SDS Photography

does anyone have a write up on this or is it pretty much just as the
Haynes says? how hard is this? I can afford to paint the bumper but I cannot justify paying 300 bones to put this damn thing on.

Corvette0096

This is what I did. Dropped the mufflers then remove the licence plate and taillights. reach in though the holes and undo the 10MM nuts.

GREGGPENN

I did not have to remove the exhaust.

Are you installing a new bumper or repainting the existing one? If you're repainting, the old one only needs to be loosened to get a nice job.

Anyway, here's what I remember....
1) remove rear wheels
2) remove screws into rear bumper which attach rear wheel well to rear bumper
3) disconnect support bar (underneath) bumper side only
4) remove license, tail lights, and side markers (and disconnect plugs)
5) reach in thru tail light holes and remove (or loosen) 10mm nuts

(There is a flange on the bumper AND the rear quarters. Small bolts hold the two flanges together. That's the 10mm nuts you're looking for. Don't remember if you need wrenches on both sides of flange. After you remove the tail lights, you'll be able to feel them.

The job is actually pretty simple. The hard part is you'll be working kinda blind. You can also lay under the rear bumper and see the flange and a couple of bolts if I recall.

SteelBlue90

I pulled mine last winter and did the same process as greggpenn. Not real difficult, just time consuming, as most of the screw locations along the top only allow for very little socket or wrench travel. I used a 1/4" drive socket and short extension. I think some along the top were a 7mm too.

GREGGPENN

corvette1990

Just to pile on. GregPenn is quite accurate. I did the same thing this past summer. I would like to add that the corner brackets have very brittle studs. Once I had the rear wheel wells out of the way. I got to those studs with a 2 foot extension and a swivel. You will have to remove the antenna as it is attached to the drivers side corner bracket. I tried soaking the studs in advance, but still managed to break off 4 studs. I had to buy a couple used ones with good studs in them from Contemporary corvette. I also managed to break one of the tail lamps as the scews were almost glued to the plastic. So when the bolts broke loose holding the plastic lamps to the back bumper, it also broke the plastic stantions. Just be prepared to buy some parts when the old stuff comes apart, as plastic breaks easily. Reaching through the gas filler area to get to the top 8 (7mm bolts) scratched my hands up alot, kinda sharp be careful. Good luck..
chris

Kdeman1

hello! I just pulled mine off, and also broke the 10 mill studs... I'm having trouble finding the plastic studs... any way you can point me to where you got them?

zachaeous

Just a little item that happened to me when I had to remove my rear bumper for repaint. The tail lights were all cracked around the bolt holes and looked very questionable to holding again. I took the opportunity to install studs in the light bolt holes. Thus I had only nuts to remove off the studs instead of screwing bolts into the cracked and broken tail lights.

I glued the new studs into the tail light assys with JB Weld and have been holding for 6 years with no problems. I used bolts for the studs and just cut off the heads making studs out of them. I drilled holes in tail lights and used the appropriate size tap for the thread size. Saved me money not having to buy new tail lights assys.

I think it is easier to just remove the nuts and re-installing them than the original bolts. I used stainless steel bolts and nuts to avoid corrosion.