Thought a bumper alignment would take 30 minutes, took me 4 hours instead

Had a 2015 Civic come in last Wednesday with a bumper that just wouldn't line up on the driver side. I figured I'd just tweak the brackets and call it done, but the clips were all snapped from a previous hit and the reinforcement bar was bent like 3/8 inch. Ended up pulling the whole front end apart, straightening the bar with a slide hammer, and sourcing new clips from the parts store across town. Has anyone else run into a simple job that just snowballed into a whole day project?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara34514d ago

Wait, are we sure this wasn't just a case of not having the right tools or patience from the start? I've done plenty of bumper alignments on older cars and if you spray the clips with silicone and use a trim tool set, you can usually pop them back in without ripping the whole front apart. Seems like pulling the bar with a slide hammer on a Civic, of all cars, is overkill for what is probably a 2-3 hour job if you just work the bracket tabs back into shape instead. Did you try just adjusting the fender bolts first and see if that bought you the gap?

terry_mitchell13d ago

Wait, @tara345, you seriously can adjust fender bolts and fix a 3/8 inch bend in the reinforcement bar on a 2015 Civic? That bar was twisted, not just a loose bracket.