So I always felt like the sharper, pointed, nose of my '91 vert felt like a teenage overbite on the front of the car. And remembering the smoother flow of the lines that my '94 had, I sat out in search for the more squared off front bumper. 30 minutes on Ebay and $70 dollars later, I had one sitting in my garage wrapped in plastic.
Disassembly and dismount of your bumper is pretty straight forward. There are a maybe 10 bolts just under the lip of the hood holding down the top painted section. There are also 4 bolts under the headlights. (2 on each side) In front of the car, as if you were laying down on the ground looking right into your grille, there are three bolts. Two in the outer corners of the openings and one attached to a center support. If you just take a look, they are easy to see. Also, under the car, just in front of the wheels, there is a lower fender support bracket on each side. Mine were completely rusted and simply pulled away from the bumper and broke off. I am going to replace these with simple aluminum stock. You can assess yours when you get down there.
And finally, there are 2 bolts (one on each side) holding the top painted bumper top to the front quarter panels. These can be seen by looking slightly under and behind your corner marker lights.
{PITA bolts} They are installed in such a way that you cannot get a socket or wrench to turn by coming at them from the front of the car. The only success I had was by going through the wheel well with a small socket wrench and slowly but surely cranking them off. If it wasn't for this part of the job, the whole job would have been done in about 45 minutes. I had to take a break and come back because I got so mad at the design.
You can now pull away your front bumper.
So, once the front bumper is pulled away, disconnect the blinker wires and swap out the blinker housings into your new front bumper. At this time you will also be taking the styrofoam support out of your own bumper and transplanting it into your new bumper cover. (Again, this stuff takes maybe 5 minutes.) Just be careful not to break the foam. the middle section might be stuck on there pretty good, given how many years it has sat in the same position. Use force but, use it wisely.
Now pop the painted top section off your old bumper and attach it to the new one. This is held simply with pressure on the plastic tabs. In my case, they weren't brittle or anything. Just pull and pop until it separates. Reinstallation onto the new bumper is even easier than removal. Press and wedge until you get a solid one-piece bumper.
At this point, you should have a complete front bumper ready to isntall.
"Installation is the reverse of removal"
Since I never want to deal with those fender bolts again, I opted for two heavy duty zip ties on each side. If I ever need to do another face lift, then all I have to do is reach my snips back there and clip it off. On that note, having the bumper off is a good opportunity to clean up a little surface rust or perhaps reattach a few wires or other things that have come loose over the years. I used several zip-ties during this time simply resecuring things to the front end. I also used them when reinstalling my wheel well arches. I LOVE ZIP-TIES! I would also suggest this as a good time to install fog lights if you have thought about going that route. There is no easier way to cleanly route your wiring than while the bumper is off the car.
THINGS YOU'LL NEED
10mm socket
Screwdrivers (Phillips and Flat)
Pliers
Zip-Ties
Patience & about 1 hour
*Remove headlights and corner markers
Trying to make the most of what God has given me.
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