Q:I am taking off the front bumper on my '83 Stang this week. Is there anything special I need to know before I jump into this? The book I have doesn't show where all the screws or rivets are that hold it on. Should I just climb under and take a look? Are they easy to find?

make sure to reach allllll the way up to the top of the fender & feel around real good there are 5 bolts & a bracket on each side, 2 brackets near the headlites, 2 near the grill + the park & headlite connectors....
the actual skin is held to the support w/some alum rivets that are easy to drill out.......


Q: sounds very time consuming... is it hard to line back up? would it be easier to just tape everything off and paint the bumper on the car? then when i am done, replace the lenses on my parking lights... or will there be too much overspray

The bumper is very easy to take off! It's just studs and nuts. You are right about it being time consuming. Make sure you unplug the headlights and parking lights before removal. Also, it's a good idea to have someone to hold it while you loosen the bolts. It WILL go back on smoothly it someone is holding it for you. Those side marker lights are a pain in the ?//.? to get out without flexing the rubber, and if you do, it's even harder to get them back in without flexing the rubber and cracking the new paint. Unless you are actually removing the rubber from the fiberglass core, I'd definately replace them BEFORE painting and then mask them real good. Good luck.


I did this recently and one major pain in the butt is lining up the cover to the fenders, When I put the air dam on I'm going to take the fenders off with the bumper so it all lines up when it goes back on.

It is easier and all you have to do is disconnect the pigtails from the headlights and the sidemarkers, remove the fenders, headlight reinforcement panel, and the bumper cover at the same time.