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Spitfire 1500 Removing Bumpers


Hicks

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Hi all,

 

I'm trying to remove the front bumper from my Spitfire 1500 - Am I missing a trick here?  There doesn't seem to be anything in any manuals or online that implies this should be difficult..

 

It's a chrome bumper, bolt head inside the engine bay, nut is inside a small square frame behind the bumper - I can't seem to get any kind of spanner, or ring spanner or anything in to go round the nut to hold it in place to crack it off..?

 

Are the nuts supposed to be welded on? They very much are not on mine - I also think they're slightly different sizes on different mounting points as well, implying a previous owner has obviously swapped out the bumper or something at some point, so this job is obviously possible..  Need to get it off to do a load of rust proofing work - Everything else on the front end of the car is done - The bumper is giving me a right headache..

 

James

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I think all the bumper attachments on late Spitfires are a bolt through from inside the bodywork into a captive nut in the bumper. The early ones have some brackets on the rear but they're still bolted to a captive nut in the bumper. You may need to get brutal - drill or grind the bolt off, remove the quarter valances to detach the ends and push the bolt remnants through and out. Once the bumper is off you can figure out how to weld new nuts onto it.

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Have you got the bumper off successfully yet?

If not:

The proper way a Spit 1500 bumper is fixed is with four 3/8th UNF bolts (9/16 AF head). Two are through the quarter valances into a weld nut on the bracket on the bumper. The other two are located at the hinge boxes and go through the bumper into weld nuts on the top face of the hinge box. The only other fixings are four 7/16th bolts securing the plastic overriders.

The bolts on the hinge box are very difficult to get access to with the bonnet fully up. But if the bonnet is propped halfway up a socket on a medium length wobble extension bar will go on ok (or a cranked extension piece will do). Or remove bonnet entirely.

Different size heads means a PO has done a work round at some point. On the valance fittings it's common for the welded nut to have shear off. Not to big a worry since, with delicate fingers, there's enough space to replace with a conventional nut and bolt and that works fine. The center fittings when seized are mostly like to shear the nut before pulling the weld nut off. Usually possible to drill out the stub and retap the thread. Or reweld a nut.

But as you say your nuts are very much not welded on .......If there is a 'free' nut on the valance fitting then possibilities are a) to sacrifice a spanner by grinding it down so it can be slid in or b) Wedge a screwdriver (pref an disused one) forcibly between the nut and the bracket or c) as per previous post, grind.

Hope that helps a bit

 

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19 hours ago, chrishawley said:

Have you got the bumper off successfully yet?

If not:

The proper way a Spit 1500 bumper is fixed is with four 3/8th UNF bolts (9/16 AF head). Two are through the quarter valances into a weld nut on the bracket on the bumper. The other two are located at the hinge boxes and go through the bumper into weld nuts on the top face of the hinge box. The only other fixings are four 7/16th bolts securing the plastic overriders.

The bolts on the hinge box are very difficult to get access to with the bonnet fully up. But if the bonnet is propped halfway up a socket on a medium length wobble extension bar will go on ok (or a cranked extension piece will do). Or remove bonnet entirely.

Different size heads means a PO has done a work round at some point. On the valance fittings it's common for the welded nut to have shear off. Not to big a worry since, with delicate fingers, there's enough space to replace with a conventional nut and bolt and that works fine. The center fittings when seized are mostly like to shear the nut before pulling the weld nut off. Usually possible to drill out the stub and retap the thread. Or reweld a nut.

But as you say your nuts are very much not welded on .......If there is a 'free' nut on the valance fitting then possibilities are a) to sacrifice a spanner by grinding it down so it can be slid in or b) Wedge a screwdriver (pref an disused one) forcibly between the nut and the bracket or c) as per previous post, grind.

Hope that helps a bit

 

Ah. OK. Beautiful thank you so much for the clarification on all of that. I thought I was going insane! 

Yep definitely not welded on for me - I've only had a quick look at far right and left side bolt and nuts so far to get an idea and had no luck with either, so walked away before I started causing any damage.. 

Maybe removing the bonnet completely and working around the bumper at the front with the bonnet off would be a better bet than trying to tackle getting the bumper off.. 

I'll have another go at it now I actually have some clue what it's SUPPOSED to look like though. Thank you so much! 

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On 13/09/2020 at 21:40, NonMember said:

I think all the bumper attachments on late Spitfires are a bolt through from inside the bodywork into a captive nut in the bumper. The early ones have some brackets on the rear but they're still bolted to a captive nut in the bumper. You may need to get brutal - drill or grind the bolt off, remove the quarter valances to detach the ends and push the bolt remnants through and out. Once the bumper is off you can figure out how to weld new nuts onto it.

😭😭😭 Waaah. I don't want to start grinding off bolt heads :(((. All I want to do is get at some bloody rust hahaha ha 

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1 hour ago, Hicks said:

😭😭😭 Waaah. I don't want to start grinding off bolt heads :(((. All I want to do is get at some bloody rust hahaha ha 

Haha! Yes, I can understand the feeling but sometimes grinding the (cheap and easy to replace) bolts away is the easiest way to avoid damaging some expensive part.

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  • 1 month later...
On 16/09/2020 at 17:38, NonMember said:

Haha! Yes, I can understand the feeling but sometimes grinding the (cheap and easy to replace) bolts away is the easiest way to avoid damaging some expensive part.

ha - yeah that's a very fair way of looking at it - I haven't been able to work on the car for a few weeks again as I was stuck recording again - the adventure starts again now. Very excited!

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