Front bumper (part 1)

I've been looking at starting on removing the bumpers for a few weeks now. Lately, every now and again, I would hit the relevent bits with some penetrant and let it cook. Today, with the help of my neighbors Frank and Edward, the front bumper is off.

Driver's side bumper mount, shooting right-to-left. The curve in the bumper is where it wraps around the front of the fender. The mount is basically a curved slab of steel - two bolts holding it to the frame, and one bolt on the far end holding the bumper to the mount. All it takes to remove the bumper itself is the removal of these two bolts, plus one on each side (see below). Not terribly robust, I fear.

Same mount, shot from the opposite side. The nut pictured above is part of the frame piece; the rearward bolt uses a normal nut.

The mount on the left side of the fender, shot from the front looking back...

...and from behind, looking front. Another situation with a fixed nut, where only the bolt is removed.

A nicer shot of the main bumper/mount bolt.

The bolt that holds the bumper guard on. There's a rubber bit that wraps around both sides of the guard... that should be fun to replace. :/

There's also a bolt on the top side of the bumper, behind the guard, that helps hold the end pieces onto the main center piece.

Earlier, Frank and Edward came by - as usual, I was just asking their opinion on something, and they choose to escalate the situation and something gets pulled off. Gotta love those guys! As a result, we had gotten the two side-mounted bolts out, so all that was left to remove the bumper itself were the two bolts on the main mounts. Oddly enough, despite the difficulty the brothers had with getting the side bolts out, the front bolts came away quite easily...

...and the bumper is off! But, not without a casualty...

Pictured above is the curved bumper mount... but what's that extra bit?

That extra bit is part of the frame that the mount bolts onto. I noticed when I started working on the bumper again, after the side bolts had been removed, that the passenger side of the bumper was somewhat wobbly - far more than the driver's side. Now I know why - this piece had finally failed completely.

Considering where the nut is, and how that piece is bent down around it somewhat, I'm guessing that the bent area is a result of some sort of damage - and that this frame piece was a hair from failing completely as it was. Our working on the bumper simply pushed it over the edge. I hope that this piece can be bent back into shape somewhat, and welded back together - but I'm going to plan on trying to find a replacement piece that is in good shape instead.

Here's the driver's side mount, still attached. I've removed the forward bolt already - the rear bolt took a few minutes of wrestling (with a wrench holding the bolt on the right side while pulling upward mightily with a socket on the bolt from the left side. Phew! But it's off as well.