OT How to straighten a bumper?

[mm]

OT How to straighten a bumper?

A friend, a different one this time, was hit from behind Wednesday night, while stopped at a stop sign. The other driver sped off, and he found the bumper on his Nissan 1/2 or 3/4 ton pickup was pushed maybe a foot out of place.

Today we attached a come-along to a big light pole and the other end to the bumper just inside the bumper bracket, and then on the other side, and moved the bumper about half-way back to where it was. The cable didn't seem to come close to snapping, but we were careful anyhow. (At least he was. He sat in the rruck and let me crank. :) )

He had to put the truck in gear, in park if it had it, and put his foot on the brake to keep the car from moving while I cranked.

Now the question I'm asking is, How to get it the other half of the way? Now, in order to finish, the bumper doesn't need to be pulled back so much as up.

I thought of finding a bridge with a diagonal girder, or maybe using the big Gateway Arch in St. Louis, but that will lift the whole truck.

How do we hold the truck down while we do this? It has a cap over the bed.

Actually, we probably don't need a bridge girder, just a floor jack or two, and we have that, but we still need to hold down the truck.

BTW, he's also looking for replacement bumper brackets but not doing too well on that. I don't know what year the truck is. And if we could just finish bending it, it would be a lot less time-consuming. The first half only took about 20 minutes, once we got started.

[gfretwell]

Hook a chain around a big tree and yank the bumper out with the car. Start with a slow roll and see what happens. It really doesn't take much.

[mm]

BTW, bad subject line. Sorry. The bumper is fairly straight. It's bowed about an inch in the middle. The problem is that the whole thing was bent under the truck, the horizontal parts now vertical, pointing down instead of back.

So far, we've got it almost 45 degrees back, by pulling back horizonatlly, and a little up. (The up part was a fortunate accident. It was the lowest place to attach it to the pole.)

It was bent so far, I didn't realize what it was supposed to look like until we finished the first side!

[Stormin Mormon]

What comes to mind, is to put a couple verticals (chunks of fire wood) on each end of the bumper. Big board over the top, and then use the come along between the board and bumper.

Crude art:

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB W | W W | W W | W BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

B is either board, or bumper W is wood, fire wood | is cable from come-along.

[Bob F]

Detach it. Lay it on appropriate shaped wood on a solid surface. Hit it with a big hammer.

[Tony]

Remove the bumper and place it under the legs of a cherry picker. Position as needed and keep the cheery picker arm in its shortest position for the most pulling power. Attach chain and pump away. Or of course a nice shop press may work also, but I think more people have cherry pickers.

[mm]

Thanks all. I have a friend with a bucket truck. That might do it.

[The Daring Dufas]

I would use this little gem from the link below. It on of the most useful tools I ever owned.

TDD

[Tony]

I would advise not to use the bucket arm of the bucket truck. It is way too long and when the bumper finally gives and bends back, it is very likely to bend it just as far or more in the opposite direction.

Back to the floor jack. That can easily work. Just put a chain around the bottom of the jack and around the frame of the truck. Jack up the bumper and the truck stays held down by the chain. Don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, I've done it already with good results.

[mm]

Now that's a much better idea. I hate to say this, but it turns out, I found out last night, that his uninsured motorist insurance is willing to pay for this, since hit and run is the same as UM, and everyone here has to have UM, minus a small deductible, but I still think this discussion has been very worth while. Especially for the next time when one of us backs into something and insurance won't pay at all.

[mm]

So he takes it to the body shop and they say the frame is bent or something and they have to take the whole pick-up apart to fix it, and instead they total it.

But he's going to buy it back from them and they will change the title to salvage, so he can't collect a second time, and so if he sells it to someone he'll be warned and they won't have to rely on my friend to tell the buyer (though he would.)

He doesn't know yet what thyey're paying him. He also didn't get the copy of Tony's post because I messed up and didnt' send it, but I sent it now. Currently he's thinking of a body shop to just move the bumper, but he has no estimate yet and he didn't see Tony's suggestion. We'll see what happens.