Help! Rear bumper fell off!

[dropnosky]

driving along in my 84 300D this morning and when I accelerated from a stop light, I hear this whang sound and people behind me are swerving and flashing me. I pull over and jump out to find that the entire chrome bumper simply fell off of the car!

It looks like the chrome part is designed to hook over the mounting brackets, which are actually bolted to the vehicle. Apparently the chrome is glued to the bracket, I found no bolts, and no holes. I must have jumped the hooks over the tabs on a pothole, and it slid off when I accelerated, having unattached from the glue long ago. Is there a special type of glue I can get to reattach this?

I dont like the idea of glue alone at all, so I am considering carriage bolting it as well as glueing to eliminate this ever happening again. Does anyone have any experience with this problem?

[dropnosky]

took another more advanced look at the situation, and it looks like my original feeling that it was glued on is wrong. The chrome bumper actually has two tabs, and the mounting brackets slide in from the sides, so when those brackets are bolted on it creates a strong mechanical mount with no bolts.

What apparently has happened on mine is that the lower portion of these tabs on both sides are completely corroded away, leaving the bumper just hanging in place and wedged with the rubber molding. I put it back on the car, and you can stand on it just fine, as well as kick it just fine as if some one hit you with no movement. It moves only when you lift it just right, like a pothole. This situation has made me paranoid and ive been going around lifting bumpers to check

Do you think it is worth it trying to repair this bumper with new tab metal? or should I just get another one.

[johnmci]

Oddly enough my wife returned from shopping the other day and the bumper on the w123 wagon was hanging there. It seemed someone just clipped it a bit in the parking lot, I could see the scuff mark, and popped it off just one side. Like you I assumed it was glued on, I sure didn't see any tabs, or anything that looked like it held it on, perhaps those had corroded away. Cleaned it up with a wire brush and used two tubes of Permatex epoxy, guess I'll see if that holds.


I did have ownership of a 85 Cadillac (a family hand me down, who wanted it anyway), which had the rear bumper also fall off. Mind in this case the chemical reaction between the steel and aluminum mounting brackets turned the aluminum into oxide dust. Since *all* GM cars of that design did this, I was for $50 able to buy a Asian made steel replacement bracket set, outlasted the life of the car I'm sure. Sold it for I think the grand sum of $500 and it became a Limo-Taxi in Calgary.

[Johnson Chan]

Yes the chrome bumper has 2 tabs built into it. Then you have 2 bumper shocks, which is slid into the slots, and then bolted onto the car via 6 bolts (3 bolts on each side). this is a pressure fit, you can use a little glue in there but normally this is not nessesary and bad for the body man or yourself if you need to have the bumper shocks replaced. Which is pretty common. The bumper shocks are designed to protect the car and chrome bumper in a low impact situation (i.e. parking lot type accidents).

So under your circumstances, I wouldn't try to glue it back on, thats considered "rigging". Either you can:

1- find a good used bumper with the tabs entact.

2- find good tabs and have them rewelded onto your existing bumper.

Your lucky that you didnt cause an accident or get somebody hurt or you may become liable...

Worst case scenerio: A bumper flying off a car at 80mph on the highway and getting another motorist killed or causing a multi car accident is a lawsuit waiting to happen...

The bumper shocks and tabs are notorious for corrosion damage btw. So sometimes when your changing them, you can actually break them off. I use PB Blaster, chisel, and hammer to remove them in the past and have been successful. Use radiator hose grease to squeeze the new ones on, after you use sandpaper and steel wool to clean the channels of corrosion.