front bumper removal

[4doorVIP]

Any tips on removing our front bumper covers?

Do the licence plate holder bracket and turn signal lights have to come off first? Sadly the 2x 10mm nuts on the back of each indicator lamp are rusted to hell and stripping.

I have removed two 10mm bolts that attached to the underside of the fenders, two 10mm on the bottom corners of the bumper cover, and about 10x 10mm nuts from behind the grill/headlight area.

I was wondering if it is just easiest to remove the entire bumper assembly? And if so, do you guys know where to find these bolts? I have found a few 14mm bolts that might be them

[dlb]

not sure about removing the bumper cover but i think the bumper is held in place with four 17 or 19 mm bolts. you may have to remove the headlights to gain access to the bolts, i'm not sure since i've never had to actually remoe a front bumper. when you open the hood the bumper bolts should be more or less just behind the headlights, in line with the frame. it's similar to the rear bumper where if you just lift up the rear carpet and remove the plastic plugs, you find the rear bumper bolts in line with the frame.

[4doorVIP]

thanks dlb, got it done.
two 14mm bolts each side underneath the headlight
one 14mm bolt on underside of bumper on each corner
one 10mm bolt on connected bumper cover to frame each side
one 10mm bolt connecting bumper to fender each side

once these where undone, it slide out in one piece, great

thanks for the help

[dlb]

nice. where did you get the new bumper from? was your old one rotten? i have had terrible luck with rear bumpers but good luck with the fronts so far.

[BrownBadger]

So, I just CANNOT get my front bumper off. I have removed the 4 bolts to the frame, the 2 bolts to the fender on each side, and the bumper cover bolts to the cross brace. It just wont budge. Is it possible I am missing a bolt somewhere, or maybe it is just stuck.rusted on there? I wouldn't think rust since the car is practically rust free, but I have had issues with the 10mm bolts on the bumper cover sheering off.

As a side note, this car did have a minor front end collision, hit something below the bumper and pushed in the metal cross brace about an inch. Did not even notice it until I began to tear everything apart. Perhaps this tweaked things jsut enough to make it hard to get apart?

[marlinh]

I think there are two more bolts holding the bumper on. Look carefully under the headlights, the bolts face aft.

[Petros]

seach for all of the bolts, as I recall there are only two on each mount to the frame, but there area also support ties in the fender wells so the end does not sag.

If the bumper was hit it may be trouble to remove even with all the bolts out, in my first tercel the frame was bent so the bumper mounts were about 3/4" further apart and I had to tie it to a tree and back up to get it off (I was pretty pissed at that point). You could not tell by looking at it, it only became obvious when I put the new (unbent) bumper up to the the mount and found it would not line up. so it took some more messing with it to get the replacement bumper to fit.

[4doorVIP]

hey man
there were 2 bolts to the frame under headlights per side
2 bolt wheel well per side

there are 2 more pesky frame bolts on the underside of the bumper.. they were off set a little from the turning indicators, maybe these are the 2 holding you back

if you got all of these removed, give the bumper a good shake back and forth, maybe some rust as sides things a wee bit

[4doorVIP]

also soak each frame bolt mount in some liquid wrench for a couple hours
** edit, you do NOT need to remove the bolts on the back of the indicators - there are two 14MM bolts near those indicators though, this is what is holding you back

[BrownBadger]

Thanks for the help guys. I was missing the two 14mm bolts facing the front. I never even thought to look on the front of the car and had been looking at it from underneath, behind, on top, etc. Slid right off after removing those two bolts.

[JackWagon]

This thread helped me so I thought I'd add a couple pictures of where the bolts are located. I had removed the full headlight assembly including the housing to repaint so you may not have as much access as I did

[fawmaine]

Thank you for the info. I have to replace the bumper on my 1988 wagon. This question has to do with interchangeability with bumpers from other model years. What will fit my car. When talking with the parts vendor what should I make sure gets shipped? I know for a fact that the brackets that hold the parking/ turn signal lights are rusted beyond saving. I have the oem part numbers but don't know if they will be of any help. Any info you can help will be welcome.

[4doorVIP]

if it helps I can confirm the older style front end (84-86) will fit our 87/88 revised front ends just find - everything bolted up