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.

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:12:56 -0400, mm
wrote:

OT How to straighten a bumper?

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!

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.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"mm" wrote in message
...
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.

mm wrote:
OT How to straighten a bumper?

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

mm wrote:
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.


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.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:55:29 -0400, mm
wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:17:06 -0400, Tony
wrote:

mm wrote:
On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:43:36 -0400, Tony
wrote:

mm wrote:
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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.