Am I the only one who does not care for the fact the Jags made for the US have bumpers that stick out about 2 feet? Well I decided to try and "pull them in" with success.

If you are thinking about or want to do this, here are the steps I took.

1. Remove the front turn signal bulbs from their lens/Disconnect horn wire/ground.

2. Remove the black rubber/plastic cover on the bumper.

3. Remove the two 19mm nut/bolt that hold the aluminum bumper to the pistons.

4. The easy part is over. Now you have to get the two nuts off the back of each piston (near the radiator support). These nuts are thin and hard to get to. I was able to do it with a regular sized 17mm open end wrench but I would suggest finding a shorter one that is hinged. This is the hardest part of the job.

4. Once the nuts are removed, I had to put a long screwdriver on the bumper side of these pistons to wiggle them out of their rubber boot. Use anti seize or silicone spray when refitting.

5. Now with the pistons out, you need to remove the little nut on the metal stud sticking out of the back side. Then unscrew the outer part of the piston off that metal stud. Now with the whole stud exposed you will see that is only threaded part of the way down. You need to extend those threads all the way down so the outer part of the piston will move lower thus "shortening" the piston.

6. Take an m10 with 1.0 pitch die and thread the stud all the way down. I did this without any problems.

7. Screw the outer part of the piston back on all the way down. I used anti seize as well. This is tiring, just FYI.

8. Now you have a shorter piston but a longer stud. I measured the reveal I wanted and cut the overall length of the piston to 10" minus the width of the nut. You may want a different measurement so this is for example purposes only.

9. When cutting off the stud, I threaded the die onto it first so that I could clean up the threads after the cut.

10. Once they both are cut to length, slide the pistons back into their hole and put the nuts back on. Be aware, the drivers side you can start by hand but the passenger side you will have to use a magnet or get someone with smaller hands to help.

11. Reassemble the bumper/horn/turn signal.

My bumper now sticks out about 1 3/4 inches in the middle and about 3/8 on either end. I was not able to take pics of the process but I can post on of the finished product and post.

I plan on doing this to the back bumper as well. Will post pics at that time.

If you have any questions, post them here.

Scott

 

Sounds clever, hoping the pics come soon.

 

I took some pics of the front bumper this morn and I will post the before and after pics tomorrow when Im at work. It will be a couple weeks before I can get to the rear.

 

Nice post AND sounds great BUT...........

*/* *\*

 

Jim,

Yeah I know pics would help greatly (I have some vivid ones in my mind) but at the time I did the project, I was pressed for time because I was in an auto class that last just 4 hours. So pics would have slowed me down. I figured if I could purge the steps onto a thread (before I forgot) I can add pics after the fact. When I do the rear, I will take photos of the piston, threaded rod that needs the threads extended with the die, and the finished result.

However, I will put pics of the before/after look in here tomorrow so those that are interested can see the difference. Also, to get a look at the piston, it is in the Haynes manual. A simple drawing but effective enough to see what I describe.

 

There is a thread on the same subject over in the XJS forum, I think, complete with pictures and diagrems. Sure wish I had known about this trick back when my Jags had crash bumpers.

 

I think I saw that a few months ago....however... the technique for the XJ6 is slightly different than the XJS.

 

Here is a before (pic 1) and after (pic 2).

 

I know this is a poor pic but here is a shot of the threaded end of the piston. That nut needs to be removed, the outer sheath unscrewed and then you will reveal the rest of that threaded rod which has to continue to be threaded downward.

 

Here are some different angles of the completed job.

 

i did that mod back in 1994, 78 xjs.

remover complete piston and casing assembly, welded in a short piece of spare exhaust tubing, saved weight(by 4) and shortened bumper protrusion

 

pix bumper 78

 

That looks soooo much better than the way it came from the factory. Obviously we did the same thing but in different ways. Great looking car.

 

Yeah, I am wondering, too. Seems to me that the rear is the much bigger offender.

 

I have yet to convert the back bumper. However, I did buy an articulating ratchet to get the rear bumper bolts off. Need to take off the exhaust tips for easier access. This is still something on my "to do" list.