OT- passat bumper skin removal

[amalventano at sc.rr.com (Allyn)]

thanks for the run-down John. unfortunately some doesnt apply to the earlier
passats (there are no bolts going through the bumper skin). its very odd,
i've worked on a friends a3 golf, and i fully expected the passat to work
the same, and it even looks *mostly* the same - to the point that it tricks
you into thinking that it is the same :).
anyhow, i've got a manual en-route, hopefully i'll have this stuff fixed
shortly. thanks for the advice on the possible steel buckle, im sure thats
what happened to it.
Al

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John K. Gates" <gatesj@twcny.rr.com>
To: <amalventano@sc.rr.com>; <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 1:25 PM
Subject: OT- passat bumper skin removal


>
>> ok, i tried vortex and various other sources with no luck. i must
>> default to the infinite wisdom of the list on this one.
>
>> the bumper skin has never sat correctly on the wifes passat. getting the
>> passenger side to bolt up to the fender results in the plastic warping
>> along the upper edge near the corner marker. i suspect a tweaked bumper,
>> and i need to get to the steel part of it so i can do the necessary
>> straightening. i've removed the skin at both edges (by the fenders), but
>> i simply cant tell what i am working against to get it to let go of the
>> front edge. im sure someone here has had to do this - as most of the
>> list had passats as the 'family car'... please chime in.
>
> FWIW, I can tell you exactly how to do it on an A3 Golf/Jetta.  The lovely
> part about having a VR6 is that you get to take the entire
> bumper/headlight/grille/radiator assembly off the front of the car if you
> want to get to anything on the front of the engine.  This is more likely
> to be similar to what you have than a Scirocco, hopefully.
>
> Open the hood, there are four philips head screws along the front edge of
> the top radiator core support.  Unscrew.  Carefully pry all the clips
> loose that hold the grille on.  Unclip all fog, signal and marker lights
> from the bumper cover.  Find 8 total bolts/nuts, 5 along the top that
> would have been hidden by the grille and 3 along the bottom.  Remove
> them.  These go through the bumper cover and the steel bumper.  You have
> to counterhold the nuts with a wrench.  Disconnect the plstic
> splashguards from the bumper cover, there should be a couple of screws.
> The bumper cover and the styrofoam insert underneath it slides off.
> Unbolt the bumper itself, there should be about 8 bolts, 4 into the
> unibody frame rails and 4 into the upper radiator core support.
>
> Now that the bumper is off, beat the crap out of it with a 3# hand sledge
> to straighten it.  You will probably see where it's buckled out where it
> bolts to a frame rail.  I had almost the same exact problem as you after
> backing out of a parking spot in the middle of a blizzard and tagging a
> snow-hidden fire hydrant with the edge of the bumper.
>
> Failing that, maybe look at the ETKA?  Many times you can get an idea of
> how things go together from that?
>
> John K. Gates
>
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l