Plastic Bumpers

[Houm_WA]

I hit a rock today and put a nice little dent into my plastic bumper....passenger side, right below the horizontal part...in the corner.

Cutting to the chase, does anyone have experience removing the bumper? I want to take it off to see if I can possible pound that dent out. The plastic is quite thick and although I managed to get my hand back there (had to do some wrangling to do so and remove some bolts) it was not something I could press out with my thumb. Removal doesn't look too easy since the fender flares seem to be outside of the bumper assembly....and to make matters worse, I have an A-frame brush bar.

Anyone have experience:

A. Removing the bumper
B. Getting dents out of plastic parts such as this

??

Thanks.

 

[grommet]

It's been a while for me, but I don't remember it being that painful. Remove the front wheel arch plastic trim, and remove a few screws... done. But that's without an A-Frame brush bar.

I can't make a comment about how easy pushing out the spot will be without seeing it.

If you don't want to deal with it, a local "paintless dent repair" guy can probably do it for you... possibly without removing the bumper at all.

 

[Houm_WA]

Yeah, I thought about that....I just wasn't sure whether those methods work on plastic parts, particularly parts as thick as this one. It's thicker than it looks! Dam (sic) rock!

I think it's an ARB-omen! It will only happen again. If I can't fix it for <$75 then I probably won't and just plan on getting a steel bumper.

Thanks for the feedback.

Anyone ever buy a new bumper? Cost?

 

[nwoods]

New bumper is around $560 I think. It's been a while since I priced one. I decided that I could buy two or three OEM bumpers for the price of the ARB, mounted.

 

[techboydino]

worth an offer at least

 

[Roverine]

An OEM Bumper costs about 1/2 of an ARB (if you can resist adding a winch, driving lights and such googaa). The install can be done by a normal human much cheaper than a professional install. You will never have to pound out such a dent again with an ARB. Removal of the OEM bumper cover is covered in the technical reference site if you want to pay for that for a day. It really is not hard. Take off the plastic front grille, and the recovery point cover and the headlamp assy., take out about 20 screws in rows along the top and bottom and two screws hidden under the front plastic wheel arch flares and it slips off. You don't have to remove the flares completely, just loosen them by removing a couple of screws at the front (requires headlamps to nbe removed to get at them). I pounded my OEM bumper cover out once after a boo boo, but it was not perfect. I love my ARB now. I think it has a better angle of approach than stock and I get lots of attention on the street.

 

[Houm_WA]

Well, I didn't have to pound it out; but I did have to get my hand back there and use a blow dryer in the front to soften it...then I pushed it from the back with my fingers. Looks great.

As for the ARB, I am still considering it. I have the A-frame too and I think that the bumper would be valuable on the salvage market. The ARB is $1200 + install costs and I have a guy who'd do it for a good rate...I really think the diff in price would not be prohibitive, but I'm not ready to make that call yet. I love the A-frame look. The ARB with stock wheels/tires might look goofy.

Also, a remark on Nathan's post above....the OEM bumper is about that, primed....throw in another $500 to paint it and it's the same as an ARB un-installed! It's a wash and then you have to worry about lack of durability again.

I think I'm gonna wait a while and eventually just do skid plates and ARB all at the same time. Thanks all for your feedback.