My wife was backing out of a very steep and poorly designed driveway, and somehow smacked the bumper on a side of concrete (I still dont fully understand how she did it...)

I was a little surprised how it came off, and before I was thinking it was going to be a welding job, either a TIG aluminium job or the steel supports attaching the bumper, I have the equipment to do both but it seems the problem isnt either of them.

What do others think? Its as if the bumper has detached from the rubber? or some kind of material other than Aluminum or Steel... thats bonded to the Aluminum?

How would you fix this?

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I would scavenge all of the required parts from a yard and perhaps get my body working friend to make it look new. He always has better solutions and more fab skills than I do.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Not so easy from where I live. To find a junk yard with a similar year of MB would be like winning the lotto.

The tabs that surround(ed) the rubber pads have disintegrated from corrosion. On my signature car, as a preventive, I secured the bumper with allen screws directly to the steel plates, placing the screws under the rubber strip so they're not visible. You may also be able to find the earlier style bumper with the extruded slots for carriage bolts, but you'll also need the earlier style bumper shocks too.

Your wife actually did you a favor in this case.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

I bent two pieces of steel into u shapes, then welded them directly to the end of the shock. I then ground out the aluminum tabs on the bumper itself, and ran stainless carriage bolts from above and below. Very sturdy and i forgot about the repair in about an hour, as far as seeing the bolt heads

Somewhere i have a pic ill post for ya, but it eliminated this problem forever, and let me use my original bumper without having to find unobtanium in a yard

EDIT-
found the pic. Maybe a variation on this idea would work for you

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Thanks JB3. This was exactly the kind of inspiration I needed to go ahead with this repair.

This is what I love about this forum...

Honestly Ive learned and done 90% of all the repairs done on my wagon through the forums. I owe more than Ive give, but Im still learning, So at some point Ill be able to gove more than take...

Same here, this forum is the only way ive kept my antique cars as DDs

Those bumper tabs are a pain, there are so many 123s where the tabs are corroded out and the bumpers are just hanging on the shocks.

My neigbor had an alternate idea when i was doing my bumper, i got rid of the rubber ends entirely because of rust so didnt have a problem accessing the inner bolt heads, but he pointed out if i still had the bumper trim pieces, it might be hard to access.

His suggestion was to weld a small piece of pipe to the end of the shock instead, and run one long carriage bolt from the top of the bumper to the bottom through the pipe. Just another idea to play with when you are fabricating maybe

I didnt think it would work unless i made a tab to bring the pipe piece back a little, or the bumper would end up too far out, but definitely a workable idea. Im going to have to do fhis exact same repair on my wifes wagon too, her bumper is falling off as well

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What shape is the rest of the car in? There are places that sell refurbished bumpers. They probably don't have something this old but may be able to rework yours better than you. Car-part.com is the online US salvage yard network. It all depends on your outcome requirements.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

It doesnt look like his bumper is damaged apart from the brackets being gone from bi-metallic corrosion and a little help from the wife. Nothing to rework unless he wants to weld on new aluminum tabs, then of course doing that means the chrome will probably bubble up on the opposite side, so the whole aluminim bumper will need rechroming, ect.

I had my bumper years ago fall off completely just like this running through a pothole. Still looked great, just needed a new attachment solution

Personally, trying to fix the bumper just like mercedes did it from the factory doesnt seem worth it to me. That rubber pad that is part of the shock end is pretty much unobtanium as well, and hes in a super high salt environment, plus the bi-metallic corrosion he already experienced

Simplest to switch to some kind of bolt attachment instead

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Stop letting your wife drive your car.

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2009 E320 Bluetec 117,000
1995 E300D 306,000 Sold
1996 Ford Taurus LX 130,000 Sold
1985 300TD Still 225,000 Sold
2016 Ford Fusion 24,900

Here's what I did.

I don't think I had to trim the rub strip and the lower carriage bolt heads can be seen too.

Maybe you can do a better job.

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83 SD

84 CD

Take a look at the link below...

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/299088-w123-rear-bumper-fix.html

Be sure to get the same style muffler clamp...you need to tighten it around the bumper strut from the top and bottom....the "U" shaped clamps won't work. I used stainless steel bolts when I did mine...they looked a bit better and won't rust. I also rustproofed the strut with POR 15.

And I don't let kid drive the car...

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1985 300D 172,110mi and goin' strong