Broken rear bumper brackets?

[Noggles]

Just got a 2011 Yukon today and the rear bumper tabs that are molded into the bottom of the bumper on each side of the hitch are broken/torn. It causes the bumper to flop around especially over bumps. Has anyone dealt with this before? Can it be plastic welded back together? Maybe glued instead?

 

[petethepug]

This is for the ABS painted bumper cover right?

 

[Noggles]

This is for the ABS painted bumper cover right?

Yeah

 

[petethepug]

Yes, JB Weld is your friend. Add kitty hair (shredded fiber glass) in to strengthen. The key is surface prep. JBW needs a good bite into the mating surfaces.

At least it’s on the backside so it doesn’t have to be pretty. The JBW doesn’t stick to porous / rubber surfaces in case you need to apply it over a spacer.

 

[Fless]

If it's truly ABS you can melt ABS pellets in Methyl Ethyl Ketone and make a slurry to use along with fiberglass matting. Just don't breathe that MEK. I'm not sure you can buy it any more but you can get MEK Substitute at some hardware stores. After application the MEK evaporates and leaves the ABS material.

You can also use acetone but I think that evaporates quicker.

 

[Noggles]

Not really sure what the stock bumper is made of but I think I will try the JB Weld plastic weld stuff and see how that does.

 

[George B]

I used a piece of an old bed-liner to make a patch piece and screwed it back together.

 

[Noggles]

So I guess my reply over the weekend didn't post. I ended up using the JB Weld bumper repair stuff and it seems to have worked very well. I didn't beat on the bumper or anything but it feels pretty solid. Unfortunately didn't fix the rattle sound I thought was the bumper so that search continues. But I do recommend the stuff for fixing tabs easily. Just give it plenty of time to dry and while waiting on it to dry, don't add a second layer like I did and make it take even longer to dry lol.