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Bumper removal nightmare - Tab tore off bumper and the other 3 are cracked
All better!
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Original Post
Posting this in the hopes it saves someone else a major headache. Just "pull a little harder" as some of the how-tos suggest is not the answer. I'm lucky I didn't damage the fenders. The difficult brackets just screw into metal that is clipped into composite fenders. Some background:
1. I've have extensive car building and body work experience; this isn't my first rodeo.
2. Have had 4 C5s, this is my first C7. I'm not loving the car so far: windshield cracked driving it in the cold two days ago, the targa top gasket has torn, and now this.
4. Eff this overly complex design... I can take a C5 bumper off in 10 minutes... yes I'm frustrated.
5. My garage was 45 degrees today... I used a hair dryer to lightly warm the tab areas prior to really pulling on them.
What happened... well I tackled the passenger side first (the one that broke). The inner tab popped right out with ease (yet it's still cracked, see below). Then I set to working on the dreaded outer. I made sure to tape up the fenders and headlight edges as you'll do a number on them working the bumper. I tried trim tools, tried working my fingers up along the headlights while pulling up on the part under the hood... nothing. Then I used Hopper's idea of lightly raising the bumper to create a gap between the headlight... well the bolt is at an angle such that you can't get the socket on it w/o hitting the headlight and I didn't have a 1/4" swivel which would have made it work. The how-tos both say just pull hard, you'll think it's going to break, but it will come loose... well mine snapped. I was furious. On the driver side I used a floor jack to lift the bumper, create the gap and then was able to use the socket slightly off-set to get the bolt loose, even then the tab didn't want to come out... I had to push on it with a flathead while my wife helped lightly pull up... finally it came out.
The damage - 1 snapped tab and 3 cracked other tabs from raising the bumper to create the space to loosen the bracket.
Looking at the bracket no wonder it sucks... it's stiff enough metal that it has no spring. The space to insert the tabs is less than half the thickness of the tabs... no wonder it wouldn't come out.
I'm talking to my go-to body guy to see if we can plastic weld this and touch it up, or if that's going to just break again when I install it again or ever try to remove again.
Has anyone bent the bracket tabs out or shimmed the brackets out so the tabs don't have as strong a hold on the bumper?
Insert many expletives
More expletives
Eff this car
Very little room vs. thickness of tab - Passenger side.
Very little room vs. thickness of tab - Driver side
Driver side inner tab cracked. Outer is cracked too. Cracked on the front side from lifting bumper up to gain access to bracket screws.
Passenger side inner is cracked. Cracked on the front side from lifting bumper up to gain access to bracket screws.
So the Facebook consensus among car friends and auto-body friends is I'm a moron for trying to do any bumper work with tabs like these in a non-heated space.
Curious what prompted you to remove the cover to start with?
Not piling on but curious since I have noted on my new (<1k miles '17) it looks like the panels were never prepped properly so the paint is chipping off where they meet the quarter panels. Looks similar to the panels in your pics. Having nightmares about the dealership trying to pull the front and rear bumper covers. Arctic White as well...
If it is any consolation, you are not the first to have this happen. Sometimes, $hit just happens and it sucks big time. Just seems like every single year, the car makers make it harder and harder for the shade tree mechanics to do anything, and a LOT more expensive to fix up the Do'oh moments!
Curious what prompted you to remove the cover to start with?
Not piling on but curious since I have noted on my new (<1k miles '17) it looks like the panels were never prepped properly so the paint is chipping off where they meet the quarter panels. Looks similar to the panels in your pics. Having nightmares about the dealership trying to pull the front and rear bumper covers. Arctic White as well...
Allen
Z06 grill swap on my Z51 Stingray. Yes... GM has a paint adhesion issue on the C7s. My ex-insurance adjuster opinion is prep. Someone didn't get the mold release agent off the edges of the bumper well. You can see on the back side of my bumper the paint flakes off. I had planned on touching up those spots while I had the bumper off. Didn't plan on destroying the bumper.
Body guy says no way to do a lasting repair... says to replace... awesome.
Without seeing all angles of the broken parts I can't really dispute what the body man says but I have done many successful repairs on cracks, holes, broken tabs and studs using plastic welding. It took some practice time to learn but I would be confident of a long-lasting repair if the work is properly done.
And although I don't mean to sound like a Monday morning quarterback, I also have learned the hard way not to do any work involving removal of plastic parts that are retained by clips or tabs unless the temperature is warm, which in my area rules out doing such work in the winter. Breakage of such parts led me to learn plastic welding.
Sorry to hear about your issues with the bumper removal. I replaced mine after some major road rash the body shop would not guaranty they could correct.
If you decide to replace the bumper check several places for the best deal, mine was from my local dealer, no shipping cost and $50 cheaper anywhere else.
Without seeing all angles of the broken parts I can't really dispute what the body man says but I have done many successful repairs on cracks, holes, broken tabs and studs using plastic welding. It took some practice time to learn but I would be confident of a long-lasting repair if the work is properly done.
And although I don't mean to sound like a Monday morning quarterback, I also have learned the hard way not to do any work involving removal of plastic parts that are retained by clips or tabs unless the temperature is warm, which in my area rules out doing such work in the winter. Breakage of such parts led me to learn plastic welding.
Good luck with your repairs.
I was going to v-groove the parts, scuff the surrounding areas, and JB weld. That work? It's worth a shot.
Sigh I felt this pain last week. My smart *** decided to install the MGW shifter in the garage with poor lighting so I took the roof off. I lifted it too high and it hit the garage door above me and chipped some clear coat off of the exposed carbon fiber area. After about an hour of swearing and yelling about how fu#&ing stupid I am, I calmed down. Everything can be fixed and it was a lesson learned.
I hope you're able to get everything fixed OP. Best of luck.
I was going to v-groove the parts, scuff the surrounding areas, and JB weld. That work? It's worth a shot.
I agree with your preparation method of scuffing and V-grooving the repair areas- that is also the technique used prior to plastic welding. In some cases when reattaching tabs where there is enough space, a small piece of reinforcing mesh, e.g., screen, can be melted into the joint for reinforcement. I have only limited experience with JB Weld but have seen it used as a repair on broken ABS plastic studs and wheel center cap tabs that have been cleaned and scuffed. I do not know how well it adheres to other types of plastics.
Last edited by snomuncher; 12-31-2017 at 12:38 AM.
Sorry for your trouble. It is this reason I did not swap my Stingray grill for the Z06 grill as I was concerned this would happen to me.
But it’s not unique to the C7, it has to do with the way new cars are built. In fact, I read the same problems happen with my other cars, Optima and Jeep.
Hopefully you’ll find a fix if not I hope it’s not too expensive to replace.
You can absolutely repair the broken tabs with a Nitrogen Plastic Welder and it will last forever. Does your body man have a plastic welder?
Don't try a DIY repair yet. Go to a body shop that has a Nitrogen Plastic Welder.
Last edited by snuddenstang; 12-31-2017 at 10:14 AM.
So the Facebook consensus among car friends and auto-body friends is I'm a moron for trying to do any bumper work with tabs like these in a non-heated space.
Your not a Moron But Some lessons are learned by opening the wallet.
Sucks yes.It's Life
I WAS a pretty good wrench,automotive machinist too.Did some...ya i fixed that jobs.This Plastic world we live in requires to much PATIENTS..
Mine are faded with my memory fading
I simply open the wallet for my SANITY
Without seeing all angles of the broken parts I can't really dispute what the body man says but I have done many successful repairs on cracks, holes, broken tabs and studs using plastic welding. It took some practice time to learn but I would be confident of a long-lasting repair if the work is properly done.
And although I don't mean to sound like a Monday morning quarterback, I also have learned the hard way not to do any work involving removal of plastic parts that are retained by clips or tabs unless the temperature is warm, which in my area rules out doing such work in the winter. Breakage of such parts led me to learn plastic welding.
Good luck with your repairs.
I believe you. But, what the OP seems to be saying is, he either likes to, or has to take off his bumper multiple times. Doing what you say, to me, sounds like a one-time repair that will hold. Doing it so it can be removed several times (considering the OP's comments about the tightness of the insert vs the clip, if those are the correct terms) does not sound reasonable or doable.
JMO but I'd say repair for multiple repeat procedures is out, and replace is the only solution short of cutting open the opening for an easier "slide in" fit.
I'd also caution the OP that, yes, ambient garage temperature does count and it's not just the FBook opinions that weigh heavily. I was looking at some glue-in-a-tube directions very carefully for a bump-stop for backing into my garage. It said 50 but no less. I had to wait for that two-day stretch (to warm ambient and slab), but I did, and it's holding so far. If it didn't hold, I would have gotten a space heater and heated the garage up--might have cost some electricity but at least the glue would hold after a couple days of it.
So, I just replaced my stock grill with the Z06 grill yesterday.. It was 19 degrees outside with 5 degree wind chill...
After heating the garage to about 50 or so I started taking everything apart, once I got to those tabs the garage was back down to about 40...
I manipulated the bumper just enough to get a flat tip between the bumper and tab to get it apart, I thought for sure I was also going to brake them...
I wonder if heating them up was the problem or maybe it was colder...
So, I just replaced my stock grill with the Z06 grill yesterday.. It was 19 degrees outside with 5 degree wind chill...
After heating the garage to about 50 or so I started taking everything apart, once I got to those tabs the garage was back down to about 40...
I manipulated the bumper just enough to get a flat tip between the bumper and tab to get it apart, I thought for sure I was also going to brake them...
I wonder if heating them up was the problem or maybe it was colder...
This can be repaired starting at 4 minutes...
Another tip is to heat the car up outside - get to operating temp and bring the car in. All that heat in the engine plus your electric heater will help. Glad I installed radiant heat before I poured the floor slab. A heated garage is just awesome!
12-30-2017, 06:15 PM
Bumper removal nightmare - Tab tore off bumper and the other 3 are cracked
starting at 4 minutes...
