This is short so don't worry

Was working on the rear bumper of my '87 and thought I'd pass long a little advice. This is nothing knew to veteran Series III owners but might save a newbie some heartache.

The chrome blades on the rear bumper are held on by small nuts/studs/washers. The studs are welded to the bumper blades. These are invariably rusted solid and can be very fragile. When removing the nuts soak 'em on your favorite rust penetrant several times, over several days, prior to attempting removal. And then use lots of gentle back-n-forthing with your wrench. The studs can snap off quite easily.

On reassembly do not over tighten. Snug is tight and tight is broken. Even if you don't break one too much torque will leave dimples in the chrome surface of the bumper blades. This will be one of those things that cannot be unseen. It'll be an itch whenever you look at the car.

The original installation uses "split" washers aka lock washers. On reassembly I use toothed washers instead. The amount of tightening need to compress the lock washers, IMO, may well break the weaken-from-rust studs. I'd rather be a coward than break things.

I use new nuts, 6mm-1.0 pitch in this case. I could've sworn these bumpers used all SAE/Imperial fasteners....but my memory isn't what it used to be.




Cheers
DD

 

unfortunately the studs always break no matter how careful we are tightening or loosening the nuts.
It is a very weak design by Jaguar, the idea being to have a "blind" mounting instead of using bumper bolts as in American cars.
The only "blind" solution is to weld another stud and re-chrome the blades, since welding will damage the original chrome.

Or drill through the studs and use small head, chromed bumper bolts.

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I've broken a few over the years but got luck this time. Tons of rust penetrant and patience.

Cheers
DD

 

I've been lucky here too Doug. Finesse and patience are key. Clean threads up carefully with a die after getting the nuts off and I use stainless nuts and flat lock washers.