Now a bumper repair...

[sgould]

SWMBO was driving slowly up the track to our parking area behind the house.  The council have fenced off a small area for "urgent knotweed treatment" but it's enough to make the access difficult.  In avoiding that she drove a bit further into the undergrowth and caught the bumper on a hidden log

So, it's bumper off and see how much damage has been done.  There's a dent in the bumper which will probably press out, but the foglight and the plastic surround looks to be toast, along with the undertray.   Fortunately I think I have all the spares in the corner of the shed.  When I bought the used bumper a few years ago, it came fully fitted with all the black inserts and foglights.  Fingers crossed.

[carrera]

You can use a heat gun to soften / reshape the bumpers on the 9-5. Indeed, you can also by plastic rods to perform weld repairs if necessary.

The splitter on the Graphite Green car was in two pieces. Bodyshop man said that if I welded it, it would just separate away on the road. Well, 8 years later ....

[sgould]

I have a heat gun.  The bumper only looks dented, so fingers crossed.

While the bumper is off, I'll take the opportunity to fit the nice shiny headlights I acquired a year or two ago.

[welshwizard]

I wish I had your shed Will....my spare wheels take price of place in our conservatory...

[sgould]

Well, the butcher's bill is as follows...

Black RH insert in bumper is cracked.  Replaced with one I had in the shed.
RH foglight.  Also replaced with one from the shed.
The air filter bottom fixings have sheared off.  Still to work out a bodge to fix this.  Probably cable ties...
The top wheel arch fixing of the bumper itself is cracked but still attached by a tiny bit.  Glued in place, but needs reinforcing somehow, but it will need to be thin.
Power steering pipe. It seems to be OK, but the fixing brackets have sheared off.

So far I have stripped and rebuilt the bumper.  The dents came out reasonably well with careful use of a big G clamp.

So, as we stand, both cars are off the road.  The Carlsson will be priority tomorrow.  Fingers crossed it will be quick.  The extra underseal arrived this afternoon.

[carrera]

Cable ties will be fine, you can of course source some new bobbins & nuts to make as good as new. You will need to shorten them if you buy non Saab ones

For the steering pipe bracket, perhaps chemical metal will work and epoxy resin for the top mount ?

Sounds as though both will be back on the road soon

[sgould]

I forgot that the outside temperature gauge has sheared off.    New one  on order.

The air filter bobbins ar on order,  a bit of drilling will be needed.  The originals are odd. M6 thread with a nut beneath, but the other end into the body of the filter is self-tapping...  Replacements  will be M6 both ends.

There will be a bit of a pause while the parts come in the post.

Pictures of old foglight, new one in bumper, and it appears that the flexy bit of the inlet wasn't flexy enough.

[sgould]

Slowly getting there.  Still waiting for deliveries.

But sometimes brute force works!!

[sgould]

Today I had hoped to get things back together once the bits arrived in the post.  They arrived early, so off I set.  Then I found that nothing lined up and I spent a lot of time bending brackets and pipes on the power steering.  But it's all back together and all the lights work.

Just one or two bits of tidying, if the rain stops in time tomorrow, otherwise Sunday.

[carrera]

For some reason, the power steering pipes & brackets almost never seem to align properly.

Looks good as new 

[sgould]

If only!!

[TomPaine]

While we're on bumpers, do you have a source for those black bumper strips commonly fitted along the bottom of the front bumper? I had a nice neat tape there which is now scuffed and shredded after an off-road excursion and it would be simplest to just stick another one on top of it. (I suppose some wide masking tape would achieve the same effect.)

[sgould]

There was never a black bit on the bumper of my old Aero. 

Is yours the "shark" bumper?  Even those seem to be just paint.  No black.

[TomPaine]

No, MY04 bumper. The previous owner had put a black strip along the bottom to match a black strip along the front lip of the bonnet (those are probably more common). So I thought they might be a thing, but it's probably just tape.

[welshwizard]

MY04 should be shark tooth, with no lip as on previous versions... do you have photos?