taken a bumper off, poor advice.

[samuraibaz]

hooray much more sweat & even maybe trusty angle grinder lost @ least an hour last night thinking drilling wouldnt work & i know her quite intimately now but the bumpers just been sitting there till now way down the endless list lesson learnt lol

[Johnaldridge101]

drill the head off the bolt

then with bumper removed, weld a bolt onto the remains of the bolt, the heat will free up the bolt and remove easily

You've obviously never taken a bumper off, poor advice.

no I haven't, but this is how I always remove stubborn bolts which is why I suggested it. sorry that it wouldn't work in this case

good advice, wrong situation

[BHadley]

Have had the same bad bumper bolt problem recently, follow what Brian says.
I then had to grind/chop/chisel butcher off the remains of the Torx bolt from the welded captive nut
This was done with the bracket removed from car (2x 13mm Bolts)and bumper.

Ain't rust and seized parts a sod!