I just took my front end off to change my grille when i realized how flimsy it really is. I honestly am afraid that if I hit a big enough pothole ....it might fall off. This sounds really funny but has anybody realized this also? I put it back on the way it came off and noticed that its really only being held on by 5 plastic stops on the top....ha ...yea...plastic. The bottom bolts are pretty much to hold the plastic guards onto it which arent going to do much more then that.

anybody want to comment?

 

Fender or Bumper? I think you mean bumper and its really just a cosmetic cover for the strong stuff underneath. Its light enough that all those clips you see holding it should keep it from falling apart when driving. You should worry not about this causing troubles but if it bothers you so much then you should like custom fab some metal brackets or something.

 

Well, cars of this era are not what they used to be... We're not driving around 4000+ pound tanks anymore. Well, some of us still are, and hey, thats okay. But, today's car was built for safety, just incase you do happen to get into an accident of some sort. The bumper (which I hope you are referring to, cause the fender is actually held on by bolts and is sheet metal) is designed to collapse in the event of an accident to reduce stress the car will inflict on another car. Also, underneath, you'll find some cars come with impact bars and styrofoam (sp?) shock absorbers to absorb most of the collision. Meaning, that it will hurt less on you if you were to crash at a good amount of speed.

I know that I would rather be hit from behind by a new car rather than a Buick Wildcat, ya know... But, yea, to give another comment on your post, the bumper is firmly attached to the car, even though its plastic clips and a few bolts, those plastic clips hold their own pretty well. So, you have nothing to worry about. Just don't go hitting anyone from behind or anything...

 

i guess both of you made me feel a lil bit better - i was just shocked that there werent atleast 2-3 actual bolts holding it on. two of the plastic hinge things on the front bottom already cracked off because i (lightly) ran up on a few of those parking cement things .... since it was such small scrapes I was worried what would happen if i actually did run over something big ..... this sounds dumb but the firs thing that came to my mind was that the bumper would go under the car ...honestly .... now that im thinking about it ... it kinda fits into the car and stays pretty firm into the car even without those top mounting plastic things on top under the hood. Im just not really used to working on my car like I am now and not used to how cheap things actually feel. When i was just starting to drive friends of mine had older trucks that we could jump on w/o problems. Jump on my car you might fall in ... (ha).