Murphy was at work a few years ago. I thought I was being smart by getting up early this morning and getting my chores done so that I could spend the rest of the day in the shop working on my Jag body. After stopping at the local grocery store, I drove out of the parking lot and heard a scrape in the front end when turning left. I stopped the car and took a look; turns out someone hit my front bumper and collapsed it enough on the left side that the lower valance now scraped the tire when making left turns frustratedx
No one left a note or business card to claim responsibility; they probably thought it was just a minor fender tap and that the owner would never know it had been hit. I managed to pull the fender valance out far enough to clear the tire and limp on back home. So much for working on the Jag --
After close inspection in my garage, I noticed that the bumper was all off-center on both sides of the car ---
Too far back on the left and tilted on the right ---
Time to remove the bumper. Glad these Isuzu bumpers come off in just a few minutes
Must have been a heck of a hit because the left bumper bracket was collapsed and crumpled at the frame mounts.
This bulge should be flat -- that took a LOT of force
I disassembled the bracket and it was in pretty mangled shape
This is the right bracket just to show a comparison to the mangled left --
Time to get out an anvil and the O/A torch to heat this bracket up and beat it back into shape. A rosebud tip and a variety of big hammers slowly gave that bracket some shape again.
Tools of the day -- LOL, all my neighbors were coming over and asking what all the noise was about.
Finally the bracket took on its original shape and it received a coat of paint -- the entire front end (bumper and valance) also got a new coat of black gloss just to make it look good again.
The bumper took a little tweaking, but it went back on in very little time.
The bent bumper valance now had enough clearance to let the wheel turn without rubbing the tire --
The finished bumper looks passable -- a few new pieces of hardware and shims and all was well with the world again.
Right (passenger) side is still a little low, but I ran out of shims -- it'll get finished off tomorrow. Time for a beer --- !!!
This took most of the day to do -- so "Murphy" better get his a$$ out of here; I've paid my dues for the month.
