Any ideas out there to make the front bumper cover on a 3rd gen removable in a few minutes (especially on a Trans Am/Firebird)? Like something you might realistically do in the pits at a dragrace?

Yea, it's not that many fasteners, but I doubt that anyone that cares about their car/paint is getting it taken apart in less than an hour in stock form.

 

Well, you can remove the TOP uhhh... I guess its the "pins" on the bumper cover that go into the top of the fender that have those PITA nuts on them. that are barely reachable....


Then in theory, you can remove all the other bolts that hold the bumper cover to the fenders.... then all youd need to do it remove the turn signal bulbs then remove the brackets bolts that connect the bumper to the hood latch plate. and the bumper should copme right off... if you trim the absorber so that it comes off smoother it'll be even faster. Literally off in seconds. The bumper also stays on / lines up pretty well so you wouldn;t even tell


I had mine like this as I took the bumper cover on / off for body work... stayed on fine.... even drove like that for a while with no issues.

 

I'm sort of trying to deal with a whole lot of things at once, which got me looking at my old threads and karr, your response lit up a lightbulb: The biggest PITA on the 'bird front covers are the plates/studs that stick through the nose and the nuts that tighten them down... What if I used the studs as alignment pins and used something like the import guys do to pull the 2 together. Doing a quick search I came up with these ideas:

 

Thats what I did... I never put those stupid pin ones back on cause they were a pita to reach / get lol

What I did was I only left the bolts for that black "frame"??? that connects to the top of the bumper that the signals bolt to.

There are 5?? 10mm bolts that hold it to the hood latch plate... I only kept 2 f the bolts on. he whole front end comes off fast / easy and you dont need to mar your bumper woth those things... and it looks totalle stock....

In fact, i think thsi is best because theres a chance the the part i meantion wil lslide off if you dont secure it.. its considerabt heavier than moden day car bunmpers

 

Pics???

 

i dont have pics now since the car is al lapart... but i just had the bolts bascially on the hood latch catch section... the area betwen the two turn signals.


No bolts on the sides and i removed the plastic tabs that secure the bumper cover to the bottom of the impact bar..



once the couple bolts are removed, and you pop out the turn signal bulbs the bumper cover comes off super easy with the tun signals and all.

I forget, but i thin I trimmed the honeycomb a bit to make it come off super easy too

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