Question on repairing front end of 1998 Civic

[fredn]

1998 Honda Civic EX
Got into a crash. Slowly repairing it. The radiator support is all crashed. Replacement piece is about 70-80 bucks no problem. How to get old one off is my new goal. Fenders off, radiator, ac compressor, fans, front valence, lights and everything else is off of it. My problem is does that front bumper have to come off to get the whole front support system off? And if so how? I got both the bolts (one on either side) off. Now it just creaks up and down a bit. Is it spot welded onto the front there? Does it break off? Or is there something more that I can't see?

The metal bumper piece... Does it need to come off? If so how?

Thanks, Fred

 

[R3dline]

its got welds that you need drill out

 

[fredn]

Hm. From which direction? Do I just drill it out from the gaps I've now made by taking the bolts out? Because there's no way its coming out by drilling straight on it or from behind like a spot weld.

 

[fredn]

Just a heads up. There was another bolt on each side. There's a small gap in the front of the metal bumper piece. I used two extensions. The bolt was a 12mm just like the ones below it.

Another reference note to anyone else who needs to do this you can only buy this piece as a whole. Honda dealerships want 265 bucks for the whole piece. Ebay sells the exact piece for 8- bucks shipped. I'm clearly going to go with the cheaper piece. Quality might be a little less though. We'll see. Thanks for trying to help redline. But don't go cutting the bumpers off guys. They're just bolted on!

-Fred

 

[fredn]

The replacement part came in the other day. Looks fine. Cheaper metal though, and I think it's thinner. But hey, it's lighter, and since I'm not planning on getting in another crash I think it's fine.
-Fred