Greetings all,

I've just purchased an 06 XK8 and I noticed the rear bumper is strangely warped (pushed up higher) on the drivers side. Oddly, there is no sign of any damage that could have caused it to crunch up like that. Does anyone have any idea why this might be or what should be done to repair it? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-Glen

 

Your car is newer than mine so has a different bumper design but I have done quite a lot of work with these bumpers recently so know what it takes to bend them.

They are polyurethane so heat doesn't mould them, they don't easily crack and when bent they tend to spring back.

In order for the bumper to hold the shape of yours it would have to have been bent quite a lot past this point and there would be evidence of this in the paint, it would look stretched on the surface.

Most likely the bumper is caught in something that is holding it up. Have you tried popping out that little panel? I presume that is covering a towing eye or something?

 

This is what a Victory Edition / Final Series XK8 rear bumper should look like:



Yours is certainly distorted and this could be from a poor repair after impact damage. As stated above, they either spring back into shape or crack.

Graham

 

As previously suggested, I would get down to that area and start feeling the edge of the bumper and tugging on it to see if it is binding somehow. Good luck and keep us posted....

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. I've gotten under there and felt around, and the bumper is not caught on anything. It is just bent upwards on the one side and when I tug it back towards the proper position it does move, though it requires a lot of pressure to get it even close to the right alignment. There is no sign of paint stretching or damage under there save for a small scuff, so I'm puzzled as to how it could've gotten like this. Anyways, in your opinions, is this the type of thing that a good body shop could bend back into proper form?

 

Surely it is that bolt in the pic that is pulling the bumper up into that shape?

Is there a bolt on the other side too? If so then maybe there is a spacer missing or something.

Polyurethane is a thermoset plastic so you can't simply heat it and bend it. Only way you can distort it this much is either cutting it and gluing it together at the wrong angle or by fixing it incorrectly causing it to be warped by the fixings.

I would try removing that allen bolt in your pic and see if it springs back to where it should be.

 

That allen bolt is actually a pop rivet that attaches the plastic bumper to a metal channel strip that runs vertically and is again pop riveted to the internal bumper that in turn is attached to the body in line with the ends of the main frame.
If, as it appears, the plastic bumper was displaced to where it is now, that metal channel bracket will be bent and preventing the bumper from returning to its proper position. Should be a straightforward fix to straighten the bracket if you can get at it. Bumper might have to come off Here's what it should look like

 

From that angle it becomes obvious that the bracket must be culprit. Not muchh else going on back there.

 

Thanks again for the replies everyone. I was able to get a better view from the side and it certainly appears to be a bent bracket as has been suggested. Both of the brackets actually seem to be more bent than they should be; the one in the foreground is the worse one that was causing the unsightly bend. I'll have to remove the bumper and bend back to proper shape.



Really appreciate the help!

Glen