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]

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