Technical There's a hole in my rear bumper

[Wiltshire Chris]

Having finally got my B roadworthy and enjoying a few quick trips I'm starting to put together a to-do list of things that need sorting. One cosmetic one is that the previous owner's mechanic managed to reverse it into a tow bar and made a large hole in the bumper just above the number plate. The car, being grey, has obviously been repaired with duct tape which is doing a job.


This seems like the sort of job that could be done at home but I've never attempted such a large repair before. It feels like getting the bumper off and attaching some sort of mesh behind the hole to act as base for some flexible filler is a possible line of attack.
Has anyone given a repair like this a go or am I better passing it on to a professional?
Thanks

 

[brianpoole]

Depends where it is, some parts of the rear bumper are double skinned. The bumpers are reasonably easy to remove. In the past I've repaired them as you suggest. More recently its been suggested and used that hot stapling is a easer and more stronger alternative.

 

[brianpoole]

https://shopmedlife.co.uk/products/...8jx9n6vSlUVVUee6zxtvBrnKwzdTPOwUAB51uliF2SB1E

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Thanks, I'd not heard about hot stapling before and it might be useful here.

I've only got two parts of the old bumper but they are the sharp curve that turns underneath and hold the number plate light in place. If they could be hot stapled in place then it gives me a smaller area to patch. Feeling around at the top I think there is also a split running along the top edge and stapling that would reinforce it well and mean there is less flex that would cause the filler to pop out.

 

[gar074]

Ouch! That's quite a hole. I think I'd be looking for a replacement bumper...

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Yes, quite a hole. Maybe I should just learn to love duct tape?

A replacement bumper would be good but the ones I've seen on Henk's site are a bit steep for me at the moment what with other spending she needs.

 

[ratty99]

Take a look at paulicabs https://youtube.com/user/pauliecabs

He has a couple of good videos on repairing barchetta bumper

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I think I'd be looking for a replacement bumper...

Look no further ,I have a bumper on a silver grey P reg car , scrape on the OS corner is not deep .

Only thing is you will need the matching twin exhaust to go with it which mine has ....:idea:

No idea on posting costs .....I live in Surrey .

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Only thing is you will need the matching twin exhaust to go with it which mine has

I could be interested and Surrey isn't too far away from Wiltshire once lockdown is over and I'm not in a tearing rush.


This is what my (car's) back-end looks like, is that the same as the one you've got? If so and you're happy to sell then we can chat over private messages. Thank you

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I could be interested and Surrey isn't too far away from Wiltshire once lockdown is over and I'm not in a tearing rush.


This is what my (car's) back-end looks like, is that the same as the one you've got? If so and you're happy to sell then we can chat over private messages. Thank you

I'll send a picture of Fabio the FIAT's rear end later , I will see if the exhaust

will come off cleanly too , it is stainless steel , so shouldn't be all rusted together .

I won't want a huge amount for any parts of this car , just trying to get anything for the few decent parts on it before weighing the rusty shell in .

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

I'll send a picture of Fabio the FIAT's rear end later , I will see if the exhaust

will come off cleanly too , it is stainless steel , so shouldn't be all rusted together .

I won't want a huge amount for any parts of this car , just trying to get anything for the few decent parts on it before weighing the rusty shell in .

Thanks, much appreciated. I did the same with my DS, I didn't want the hard to find parts just being crushed when they could be useful.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Here's the pic of the dual exit system on mine .

I'm having trouble getting the bumper off , the bolts in the wheel arch are not coming undone.

You can see a chunk of the bumper been removed to make space for the second set of pipes.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

OKP is a German Alfa Romeo remanufacturer of parts , I picked up their sticker

at the Varano circuit near Parma in 2019 .

 

[gar074]

Nice excuse for the OP to fit a set of dual pipes

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Hi, sorry for no replies recently, my mother took a tumble so I've been a bit occupied.

The bumper looks decent, thanks for posting the picture. Apologies but do you think the stickers would come off cleanly - I'm after a stock look. My B has a nice growly SS exhaust that I wasn't looking to change but I suppose I could transplant the parts from my existing bumper to fill the hole where the second set of pipes are with a bit of surgery.
Do you think that you'll be able to get the bumper off? I'm free most days at some point to dash up to Surrey from Wiltshire for a look.

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

So, thanks to Barchetta Bloke 440 I now have a rear bumper in much better condition than my own. As I already have an SS exhaust I didn't take up his twin pipe one but that left me with the problem of the hole in his bumper that accomodated the second set of pipes. So I've decided to take the lower part of my bumper and graft it onto his.

The first picture shows the new bumper.

The lower part of the bumper is held on by having plastic lugs in the upper part of the bumper pass through slots in the lower part and then be melted/welded to form a bond. The second picture shows one of these after I'd removed the weld with a dremel saw and stanley knife. There are these bonds all round the lower part but eventually I removed them all and so I now have the two parts separated as shown in the third picture.

One complication is that one section of the upper part was removed to let the exhaust through and you can see this in the fourth picture. About 15mm of the curved end of the horizontal bar was removed. It's my intention to cut this piece off my original bumper and graft it on using an unholy mess of plastic welding and filler.

Progress has paused there as the B is off to have its timing belt done later this week so I don't want to be caught mid transplant. I'm also waiting for my cheapskates parade plastic welding tool to arrive. Luckily I've a plastic water butt that needs mending so the cost of the tool doesn't have to go on my 'How much has this car cost to put right?' spreadsheet.

 

[gar074]

Sounds a good 'un!

Make sure you look after that rear bumper - it comes from a B that has earned legendary status on here for its well-travelled credentials :worship:

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Make sure you look after that rear bumper - it comes from a B that has earned legendary status on here for its well-travelled credentials

In the short term it's going to get very bored and restless trundling up and down the roads of Wiltshire. In the summer it should get some longer runs and there is talk of a trip to Abruzzo when the time is right.

 

[gar074]

In the short term it's going to get very bored and restless trundling up and down the roads of Wiltshire. In the summer it should get some longer runs and there is talk of a trip to Abruzzo when the time is right.

Ah, good plan

I've always wanted to take mine back to Italy, and had planned to do so after I retired last summer, but sadly all such plans are on hold...

There are some great threads on here about taking Bs on Italian trips - and your rear bumper's already done lots of them!

 

[turining]

Yes - take care of the bumper, it was so attached to him it followed him everywhere.