Replacing front bumper and cover on '86 FWD

[RiggerRob]

Hey, all,

I'm preparing to replace the front bumper and cover on my '86 Toyota FWD Wagon (the car jumped out of gear and rolled down a hill into a steel post, creasing the bumper pretty badly). An older gentleman with several several scrap bodies to choose from lives nearby and before I go over there and start tearing into one, and wonder if anyone has any experience with this. The cover is held on by several 10mm bolts but the only bolts for the bumper assembly I can find are two large ones(18mm? 19mm?) on the front just below the turn signal housings. Is it really as easy as removing some of the cover bolts from the bottom, pulling the two large bolts,unplugging the turn signals from the back and popping the whole bumper and cover assembly off in one piece or is this too good to be true? It would be good to get some shared experience as this car is my daily driver (almost 246,000 miles now) and I don't want to break anything before I go for this. Unfortunately the FSM doesn't really go into detail about bumpers, body panels, etc. There is very little rust on this car, by the way. any advice is encouraged and appreciated!

Thanks, Rob

[splatterdog]

The whole thing comes off with just the four bolts at the top of the frame where the bumper meets it.

Just turn sigs and side support bars right in front of the front tires otherwise.

[RiggerRob]

Thanks for the quick reply!

[Petros]

I have taken the front and rear bumpers off several times. If the mounts were not badly bent it should unbolt no problem, I seem to remember it being straight forward. On my first Tercel the front bumper was mashed, and my mounts were bent, I manged to get it out with a pry bar and typing heavy rope to it and backing up (after I removed all the bolts). It is it not bent the bumper assembly should slide right out of the frame mounts.

I do not see a reason to replace the bumper cover separately, the whole assembly comes off together, steel frame and cover. You should just replace them as a unit since the steel bumper frame under your rubber cover is also bent.

Good luck.

[RiggerRob]

Looks pretty straight forward to me, I did a visual check today and the frame doesn't appear bent where the bumper is attached. I have a clean '86 body to pull the bumper and cover off of and I'll give it a shot this weekend and post a picture of the results. Thanks a a million for your help!

Cheers, Rob