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2012 Impala rear bumper support

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12K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Jake0811  
#1 ·
I have a 2012 Impala with a rusted rear bumper support. Does the rear bumper cover have to be removed in order to replace the support. If the cover has to be removed how hard of a job is it?
 
#2 ·
I was just looking into this as well. I got rear-ended the other day (not super hard) and was under my car and noticed the bumper support was bent, but also quite rusted as well. I was planning on just removing the bumper cover. Did not look like a difficult job. Here is a video showing how to do it:

The rear bumper cover kind of wraps around the support on the bottom, so not sure you could get the bumper support off without moving the bumper cover. If you find out you can, let me know!
 
#3 ·
So I ended up doing this replacement yesterday. From looking at it, it did not seem to be possible to do without removing the bumper cover. Removing the cover wasn't really all the bad, except for a couple of those plastic push pin fasteners that didn't want to come out. Luckily I keep a bag of those around so I wasn't worried about damaging them. The bigger issue I ran into is that all 6 of the bolts holding the bumper support on were rusted on tight. Broke every bolt when trying to get them off. I tried pb blaster, but it didn't seem to help. I did not get a torch on them...maybe that would have been what it needed. I'd recommend just sourcing 6 new bolts for that when the time comes. I was dumb and did it on a Thursday night at 10pm and needed the car the next day, so I just drilled out the welded on nuts and put a longer 3/8 bolt and nut on there. Worked fine. That support was also way more rusty than I thought it was, basically fell apart when taking it off.
 
#4 ·
What area are you in? Since 2012 was 10 years ago, that rust had plenty of time to form with years of moisture intrusion/qny road salt and grime build up in there. Any other rust you know of on yours? I replaced the whole rear fascia from my 2009 impala since my original one was cracked up and to the right of my license plate area. After i tore off my old bumper my bumper reinforcement support bar wasn't damaged from a hit nor did it have excessive corrosion. Did you check near both rear wheel well openings? Those are the next common rust areas on the 8th gen impalas. Ive seen way worse! But removing the bumper is fairly easy. In my case i had one 10mm bolt that tore the clip out of its mounting spot in the rear wheel well area. I bent the metal back in place and used a heavy duty ziptie to pull the bumper back in. It sticks out but the car overall, has zero rust with the exception of the bottom inside of both front doors. Mine has zero body rust even @ 145k and living up in michigan a rustbelt state.