Dear Digesti,
I have had considerable experience with damaged 105 damaged bumpers.
I spent quite a few years having my 1966 105 GTV restored.
I bought several rear bumpers because my original rear bumper center section
was badly damaged.
The best way to fix a damaged bumper is to do it yourself.
Most body shops hammer out the dent/s with hammers and raise the height of the
dent/s.
They then grind the bumper until the hammer marks have disappeared.
Then it is polished.
This all sounds good but the problem is that the bumper then becomes very thin
where it has been subject to the hammering and grinding.
What I did was to make a hardwood pattern of the shape and especially the
curvature of the inside of the bumper.
Then I very slowly and carefully hammered out the bumper dent using a rounded
hammer.
I guess you could perhaps grind an appropriate body dolly to shape rather make
a hardwood dolly.
I polished the bumper myself using various grades of emery paper
and various polishing wheels and compounds.
I have repaired several bumpers using the hardwood dolly.
The biggest problem is getting the curvature along the length of the bumper
correct.
One last matter. The bumper mounting brackets.
If one or both of these are damaged I drill out the spot welds and remove
them'
I straighten out the brackets then have them re-welded to the bumper by a
skilled welder using stainless steel rods.
I have the welder fill up the spot weld holes and then polish them.
All this takes a lot of time.
The alternative is having your bumper returned from the body shop paper thin
with very deep (on the inside) hammer marks.
Perhaps I should write an article for "Alfa Owner".
Best Regards
Trevor Fay
Adelaide Australia
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