A woman in an SUV backed into my rear bumper and damaged it. I'm considering trying to track down a used rear bumper from someone who has upgraded theirs to an aftermarket piece.

So how hard is it to take the bumper off and reinstall it (another one)?

Anybody got a spare red rear bumper?

I may just let the local body shop take care of it, but I want to at least look at the alternatives.

 

I think you should look into a GT bumper and a dual exhaust kit, that way you can kill 2 birds. something about a stone here? i forget

 

read this ebay item- he has it in red too:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-...spagenameZWDVW

 

Not too hard to swap out. Although you will need a rivet gun and larger rivets to do correctly. Here is a link.

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...ad.php?t=45734

 

According to my dealer the stock bumpers are easy to pull - its the Saleen tail pieces that make it a b*tch of a process because you have to take the trunk apart to unbolt the rear extenders by the tail-lights first. Then you can pull the lower bumper. Since you don't have the extenders and dove tail on top, it should be fairly simple. Just climp underneath and look for all the screws/bolts/clips holding it to the frame.

Hopefully its not riveted as Jim said - if so that makes it a little more tricky. Maybe you couls forgo the rivets for some small screws with nylocks for the replacement bumper??

 

It is riveted, I did my bumper! You can remove the rear bumper cover without touching any rivets. Ford rivets a plastic retaining bar on the inside of the bumper cover and thats whats used to run the wiring through and sucure the license plate bracket. Rivets arnt that big of a deal. You can get a rivet gun and rivets for like $20. Some guys have used bolts/washer/nuts etc but what a PITA that would be plus by the time your done it is going to cost about the same anyway. Theres are quite a few rivets that Ford uses. Also if this is the way Ford does it its because of time/money etc. The hardest part of the whole thing for me was getting the old rivets out. You have to drill them out and some of them spin. If they spin too much you will heat the plastic up and eventually burn the rivet right through making more problems. Also the 2 on each of the corners are hard to get at the back of the rivet. I use a needle nose plyers to hold the back of them so they didnt spin. Also another tip that I didnt get orginally it to undue the rear tail lights! I tried to do it with mine in there and spent alot of time messing around. As soon as I loosened them up the bumper went right in. The job sounds bad but it really isnt. Whole job was about an hour and I took my time.

 

That one contains the answer I was looking for. Thanks.

I think I'll just leave it to the body shop to handle.