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I finally took some time today to get the ugly drooping bumper fixed.
First of all here's a pic from Vadis of what's involved in removing the bumper - note the 4 nuts (part no. 20) that bolt the bumper to the pistons are accessed from below the car. You can actually see them once you remove the front spoiler. [Note that the plastic bumper cover is actually riveted on to the aluminium bumper. I didn't remove the cover at all throughout this exercise.]
Bumper completely removed
Assorted pics:
Look at the two oval holes on the piston joiner plate that the bolt lugs of the bumper slot through. The previous low impact accident generated enough force to pull the bumper downwards. Hence the droop. So it was a simple matter of ensuring that the bolts sit all the way to the upper edges of the slots when I bolted the bumper back later - I used a jack to push/lift the bumper up in reassembly.
Fortunately, the underlying aluminium was actually undamaged. The previous low speed impact deformed the bumper cover enough to cause one edge of the plastic bumper to be unclipped (see below). It was a simple matter of clipping the edge back neatly.
Because of the previous accident, the right headlight has somewhat sunken in since the underlying chassis is slightly dented where the light is connected.
I had thought of using a mallet out to knock out the dent but I figured I could add enough washers to shim the gap; which is a lot easier than swinging a mallet in the small space.
Shimmed!
As you can see, the headlamp is now in line with the indicator/parking lamp which itself had to be retightened:
Final result
I am pretty pleased!
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