Bumper puller/straightener

[MP&C]

A while back I picked up some used body tools, including this bumper puller/straightener (red handle). The rubber pad was about falling off, with exposed rivets, but since I was just hanging it up as wall art, didn't think much past that..

Fast forward to last weekend, and a square body 4WD stopped by, which has the typical bumper ears not parallel to the ground. So I pulled the tool out to show the owner that there was indeed a way to repair that. And then decided we need to go ahead and repair the tool so it could be put back in service for when the next time the truck stopped by...

First order of business was to remove the old fender bolt and nut and replace with a machine bolt and lock nut.

Next, for our "replacement" pad, we had a small piece of horse mat we could cut it out of, and one of our counterbore bits was used to get the screw heads below the surface..

The pad was held in place using 10-32 pan head screws and lock nuts.

This tool works by placing the pad against the bumper face, hooking the top or bottom back edge (depending on direction of pull needed) and prying to twist back into shape.. So now our wall art is all ready for next time...

 

[metalman]

I remember those, we had one in the body shop back in the 70's. Many cars still had chrome bumpers. The tool was handy especially if we had to install a "re-chromed" bumper, they were often a little out of whack from them straightening the bumper. There was a local shop that all they did was repair, straighten and chrome car bumpers. They weren't the best but were good enough for the used car dealers.