Front bumper on 2002 Silverado

[FawltyTowers]

How hard it is to replace the bumper. Here's the deal. ONLY the chrome metal part is messed up. The plastic parts above and below are okay. I see they fasten to the chrome pice with those push-thru fasteners. I found the chrome piece for $185 (MUCH cheaper than thru Chevy) and want to replace it ASAP myself. Is this a really complicated thing to do? Any special tools or stuff I should worry about like the airbag sensors or anything? I believe the airbag sensors are ont the frame near the radiator, but are there any other considerations I should look into before trying this? I am doing this becaus eit isn't worth the hassle of the explanation adn the claim.

 

[horn4life]

There is a place sown south that rechomes Bumpers perhaps the "bumper exchange" or look under chome in the phone book. They might have an even better price.

I have done this on another Chevy years ago. Here are my hints.
1) spray the plastic fastners with WD 40 or some other lubricant so you have a better chance of removing them without breakge
2) buy some Shoe Goo as some will break off and this stuff will adhere to both metal and plastic and is durable over temperature ranges.
3) Basically it was just about 4 bolts on my blazers front bumper, I did go buy a 18 inch long breker bar for more leverage on the bolts. Probably put some WD 40 on those too if they con't come free easily.

Mainly just go slow and be very careful taking off the plastic. There is a tool designed for removing those tab inserts that I also bought that will come in handy again and again that is fort of like a screw driver with a 20 degree bend in the end, that splits to go on ither side of the plastic male part that pops into the metal.

Not really hard at all just make sure and support the thing before you pull the last bolts out!

 

[accuratehorn]

I checked my shop info system, but it doesn't have body information. The only thing normally to worry about is the air bag sensors. If you are banging around on the bumper and set off an airbag, it can be an $800 or more repair.
Make sure and either disconnect the negative post of the battery, and or short the yellow plug to disarm the airbag system if you know where it is and have the plug to connect to it. This is supposed to be done whenever working on the airbag system. Those things make me nervous, working on cars. My technician had one blow up on him while he was working at the Mercedes dealer years ago. Not fun.