Front bumper issues

Afternoon all,

I took my front bumper off to have a closer look at this - a small split where it attaches to the passenger side wing;



When I took the bumper off, I then noticed this!
It seems that the bumper has taken a knock sometime in the truck's past - not in the last 9 years, I'm pretty sure of that.









Getting the bumper off wasn't that easy and one of the bolts in the middle, sheared in its captive nut , the bumper itself has seen better days.....








So I now have several disparate issues all relating to this.....sorry to post them all in one thread.

1. What would be the best way to repair the crack in the bumper in pic 1 ?
2. What should I do about the sheared bolt - how should I get it out?
3. What is the easiest way to straighten the front rail - I though about attaching a rope to it and a tree and gently pulling (reversing) it out - though that may make it worse! I could just forget it - I mean it has been like this for nearly 10 years!

I'd like to sort this out myself, without taking it to a garage. I suppose this would be an ideal time to fit a winch bumper or similar but I'm a bit short on the pennies, so that may have to wait till a flusher time.

If the worse comes to the worse, I'll just get the bumper back on "as is" without too much palaver in time for Lincomb on Saturday .

However long term, I would like to sort this out "properly" - please note that is properly as in Chad properly which will probably take a lot less skill and work, than say a "Chris properly" or "JonW properly"

All advice appreciated, as always.

You say there's a small split in the bit that attaches to the passenger side wing, but it looks to me as though your also missing a bit there as well!? Do you still have the bit? If so I'd plastic weld it all back together using a soldering iron to melt and fuse the plastic back together, not pretty but works. then insert a short bit of 22mm copper tube through the holes and pack it all out with some Isopon Fiberglass, job done

Get hold of the bumper iron with your hand (gloved) and give it a good yank forwards, using some slip joint pliers and a hammer to reshape the support. They're not very manly those bumper iron supports and are very easy to reshape, you may need to remove it to get the job going.

sheared bolt in captive nut, drill it out. If 8mm go up to a 7mm and see how you go. If at the end of drilling its a complete no go then cold chisel the captive nut off and just fit a loose nut and washer with a new bolt. You may even be able to leave the captive nut in situ, drill a clearance hole through and put the new nut and washer on the back of the existing captive nut, saving you the time of trying to remove it

The split in the middle top hole just repair using the plastic weld method of melting back together with a very hot soldering iron. Same for the one on the right hand lower tab. Just cut the left tab off leaving enough the fit a short bit of flat steel from it back to the mounting point. then use what you've cut off as filler rod during the plastic welding parts of the job and to repair the other broken out hole that I can see along the bottom edge of the bumper there.

Job done

chadr said:

2. What should I do about the sheared bolt - how should I get it out?

Click to expand...

Can you weld or do you have a mate who can? The best way to get a sheared bolt or stud out is to clean the end as best you can and build up a dome of weld on the end till it sits a little proud of the surrounding surface, then put a nut over it and weld the nut to the dome of weld, then undo it. The heat of welding will crush the corrosion that caused the bolt to sieze and break the bond so it usually turns out quite easily. Did this myself last week on a sheered swivel stud, works every time.

If you can't get a welding torch at it for whatever reason then centre punch it and drill it out starting with a small drill bit and working your way up. Ideally you'll have a tap for the thread needed and a drill bit the right size for tapping - go up to that size drill bit then run the tap up it to clear out the remains of the bolt.

If you don't have a tap the right size and can get at the back of the captive nut then you could just drill it out slightly oversized and put a normal nut on a new bolt?

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think I may go for the easy option and drill the sheared nut out and put a normal nut and bolt on it.

I'll try and remove the bumper iron supports and try and get them into shape with a hammer first. It's pretty solid albeit bent, at the moment.

WRT plastic welding - I'll need to do some experimenting with that.

Cheers.

Just managed to get the bumper iron off without shearing off any more bolts ........need to take a lump hammer to that now.

chadr said:

3. What is the easiest way to straighten the front rail - I though about attaching a rope to it and a tree and gently pulling (reversing) it out - though that may make it worse! I could just forget it - I mean it has been like this for nearly 10 years!

Click to expand...

And it you make it worse you can always drive into a tree to put it back where it was for the last 9 years.

Expertly done!

I've used a hot glue gun for repairing plastic trim & the under-trays.

If you apply it from the back it doesn't show.

The advantage is that once you have a bead of glue you can use a hot air gun to get it to flow into the cracks while you carefully align everything.

Bob.

Yes I love my Hot Glue Gun as well, also another good tool in the off road fixing kit

Here you go, I repaired this with a combination of plastic welding (Hot Soldering Iron and a bit of bumper off cut as a filler rod) and Isopon P40 with a bit of copper pipe to keep the hole open (removed before the Isopon set)



Again plastic welding backed up with Isopon P40, that bit had broken clean off



If I'd still had the fixings from off of this plastic arch extension I'dve plastic welded them back on but I didn't so I improvised with the edge of my kneeling mat and some PU panel adhesive







Plastic welded this back together









I did loads yesterday but that's all the photos I took. I shall take some more to show you some finished work later

I plastic welded and repaired my front bumper, front near side arch extension, both nearside mudflaps, the rear offside mud flap (all with significant faults) and the offside mud flap mounting as per photos. I even drilled out a sheared bolt in the front cross member that the bumper bolts up to, but the center one used for the sump guard. I just lay underneath center punched the bottom of the sheared bolt and then drilled it out from 3mm to 7mm in 3 or 4 steps. Then used a fine tipped screwdriver to flick out what was left, it worked a treat

Out of interest what wattage soldering iron do you use for this? I need to do the same to some of my fairing on my motorbike which suffered some cracking following my last trip

Now you didn't chuck it down the road did you TP?

It's a good little Soldering Iron the one you see in the photos I use it a lot for sorts of things, it's a 35watt one

A point to make is that although I'm sure one can get a better result by the time I've melted enough of the two halves back together and pushed enough filler in to keep me happy it's not a pretty job, but in terms of function, I'm very happy

Olazz said:

Now you didn't chuck it down the road did you TP?

Click to expand...

Nooo been there done that, but not this time. The bloody expensive SW-Motech rack sagged resulting in the rear fairing getting damaged by the top box.

sae70 said:

It's a good little Soldering Iron the one you see in the photos I use it a lot for sorts of things, it's a 35watt one

A point to make is that although I'm sure one can get a better result by the time I've melted enough of the two halves back together and pushed enough filler in to keep me happy it's not a pretty job, but in terms of function, I'm very happy

Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, I'll pick up a cheepo soldering iron and give it a go....

Yeah the plan would be to "glue" the plastic bits together, then sand and fill and get it painted professionally. Unless I can source a replacement off ebay, but they are a bit scarce in the correct colour

sae70 said:

Yes I love my Hot Glue Gun as well, also another good tool in the off road fixing kit

Here you go, I repaired this with a combination of plastic welding (Hot Soldering Iron and a bit of bumper off cut as a filler rod) and Isopon P40 with a bit of copper pipe to keep the hole open (removed before the Isopon set)

Again plastic welding backed up with Isopon P40, that bit had broken clean off

I did loads yesterday but that's all the phots I took. I shall take some more to show you some finished work later

Click to expand...

Thanks - that's very impressive Steven


I need to get myself a soldering iron and try it out.

TonyP said:

Yeah the plan would be to "glue" the plastic bits together, then sand and fill and get it painted professionally. Unless I can source a replacement off ebay, but they are a bit scarce in the correct colour

Click to expand...

don't glue anything that you plan to plastic weld as the glue inter fears with the strength. One of my mud guards has been repaired a number of times using everything from isopod P40 to Epoxy plastic glue and even Hot glue and this one has been a real bugger to hot melt together due to all of the contamination along the cracks from previously unsuccessful attempts at a repair. I'm no plastic weld expert and infancy have never read anything on the subject, maybe I should I wonder if one can effect a more discrete repair working from just behind the damage using a larger piece of material to bridge, strengthen and repair the damage.

Fairing repair kits are normally pretty successful. Two part setup of powder and activator, I've used it on some fairly major cracks in my time. Sometimes a little fibre tape in the mix helps too.

Cheers Doodle. Truth be told I have a mate who used to repair farings including plastic welding and then respraying them for a living, so I will talk to him first to get his opinion. I may even give it to him, although I doubt he has the time now.

Here's some more images of bits I've plastic welded

Here's a couple of before and after photos of something that I've plastic welded with nowt but a soldering iron









Back of a cracked headlight I repaired









Robert giving me a hand to put it back in

I plastic welded the bumper and reinforced some of the brackets with Isopon40. I found the "welding" much more effective than I had first imagined.
Fitted the bumper back for the Lincomb trip tomorrow but I'll probably take if off again and do a few more "mods" before putting it back permanently.

Thanks again for all the tips and support.