Write-Up: Removing Bumper and Fender

how hard is it to remove the front bumper and fender? i have to replace mine along with the corner lens from a hit and run accident. i was the victim. if you guys have any tricks or tips i would gladly appreciate it. its making me depressed looking at it everyday. i dont even wanna wash it.

EDIT: This is a start but let me think about it, I think I left off a couple of things.
The bumper is pretty simple really:
1) Remove around 40 push pins that hold in the front lower valance and the inner wheel wells, all plastic, and remove them.
2) Reach up from right in front of the tires, there are two nuts on each side, 10mm, holding the bumper to the fender, right aft of the light assembly, they are facing up.
3) Remove the two push pins from the underside front of the bumper, they push into the aluminum bumper.
4) Remove the bumper.

The fender is held on along the top with torx screws, you might have to remove the rubber trim piece first, and also has one at the rear lower edge holding it to the rocker. I'm just not sure if the headlight assembly will have to come out or not, there might be a couple of bolts in that area also?

HTH

thanxs. it'll probably be a good idea to spray penatrating oil on those bolts.........

this helps. Im probably gonna have to yank my bumper when I do an intercooler install.

99Rivman wrote:

99Rivman wrote:

EDIT: Hopefully I can get it right this time.
The bumper is pretty simple really:
1) Remove around 40 push pins that hold in the front lower valance and the inner wheel wells, all plastic, and remove them.
...1a) This is where you would remove the wheel well trim, they are just clips pushed onto the lip of the fender. If you do it carefully the clips are reusable.
2) Reach up from right in front of the tires, there are two nuts on each side, 10mm, holding the bumper to the fender, right aft of the light assembly, they are facing up.
...2a) There is a brace on the rear edge on each side of the bumper that attaches to the frame and to the plastic piece that reinforces the sides of the bumper. There are three bolts on the left side and two on the right side, 10mm again.
3) Remove the two push pins from the underside front of the bumper, they push into the aluminum bumper.
4) Remove the bumper cover.

I'm just guessing on the fender since I haven't had one off, but this should be close?!?
The fender is held on along the top with torx screws, you will have to remove the rubber trim piece first, to get to the very back torx bolt the hood hinge will have to be removed, and also has one at the rear lower edge holding it to the rocker. There is a rubber filler at the back of the wheel well that will have to be removed to get to the bolt, it is facing forward. I'm just not sure if the headlight assembly will have to come out or not, yes it will there might be a couple of bolts in that area also?

Like I said I haven't had a fender off, this is just an educated guess!

HTH

I would like to add to this.

1. The push pins are probably the most irritating part of the job, both in getting them loose without breaking them and replacing them. What I did was use a small flat head screw driver to pull them up slightly, then a small pair of needle nose pliers to remove the middle bit. If you are swapping a fender, the entire plastic cover bit has to come off on that side. On the other side I cheated a little bit and only removed enough of the clips to get my hand inside the fender for the cover bolts.
2. Inside the fender, where the two bolts are on each side to remove, the easiest way to do it is to get a very small quarter inch ratchet with no bigger than a palm length handle. You'll have just barely enough room to loosen these and drop the bumper cover. Get ready to get scratched up a bit if you don't have gloves.
3. Once every thing else is removed, the bumper is probably the easiest bit of work. It helps to have something to prop it on or someone to help hold it steady.
4. The fender can be swapped without removing the complete headlight assembly. However, you will need to at least remove the corner light in order to have enough room to work with. There will be a bolt in that area you will need to detach to free the fender.
5. The entire hood hinge does not need to be removed. If the bottom bolts are removed you can fold it up (provided your support struts are still good) and get to the last bolt that way. Use a towel bunched up to rest the edge of the hood so you don't scratch anything up.
6. If you need to check on any of your bulbs or do any work on the headlight assembly, you won't find a better time to do it.

I want to say thanks to 99Rivman, though! That write up made this so much easier.

Tajis wrote:

99Rivman wrote:

99Rivman wrote:

EDIT: Hopefully I can get it right this time.
The bumper is pretty simple really:
1) Remove around 40 push pins that hold in the front lower valance and the inner wheel wells, all plastic, and remove them.
...1a) This is where you would remove the wheel well trim, they are just clips pushed onto the lip of the fender. If you do it carefully the clips are reusable.

I would like to add to this.

1. The push pins are probably the most irritating part of the job, both in getting them loose without breaking them and replacing them. What I did was use a small flat head screw driver to pull them up slightly, then a small pair of needle nose pliers to remove the middle bit. If you are swapping a fender, the entire plastic cover bit has to come off on that side. On the other side I cheated a little bit and only removed enough of the clips to get my hand inside the fender for the cover bolts.

There's a tool for that. Look up auto body clip tool.

Takes little effort or thought to remove them the right way.

I decided to take the bumper skin off the car today months after hitting a van hitch when my ABS wasn't working right so I could fix the resulting hole (mostly my fault - don't worry, the other driver and his vehicle were 100% fine). Using Randall's write up, taking it off was made much easier than just winging it. Please read Randall's write up before looking at these pics!

I found that I only had to remove a handful of the plastic trim fasteners (the pieces that keep in the wheel well plastic and lower valence plastic). Tajis is spot on with the pliers... use them if you don't have a special tool! I only took out the ones front-most in the wheel well... enough to fit a ratchet in to be able to turn it. I suppose all the plastic fasteners need to come off to remove the fender but don't take my word for it!

Also, when the bumper is off and all fasteners are undone, the turn signal lamps (obviously) have to be popped out of the turn signal lenses. I took the lenses themselves out to re-tint. They are held on by retainer clips with teeth... three per lens, two on top and one on the lens underside.

Here are the main bugaboos imo... two threaded pieces in the bumper skin go up into the two holes in the fender on each side (four total). They are each held on by a nut/washer piece of hardware (as seen in the picture at the bottom of my post on the right side of the pic). The ones closest to the front of the car will take a while to get out if using a traditional ratchet or socket wrench. The clearance under the fender was only enough for me to get one "click" out of my ratchet each time while unscrewing.


This pic shows the bumper on the right and the lower fender / horn area on the left. This MAY be what Randall is referring to with "2a" in his post... I am not sure, as I only found one screw that screws up into the plastic bracket per side. The retainer clip on the bumper goes on top of the metal arm that is fastened onto the car itself. The two holes are held together by the screw on the left in the picture at the bottom of my post, which screws UP.


Here is the plastic bracket on the bumper. There is one on each side. This is the piece on which sits the retainer clip pictured above.


These little plastic fasteners (same fashion as the ones that hold in the fender trim and lower valence but a little bit more slender) go up into...


... these holes in the aluminum bumper.


Here are the two little arms on the bumper itself that are fastened on by the plastic fasteners two pictures above.


This is the wheel well trim clip close up. I broke one of these (5 out of 6 I tried to remove are still intact... a passing grade!) when trying to unfasten the wheel well trim. Be gentle! The little plastic overhang piece  on the far left here is what I broke.


The fastener on the left is the screw that screws up into the aforementioned plastic bracket / retainer clip. The fastener in the middle is the lovely wheel well trim clip. The one on the right is one of the four nut/washer pieces that are just aft of the light assemblies on each side


I took these pics to help me in putting the thing back on but thought other people might like to see too. Please see Randall's post for the main info

So how DO you get the fender/wheel well chrome trim clips off without breaking them? I haven't figured that out yet.

Al

I threw a couple of "plusses" your way for the added information and pictures. I guess my write up would have been “better” with pictures but at the time I had already put mine back together so I wasn't able to ad pictures.

ZEP wrote:

Also, when the bumper is off and all fasteners are undone, the turn signal lamps (obviously) have to be popped out of the turn signal lenses. I took the lenses themselves out to re-tint. They are held on by retainer clips with teeth... three per lens, two on top and one on the lens underside.

There is a write up on here somewhere that has "pictures" of the clips and shows their removal, I'm just not sure which write up I included it in previously though?

al_roethlisberger wrote:

So how DO you get the fender/wheel well chrome trim clips off without breaking them?  I haven't figured that out yet.

Al

VERY CAREFULLY!

I have been successful “mostly” when removing them, without breaking them. There is a write up with pictures and part numbers that shows the moldings and the clips on the forum somewhere, actually a couple of places. They were still available through the dealership a few years ago.

99Rivman wrote:

I threw a couple of "plusses" your way for the added information and pictures. I guess my write up would have been “better” with pictures but at the time I had already put mine back together so I wasn't able to ad pictures.

Thanks, it's all good Randall!  I have a few days with the bumper off while everything is being done so I figured what the hell! 

99Rivman wrote:

ZEP wrote:

Also, when the bumper is off and all fasteners are undone, the turn signal lamps (obviously) have to be popped out of the turn signal lenses. I took the lenses themselves out to re-tint. They are held on by retainer clips with teeth... three per lens, two on top and one on the lens underside.

There is a write up on here somewhere that has "pictures" of the clips and shows their removal, I'm just not sure which write up I included it in previously though?

I think I vaguely remember seeing that a while back... hmm... I pretty much just took a pair of needle nose pliers in one hand, screwdriver in the other (deadly combination) and just worked them out slowly. To fully get the bumper skin off, I actually removed the lenses instead of popping out the turn signal lamps b/c one of the lamps was put in the the turn signal socket/opening bass-ackwards by the shop that repainted the bumper before (it has to go in a certain way in order to click in... I think it's the same kind of socket/opening as is in the main brake light lens).  

99Rivman wrote:

al_roethlisberger wrote:

So how DO you get the fender/wheel well chrome trim clips off without breaking them?  I haven't figured that out yet.

Al

VERY CAREFULLY!

I have been successful “mostly” when removing them, without breaking them. There is a write up with pictures and part numbers that shows the moldings and the clips on the forum somewhere, actually a couple of places. They were still available through the dealership a few years ago.

Lol I'm the same as Randall... I'll go with mostly too. Here's a thread of 99Rivman's ( ) I found that has some P/Ns and such. You have to use some of what I call "gentle force" to get these things out right

I am needing to replace the type of clips pictured above.  Seems the body shop left them off when removing my bumper to paint it.  They push up into the metal reinforcement of the rear bumper cover and go through tabs from the lower black part of the rear bumper cover.  Anyone know the size?  They are cheap on E Bay.  Popular sizes seem to be 6 or 8mm.  Not sure which to order.

These look right,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-x-8mm-Hole-Plastic-Rivets-Fastener-Push-Clips-Black-for-Car-Auto-Fender-/222176959128?hash=item33bac75a98:g:6j0AAOSwvg9XexJI&vxp=mtr

@Larry: the correct removable push pins are not *that* expensive from the GM dealer. What you do is get them in 10's. They come 10 to a bag. Then ask the parts counter-person for a discount if you order 10, 20, or some other even (per bag) number.

I used to have the p/n. When I bought them I first got them from gmpartsdirect.com, in a bag of 10. But when I told my GM dealer's parts counterperson what I was paying they matched price... as long as I bought the bag of 10.

All that said -- the eBay push fasteners are way cheaper than the GM ones. And I think the pin part is more like 6 mm not 8 mm - like these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20x-BMW-6mm-Push-Fit-Plastic-Rivet-Pin-Clip-Bumpers-Interior-Trim-Panel-Fascia-/131495028877?hash=item1e9db6e88d:g:pV0AAOSwPgxVOfhf&vxp=mtr

So... take one of the old ones and measure it then put "aa mm x bb mm push fastener" into the eBay or Google search, replacing aa with diameter of cap and bb with diameter of pin, and see what you get.

Albertj

Thanks Albert, I am going to try an auto body supply store near me first.

LARRY70GS wrote:

Thanks Albert, I am going to try an auto body supply store near me first.

Word to the wise: bring a stock fastener to match up.

Albertj

Absolutely, got one.

99Rivman wrote:

EDIT: This is a start but let me think about it, I think I left off a couple of things.
The bumper is pretty simple really:
1) Remove around 40 push pins that hold in the front lower valance and the inner wheel wells, all plastic, and remove them.
2) Reach up from right in front of the tires, there are two nuts on each side, 10mm, holding the bumper to the fender, right aft of the light assembly, they are facing up.
3) Remove the two push pins from the underside front of the bumper, they push into the aluminum bumper.
4) Remove the bumper.

The fender is held on along the top with torx screws, you might have to remove the rubber trim piece first, and also has one at the rear lower edge holding it to the rocker. I'm just not sure if the headlight assembly will have to come out or not, there might be a couple of bolts in that area also?

HTH

Question: I have a '98 that needs its bumper cover replaced in front. I have a '95 donor car with entire good front end. Would it be easier to just swap the whole front bumpers? The front fenders and the hood are going, too.

JohnRedman wrote:

99Rivman wrote:

EDIT: This is a start but let me think about it, I think I left off a couple of things.
The bumper is pretty simple really:
1) Remove around 40 push pins that hold in the front lower valance and the inner wheel wells, all plastic, and remove them.
2) Reach up from right in front of the tires, there are two nuts on each side, 10mm, holding the bumper to the fender, right aft of the light assembly, they are facing up.
3) Remove the two push pins from the underside front of the bumper, they push into the aluminum bumper.
4) Remove the bumper.

The fender is held on along the top with torx screws, you might have to remove the rubber trim piece first, and also has one at the rear lower edge holding it to the rocker. I'm just not sure if the headlight assembly will have to come out or not, there might be a couple of bolts in that area also?

HTH

Question: I have a '98 that needs its bumper cover replaced in front. I have a '95 donor car with entire good front end. Would it be easier to just swap the whole front bumpers? The front fenders and the hood are going, too.

Depends on how you define "easier." The parts are compatible, you just have to decide who much to move vs how much to repair.

Well, MY question is, if I remove the two bumpers, the covers come with, yes? The '98 bumper itself is fine just the plastic is bad. So, is removing the bumper cover a big deal. No Youtube covers it for me and my manuals don't help. Repainting is gonna happen, green to red. Side question: will the body man prefer the cover be off?