Hello all. Sorry, I am a bit of a newby here in terms of working on cars, but I have what I think is a simple question. Can a guy with a few tools replace a front bumper cover or is there more to this? You see, we had a new bumper cover from accident damage to our 98 legacy, but the shop didn't get it in and painted until after we moved 700 miles away. I have the nice new painted bumper cover in my garage and was thinking I could just put it on myself (a shop said they would do it for about $200 - that seemed high to me).

Thanks

 

its very easy to do.i think you might have to take the headlights out though.thats about the hardest part.and dont break the snaps that hold it on.there little pin snaps.breaking one or 2 is ok.youll figure it out if you just try.

 

if you're talking about a BG/BD legacy, then yeah it's hella easy. all you need are a 10mm wrench, a flat-head screwdriver, and a phillips head screwdriver (a good pair of diagonal pliers might come in handy as well).

you do need to take off the headlights (there's like three or four nylon rivets underneath each), but all you need for that is the 10mm wrench. just take them off, and be sure to disconnect the bulbs!

for the grill, just press on the top part of each of the plastic anchors with the flat head screwdriver, and it should come off no problem.

then just keep looking all along the edges of the bumper for more rivots. some will be screw-type, which will require the phillips head screwdriver, and some will be push-type, which will require the flat head.

there's also a metal screw in each fender well, but the phillips head screwdriver will take care of that (word of advice: turn the wheels to give you better access!).

there might also be some bolts on the underside, but those are easily removed.

take your time when installing the new one, as they are very finicky. the first time i tried to put mine back on, it took a good twenty minutes because the sides kept popping out (definitely not as easy as my old civic!). but just be patient, and be careful, and it'll go on easy enough.

 

Yup, just like they said it is really easy to take one off and put one on. Just go slowly and have some patience. Make sure you have all the screws, snaps and such before you try to pull it off. I suggest laying some sort of tarp below where you are working so you wont loose and hardware incase you drop something. I learned that one the hardway. Might want to buy a few extras of each type just incase one breaks or is missing for some wierd reason.

 

if you can, you might try going to a subaru dealer, or (preferably) a junkyard/recycler and see if you can pick up a bunch of the push-type rivots. it might just be me, but i have horrible experiences with nylon screw rivots (always end up having to cut a few out with the diagonal pliers because they get stuck). what i did was i removed all the screw type ones, and used push type ones at strategic locations to keep the bumper secure.

 

Hey thanks a lot everybody! I will take all this advice and give it a shot (go slow, get extra parts...). I guess all I have to lose is having a car without a bumper cover for a few days then crawling up to some body shop if I can't sort it out.