My bumper was hit recently while pulling a trailer and it's bent down toward the ground. the bend is not terrible but with a hitch on the ball is to close to the ground. I don't have the money to buy a new one, but have a welder at hand. What can I do to make it look better? Thankx for your time.

 

Not sure how it happened, and I'm not sure if this will work for your case. However, the same thing happened with my older (2003) truck. I put a jack under the bumper, jacked the truck off the ground a little bit, got a friend to get in the bed of the truck with me, and we jumped up and down a few times, bending it back.

Probably not the best way to do it, but it worked for us.

 

Modern bumpers (even on HD trucks) are only rated for a 2.5 mph collision. If it's the tinfoil part of the back bumper or any part of the front bumper, just bend it back into shape. Either by hand, or the way 18whlr described.

If it's the heavy towing part of the back bumper, REPLACE THE WHOLE THING, including the frame brackets.

 

That is a very smart idea there.

 

I've had that bumper apart before... All you'll need to do is loosen the bolts, flip it back upright, and bolt it back up. The bumper brackets are slotted and allow it to move like it did.

I've gone so far as to burn the rivits apart that hold those time ones together. Popped everything apart, and it just about sprang back to where it started. Bolted everything back together, gave it a little wteak with a tree, and it looked good as new!

-Joe

 

Tweak with a tree, meanig hook it up to a tree and get it a pull?

 

Indeed... after putting it all back together, the right corner was still tweaked up just a bit... so we wrapped a tow strap around it, pulling from the bottom, and wrapped the other end around a tree. Drove forward a bit to put some pressure on it and tweaked it back good as new. (We initially tried to pull against my dad's Ranger, but it just dragged it down the driveway LOL!!)

-Joe