Prius Rear Bumper Cover loose and gap?

No, I didn't take any. I gather your attachment was on the rear, inside of the corner. My eyebolt is attached through a hole in the bottom edge on the side, only slightly in front of the corner. To do this, I had to remove the black plastic thing that's under the end of the bumper cover.

 

Anybody have a recommendation for Sheet Metal thickness in regards to this bumper repair? Looks like the standard thickness at Home Depot and Lowe's is around 30 gauge, but I'm thinking a thicker gauge in the 16 to 18 range would be stronger and less prone to bending at the 90° bend.

 

I came up with what appears to be the definitive fix! I have never seen anyone doing this particular repair before, so I'm pretty sure it's my unique idea, which I'm happy to share. I bought some 3/4" neodymium magnets, and 3 of them fit perfectly inside the screw hole cutouts in the plastic retainers. Then, using 3m double back foam tape, I attached 2 pieces of sheet metal, each about 2" tall x 1.5" wide, with 90° flaps that sit on top of two pieces of 1/8" aluminum blocks placed as pictured. The magnets hold very strong and close the gap as well as possible, considering the bumper's fit is not perfect. I thought I would need more magnets toward the wheel well, but two sets nearest the rear seemed to suffice.

 

If the above repair had not worked out, this would have been Plan B:

 

Genius!

 

I need to do this soon

 

The drivers side is "before"and the passenger side is "after". YOU'RE GOOD!

 

Haha, you're correct. I hadn't yet applied this fix to the other side, but thought the pics would still basically suffice to illustrate the difference

 

I devised an even better, more permanent fix by just removing the entire plastic retainer piece, (which was actually preventing the bumper cover from fitting correctly!) and replaced it with a piece of 1/8" thick aluminum flat bar, countersunk for machine screws that go through to the inside and secured with nuts and washers.

Since the plastic retainer had been removed, I had to add a thin piece of wood under the alum strip so everything would be flush when pressed I to place.

Then, with heavy duty 3m foam tape attached to the aluminum strip on the side facing the bumper cover, I simply pushed the bumper into place and held it for a minute or two. Done!

 

Pictures?

 

Unfortunately no I put it all together before I thought about taking pictures. At some point when I have time I'll remove the inside panel, loosen the nuts so I can pull the bumper away and take some pictures from the inside and outside.

 

No problem, but can you share photos of the finished product? How tight the lines look, etc?

 

This is the closest fit possible due to the inherent misalignment. I wish I had before pictures which showed a gap of at least a quarter of an inch toward the back and a little less nearest the wheel well.

 

This is great improvement over the gap that the stock thing has. I like what you did!

 

Thanks. Basically, by removing the plastic retainer thingy, which was just getting in the way of a clean fit, I was able to simply bolt the fender in to place. The trick was finding a way to attach the screws securely to the inside of the bumper. By countersinking them into the aluminum flat bar, the heads wouldn't stick out, so then the aluminum strip could be affixed evenly to the inside of the bumper cover.

 

Here ya go...

 

You should replace the wood with something else that won't rot or hold moisture against the metal it's mounted on. Maybe get a cheap polyethylene cutting board and cut and shape that material?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

It's actually 3 materials: 1/8" thick aluminum, 5/16" thick plastic and 1/4" thick foam board. No wood in final setup.

 

Now that's permanent! Even if you back into something, your bumper will stay in place. Now I get how you did it! Thanks for the pictures!