Replacing rear bumper reinforcement Options

[6thcelestial]

I have a 95 GT liftback that is stored in winter. I was under the car the other day and noticed that the bottom part of the bumper reinforement, (specifically area right above exhaust tip), has developed a lot of rust, and bolt holding bumper cover is corroded so it is going to be rough to get it out. I want to get it off and install a new rear bumper reinforcement piece. It looks pretty straight forward, but have never done it before. Any advice would be great. Thanks

[micronian]

I'm about to do the same thing to my car, I just ordered a new rear reinforcement bar from my dealership for $395 after taxes. The five bolts that hold the bumper to the reinforcement bar across the back, where completely rusted. I tried spraying them with Kroil for several days, so they could loosen up, and on the day i tried taking them out, only one came off, another broke off, and the others where too rusted to get a good clamp on. So I dremeled the heads off, and bought a bunch of different bolt extractors, but none worked. Those bolts IMO are practically welded into the rear reinforcement bar by now, the reinforcement itself looks very rusted too, I think this is common in our cars because after trying to find used rear bars, the only ones I found where very rusted too. Hopefully I'll tackle this job this weekend or the next, but I'll also be interested if anyone else has done this before and can share some tips to make it easier to do.

[6thcelestial]

I'm about to do the same thing to my car, I just ordered a new rear reinforcement bar from my dealership for $395 after taxes. The five bolts that hold the bumper to the reinforcement bar across the back, where completely rusted. I tried spraying them with Kroil for several days, so they could loosen up, and on the day i tried taking them out, only one came off, another broke off, and the others where too rusted to get a good clamp on. So I dremeled the heads off, and bought a bunch of different bolt extractors, but none worked. Those bolts IMO are practically welded into the rear reinforcement bar by now, the reinforcement itself looks very rusted too, I think this is common in our cars because after trying to find used rear bars, the only ones I found where very rusted too. Hopefully I'll tackle this job this weekend or the next, but I'll also be interested if anyone else has done this before and can share some tips to make it easier to do.

Hey, thanks for replying. I think you are right about this being a problem with Celicas like ours. My other question is once you get the bumper cover off, how do you get the 2 arms that come off of the reinforcement loosened from the underbody. I do not see any bolts at all, and I crawled all the way under my car. Does it just slip out with some banging from a rubber mallet? I really appreciated hearing from a fellow member, and could you keep me posted on your progress? Thanks, and I hope you are successful!!! By the way, were the heads of the bolt all kind of corroded down to nothing?

[playr158]

The bolts are inside the car in the rails on the trunk floor.

look for black circle plugs (two on each frame rail) and remove them, you'll see the bolts hiding there

its really easy to remove.

This post has been edited by playr158: Jul 11, 2013 - 1:06 PM

[6thcelestial]

The bolts are inside the car in the rails on the trunk floor.

look for black circle plugs (two on each frame rail) and remove them, you'll see the bolts hiding there

its really easy to remove.

Thanks, that is a huge help! Any thoughts on getting the rusted/corroded bolts out at the bottom of the bumper cover?

[6thcelestial]

The bolts are inside the car in the rails on the trunk floor.

look for black circle plugs (two on each frame rail) and remove them, you'll see the bolts hiding there

its really easy to remove.

Besides the 5 bolts on the bottom of the bumper cover, and 1 on each side somewhat near the rear mudflap, are there any other bolts, or clips I need to worry about? Thanks

[6thcelestial]

I'm about to do the same thing to my car, I just ordered a new rear reinforcement bar from my dealership for $395 after taxes. The five bolts that hold the bumper to the reinforcement bar across the back, where completely rusted. I tried spraying them with Kroil for several days, so they could loosen up, and on the day i tried taking them out, only one came off, another broke off, and the others where too rusted to get a good clamp on. So I dremeled the heads off, and bought a bunch of different bolt extractors, but none worked. Those bolts IMO are practically welded into the rear reinforcement bar by now, the reinforcement itself looks very rusted too, I think this is common in our cars because after trying to find used rear bars, the only ones I found where very rusted too. Hopefully I'll tackle this job this weekend or the next, but I'll also be interested if anyone else has done this before and can share some tips to make it easier to do.

Any success getting the bolts off yet?

[micronian]

I'm about to do the same thing to my car, I just ordered a new rear reinforcement bar from my dealership for $395 after taxes. The five bolts that hold the bumper to the reinforcement bar across the back, where completely rusted. I tried spraying them with Kroil for several days, so they could loosen up, and on the day i tried taking them out, only one came off, another broke off, and the others where too rusted to get a good clamp on. So I dremeled the heads off, and bought a bunch of different bolt extractors, but none worked. Those bolts IMO are practically welded into the rear reinforcement bar by now, the reinforcement itself looks very rusted too, I think this is common in our cars because after trying to find used rear bars, the only ones I found where very rusted too. Hopefully I'll tackle this job this weekend or the next, but I'll also be interested if anyone else has done this before and can share some tips to make it easier to do.

Any success getting the bolts off yet?

I just picked up my new reinforcement bar from the dealership. I will tackle this job next weekend when I have time. As far as the bottom bolts go, they were all rusted, only one came off, the rest I filed down with a dremel tool. So now I have bolts with no heads left. you might have to end up doing the same, those bolts can really get corroded to the point they cannot be saved.

[micronian]

Finally, I got to replace the rear reinforcement bar. It wasn't difficult but I did run into some problems.

First you have to take off the rear panel inside the car, the big one behind the license plate holder.

Then unscrew the tail lights (3 nuts each tail light).

Then take off the license plate (2 bolts) and take off 2 more bolts from the rear license plate panel that are located on the top left and right of the panel (in my car these were rusted) Once those 2 bolts are off, pull the panel out. Its held in place by 6 plastic pins that snap onto white round plastic things (idk what to call them)

Once the license plate panel is off, you will see underneath it, 3 bolts (rusted) that hold the top of the bumper to a long metal bar. Now if you look inside the car you will see that there are also 3 slim black bolts that are held in place by nuts that connect to that same metal bar that the other 3 bolts on the outside are connected to.

Here is where I ran into my first problem. I tried to take off the 3 outside bolts that where rusted and one broke off half way out. The other two were hard to take off even after spraying them with Kroil (like PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench) so I stopped and instead I just loosened the nuts on the bolts on the inside of the car, that are connected to that same metal bar.

Once those 3 nuts are off, there are 4 black round plastic push anchors underneath the tail lights, that have to come off (2 on each side) right underneath the tail lights. Those come off with a flat head screwdriver, just pry up on the middle round plastic part, and then pull off the whole anchor.

Then inside the car, take off door to the jack compartment on the passenger side and take off the jack, and you will see clearly 2 black bolts sticking out by where the bumper connects to the body, held in place by nuts. Loosen the 2 nuts and take them off. The same has to be done on the other side by where the radio antenna motor is located.

There are 5 bolts underneath the bumper (which in my case I could not take off so I cut off the heads with a dremel tool) that have to come off.

And lastly 2 more bolts need to come off on either side of the bumper on the bottom corners.

The bumper then just comes right out.

The Rear reinforcement bar is visible now, and to take it off, you have to take off 4 (14mm) bolts that hold it into place. These bolts are accessible from inside the car. They are underneath rubber plugs on the bottom of the trunk, 2 on either side of the spare tire well. take the plugs off and then take the bolts off.

These bolts where not rusted in my car, but the 2 on the passenger side had messed up threads, I did not find this out until i tried putting one back in once I changed to my new rear reinforcement bar, and the bolt got stuck half way in. When I checked the other bolts I saw one also had messed up threads. so I just forced tightened one bolt on the passenger side, and I will buy a new spare bolt to put in the empty hole I have left.

All the nuts and bolts, except for the reinforcement bar, where 10mm.

This post has been edited by micronian: Jul 23, 2013 - 10:04 PM

[6thcelestial]

Wow, thanks Micronian for taking the time to list everything that you did!!! Really appreciate it. I will tackle mine once I get the new bar.

[6thcelestial]

Started working on removing the bumper yesterday, and ran into a few snags. Still cannot get the 1 bolt off underneath the bumper cover, (one right above the exhaust pipe). Problem is that the bolt head is so badly corroded, that it has basically been reduce to being about flush with the plastic of the bumper. I do not want to damage the plastic, so attempting to dremel the head off is not an option. I will try a screw extractor, but I think it will not have enough metal to sink into to catch. The other problem is that the 4 14mm bolts next to the spare tire are on ridiculously tight. Is there any chance that these are reverse threaded??? Seems like such a simple job for this much trouble.