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[LC0112G]

Hi,
Car had a disagreement with Bambi on the way to work this morning. Front bumper quite badly damaged, although not as badly as Bambi which will be in someones Freezer tonight.

Anyhow have taken the bumper off and am in the process of Araldite-ing it back together, but I'm missing the 3 underneath fixings - p/n 9183496. They're large square spreader clamps that fix the panel on the bottom of the bumper to the rail that runs under the radiators. Have rung Vauxhall - NLS and no stock showing in the dealer network. Can't see them on eBay either. Anyone got a secret stash? Or any ideas where to get them or suitable alternatives. 

Cheers
Malcolm

[Nick W]

sheetmetal, self tapping screws and more Araldite.


Would cable-tie stitching work?

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Post up a wanted ad. 

[johnnydog]

'Quite badly damaged' to me suggests that you are making a lot of work for yourself in Aralditing the bumper back together. Wouldn't a used bumper not be the simplest and easiest way forward; even if you have to get it painted, as I would think your old glued together bumper will need a degree of repainting to look presentable. If you managed to find one in a breakers I'm sure you could get all the clips you need for it and more...

[Doctor Gollum]

A thump large enough to tear up the bumper will have tweaked the crash bar. Also, depending on the point of impact, if the front of the bonnet is pushed back any, then the chances are that the slam panel has also been tweaked and headlight adjusters and fixings broken.

That's not scaremongering, but the reality of hitting a reasonable size deer, both personally and fixing other Omegas... Just ask Lagondanet what his Elite took to fix it...

[LC0112G]

The bumper isn't too bad. Basically it was a Bambi, not some gert big Stag. Bambi went under the car - thump-thump. This was lucky (for me not Bambi); I've had many bird-strikes on the windscreen, but a large-ish mammal coming over the bonnet would be a very different prospect.

The impact appears to have been central, but low down, so the 'cheese grater' sections pushed out/off, and the force ripped the panel that goes under the car from the leading edge. It also broke 2 of the 3 fixings on the offside fog lamp. The front facing painted parts of the bumper are complete. The only bent metalwork I could find was one of the brackets that hold the Air con and power steering pipes where they run across behind the cheese grater.

Given that the tear is on the underside of the bumper, gluing it back together won't be too much of an eye-sore. Yes, a new bumper would be the best solution, but my car isn't one of those common as muck Silvers or Gay Golds. It's Mica Grey, and therefore finding a bumper the correct colour is very unlikely. Repainting a second hand one will be £100-£200 on top of the cost of the bumper.

I had to leave work early today so couldn't complete the job, but I'm reasonably confident I can throw it all back together tomorrow morning.

[Doctor Gollum]

Panel alignment easily checked between the headlights/filler trims and bonnet edges...

Any discrepancies and the crash bar has moved, although you might be lucky and find it has only tweaked the mounts into the chassis rail.

Either way, it's a bumper off job to check it properly 

[VXL V6]

Are the rectangular bits still complete?

I did find some after a long search when I needed them but not found any more since, might be a case of checking breakers. 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Could be printed on a 3D printer I should think ?

[LC0112G]

Are the rectangular bits still complete?

No. Two are completely missing, and one was still there but had most of the head broken off. Will have to visit the local breakers this weekend, but I don't hold out much hope - Facelift Omegas are rare round here.

Anyway - all back together with little fuss - all the screws and spreader clamps went back in without too much fettling. One of the headlamp eyebrow bits has a plastic locating peg snapped off, and the temperature sensor won't sit in the hole in the cheese grater properly, but other than that it'll do till I've got time to do a better job.