front bumper crash bar?

The bolts that hold the aluminium bumper behind the plastic bumper have been stripped. I tried to remove them with a clamp and also tried hammering. No luck. Anyone have any advice?

 

Stripped or is the head rounded off?

Use a grinder and grind the heads off. Then you should be able to turn the remains out with vice grips or ...

 

They are not bolts, they are studs.

 

Sorry I was vague. The Nuts come off , but the studs are a bit stripped. Are they welded onto the bracket?

 

I think they might be pressed in. I thought I saw splines on the body when I was installing my bumper. I'll take another look when I go out to my truck. If you see splines, they are pressed in.

 

i dont think they're splines? the plate looks a bit too thin for something to be pressed in. i think they may have spot welded it in place. god i hope not

 

Factory studs are spot welded to the plate. If you want to remove one, hit it back and forth a few times with a dead blow or rubber mallet. They seem to snap the spot welds pretty easy that way. Then just run a regular bolt in its place if you can't weld a new stud in

 

dont think this will work on the 2005 and up models. seems like the whole back part is welded on. when i tried knocking it back and forth, the whole "sheet" metal it was welded to kept bending.