P38 Rear Bumper Removal

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.

jomop38

New Member
Posts
6
OK, all the bolts and all the torx screws under the wheel arches are removed and the side clips are released, but still the rear bumper will not move. Is there some trick I'm missing where the bumper engages with the bracket (is there a bracket) on the end of the chassis? There seems to be no way of applying leverage at that point. I can't find any diagrams or photographs that explain what goes on at the chassis bracket. Everything I've read suggests you should be able to draw the bumper straight back once all bolts, screws and side clips are dealt with. Anyone come across this problem?
HELP.
 
By clips, I take it you are referring to the spring clips either side of the bumper where the locating blocks slide into the mounting brackets.
Those blocks get caked with hard muck and dirt and this holds them fast. Double check that the spring clips are correctly disengaged and just keep bumping the bumper towards the rear of the car.
 
Thanks, but I'm sure these are released and it's a brand new bumper fitted only weeks ago. I can see that the fitters have even greased the spring clip blocks where they slid into the female part on the chassis. There's zero dirt. Not often you can say that about a landy. Do you know if there are clips of any sort where the bumper meets the chassis at the point where the two large torx bolts are located under the bumper?
 
Rangerovers.net has an article with photos. No link I'm afraid as I'm on my phone.Gotta do mine soon to fix ripples and fit towbar so interested in how you get on!
 
Ye', I've checked out Rangerovers.net, it was their bit about having to work the bumper up and down as you pulled it back that made me wonder if there was a pin/clip locator at the end of the chassis beam that was jamming. Looks like it's just going to have to be the brute force and ignorance approach tomorrow. As I said this is a new, recently fitted bumper, it should come off easily. I just need to get in to fit a new tow bar, so I'll let you know if I identify any reasons for my problem. It may well be that you have no problem drawing the bumper back off the locators. Just my luck.
 
This is chiefly for Kooky_Guy but others may find it useful.
I removed the P38 rear bumper today and it was in fact pretty straightforward.
I dropped webbing straps down behind the bumper (below the tailgate) towards the outside of the bumper. These I attached to a gatepost via a tow rope with the intention of rolling the car gently forward to disengage the bumper (I used some softwood strips on top of the plastic to spread the load and wedged wood between the webbing straps behind the bumper to transfer the load to the metal parts of the bumper substructure). In the event the bumper released by simply tightening up the tension on the straps by hand. A downward pressure on the bumper at the rear locater points (above where you've removed the two main torx bolts) helps. I'm sure that in most cases the bumper releases without problem. However, if you have sticky one that doesn't want to let go, this is a technique you can use singlehanded.
Thanks also to IrishRover for input.
The pics show the rear locater on the bumper, the rusty chassis endplate (the cause of my problem) and the male and female bits of the side clips. If you get all (4) of the torx/philips screws under the wheel arch and the two larger torx bolts under the bumper at the rear, it should be a breeze.
 

Attachments

  • P38RearBumperMainLocater.jpg
    P38RearBumperMainLocater.jpg
    31.5 KB · Views: 1,478
  • P38RearBumperChassisEndplate.jpg
    P38RearBumperChassisEndplate.jpg
    39 KB · Views: 2,156
  • P38 RearBumperSideLocater.jpg
    P38 RearBumperSideLocater.jpg
    39.2 KB · Views: 1,984
  • P38RearBumperClip.jpg
    P38RearBumperClip.jpg
    31.5 KB · Views: 1,680
Last edited:
jomop38, your description and pic's are much appreciated, all I need now is a sunny weekend afternoon and a beer to get my Witter fitted! Did the bumper go back on without any drama?
 
Absolutely. Once you've got the bumper off and understand how it all locates it's totally drama free.
 
Is it possible to separate the plastic part of the bumper from the metal inner? I have to replace mine and I have a doner car but the plastic parts are slightly different. Haven't had time to yank one off yet to look. Thanks.
 
Brilliant pics! Thanks for that. It'll come in really handy when my ribs have recovered enough to let me do the same. I imagine my chassis end will be just as rusty. Be a good opportunity to tidy up under there.

How do we go about getting these really useful posts saved somewhere useful? There were a couple of airbag replacement walkthroughs that I found incredibly useful but which are now very hard to find! (Datatek's was one of them).

Guy
 
Yes, the metal bits screw/bolt onto the plastic bits (see my pic "P38RearBumperClip"). However, I have no idea if there are different editions of the bumper. I guess you won't know until you remove the current fitting and compare it with the donor.
 
Back
Top