3 central bolts under front bumper

[Topdownman]

Anyone got any tips for getting these 3 back in? Trying to get the bumper back on tonight and I just cannot get them to even feel like they are on the thread.

I tried putting the jack under there to push the bumper up to get it nearer but that didnt help.

Any ideas?

[Tomo70]

Simon, not sure i understand which bolt you are trying to get it. Have you tried threaded rod in the central hole, then hopefully line up your outer bolts.

[Topdownman]

Most of the fixings underneath are the big self tapper style screws which go into the bumper but there are 3 bolts with a taper on the end which go into a cross member  and its these that are the problem.

[Joesson]

Having removed and replaced the front bumper once only I cannot offer specific advice.
But my suggestion would be to start again, this time , if practical/ possible fit the 3 troublesome fixings first, do not fully  tighten.
The self tappers typically fit into sliding clips which give a little more latitude for alignment.
Perhaps you have found the 3 Amigoes cousins!

[HFB]

I don't remember having major issues in replacing my front bumper when I removed it to adjust my tow loop fixing bracket.

IIRC I just loosely attached the top bumper mounts first and then worked from the centre underside points outwards, fitting them all loosely first and then going back and tightening them.

Good luck

HFB

[Topdownman]

I had a lot of trouble getting the others in but I will try undoing them and doing the bottom 3 first and hopes that works.

[Topdownman]

Ooops.

[shnazzle]

I had trouble with these. same issue. Could not get the thread to catch at all.

Turned out that the bumper I was putting on had different "sliding clips" (metal instead of plastic), so I had to either use different bolts or get the clips from the previous bumper and fit them instead.
Is this the case with yours or are you putting back what was already there?

[Topdownman]

I trying to put on a different bumper but using the bolts from the old bumper.

As far as I know, there are no clips and the threaded area is part of the car?

[shnazzle]

I'd check the marry-up of the bolts and holes as you're mixing old/new just like I did

[Topdownman]

Thanks for all the comments. Back on now!

I got back under it with a light and mirror so I could see how the bumper was lining up. Having the jack under the bumper helped lift it up so the bolts were nearer to the cross member. Two were ok and one needed a bit of filing to enlarge the hole so it lined up. I found a socket holder that fitted into my cheap hand sized battery screwdriver and that really helped because I could put a lot of pressure on while getting them spinning and this helped them catch on the threads.

[1979scotte]

Glad that is sorted.

[Bossworld]

Sorry I know this is an old thread, the heads snapped off the remaining two bolts on mine when undoing them - the middle one had clearly snapped a long time ago.

Any thoughts on an alternative mounting point?  Similar situation on the top of the bumper so just drilled a small pilot hole alongside the snapped bolts and used self tappers and washers which worked fine, but I can see above someone's mentioned these three underneath go into the front subframe?