Rear bumper step pad removal

Has anyone done this without destroying the 14 molded on clips on the bottom of the pad?

Just got my truck back on Friday after I was rear-ended the week before. Over the weekend, I noticed that the bumper/bed side gaps were off and the left side was slightly higher, causing it to look mildly angled downward toward the tag, in relation to the right side, which looks flat.

I took it back to the body shop this morning and they corrected the side gap issue, but they don't seem to be noticing what I am seeing about the angle thing. I talked to the insurance company about it and they stated they would re-contact the body shop to discuss it with them.

I am thinking some of it may have to do with them using the insurance company's "required" aftermarket parts, particularly the trailer hitch/rear cross frame member unit. If that part isn't right, then none of the bumper parts are going to sit right.

I'm thinking that if I could remove the bumper pad, I could get to all of the hidden bolts and do some adjusting myself.

Or, I could just wait and see how Progressive handles this.....

 

Oh well, my curiousity and impatience got the best of me today, so I started disassembling the rear bumper components one by one.

Pulled the bumper pad off and could see the problem right away. The left side of the bumper frame rail had a slight bend in it where the top bolts connected to the trailer hitch at the left side.

Undid all the bolts on the left side and straightened out the left part of the frame rail, then placed it back into its proper location.

The two bolt holes at the center of the bumper are supposed to contact the trailer hitch flush, so when you tighten the bolts down, the frame rail remains straight and flat.

In this case, the right hole did so, but the left hole was over an 1/8 inch away from the hitch, so when the bolt was tightened down it bent the frame rail. This in turn caused the left side of the bumper assembly to tilt downward toward the license plate.

Seems the welded support bracket for the bumper assembly on the trailer hitch unit was too low on the left side - in other words, misaligned.

I went ahead and placed two large washers as shims on the left side between the bumper frame rail and hitch assembly. This action allowed everything to come together as designed. I finished putting the rest of everything back together and all looked well.

Shortly after finishing, I received a call from Progressive as a follow up to the repair performed by the body shop. I explained my concerns and my repair “solution” to the issues regarding the use of aftermarket parts.

The Progressive adjuster agreed that there was a concern and agreed that the aftermarket parts were not up to standards and decided to contact the body shop and have them order OEM parts for a proper repair. I was sort of OK with my “repair” job, but expressed concern over the quality of the aftermarket hitch assembly due to rust on the welds and its misalignment issues, so I agreed to let them proceed. Hopefully, the OEM parts will do their job correctly.

So, I will await the call to bring the truck back to the body shop and let them do what they should have done in the first place. Not blaming anyone for the mishap except the use of aftermarket parts.

Sorry for the long-winded ramble…….

 

Explain all this to the body shop technicians who will be working on it. Pics wouldn't hurt if you took any when you had it apart.

 

Yes, I will insist that they speak directly to me.