Hey guys, was offroading a little while ago and I went a little fast and smacked the bumper coming down. Some of the supports must have bent because now it's rubbing on my paint. The paint I can touch up and level out pretty well with sand paper and buffing, that's no problem. However, I'm not sure what the best way to push the bumper back down is. I've heard of people using jacks to un-sag it when the problem is the opposite of mine. Is there a safe way to pry down on it with a big pipe/bar?

In case it's not clear what the issue is, pic attached.

 

The tool to fix this has actually not been around for 30 years IIR, but you can easily fab one up...….let me see if I can describe it......it is basically a piece of 1" or 2" square tubing (thick walled) that is placed vertically against the face of the bumper, with a "hook" type device that attaches to the top or bottom of the backside lip of the bumper (I've seen these as chains or 3/16" flat stock)...of course you want to place padding inbetween the steel and chrome bumper surfaces, now you can apply a twisting type action to realign the bumper back to where it needs to be....BTW, the length of the steel upright is 6' + long...so you have lots of leverage.

 

Well the good news is I do weld (tig) so I should be able to make whatever. I have thick square tubing around so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. Let me just see if I get what you're saying, blue is outside, orange is inside bumper:




Question is the time spent vs. going to body shop, might just get a quote.

 

You are basically right....in this case, because the bumper is twisted upward on the drivers side, you would want the hook to be on the bottom side so you could rotate the top drivers side corner down, the vertical bar could either be pushed inward from the top or pulled outward (from the vehicle) at the bottom......but yeah, you got it...it works great on doors also!!!!!

 

I might still make this tool for future use (read: future offroading mishaps), I didn't have any heavy duty enough pipe on hand that wouldn't bend too easily with a big lever. For now I was able to loosen the side fasteners through the wheel well. Then I loosened the top fastener in each set of two in the front, and took out the bottom one. Then I pulled tue bumper how I wanted it and put a spacer behind that fastener I took out on each side at the front. Then I just tightened everything back up and it looks perfect. Obviously super ghetto solution, but if it works for now that's great. Future adventures will dictate me making this tool haha.

 

Or get an off road beater so it will not happen to a nice truck.
Sooner or later a tree will just out in front of you and then what?
Insurance will not pay for anything off road.
Dave ----

 

This is my beater.