No doubt i have a rust issue, but trying to understand where to start.

When opening the rear door on my 97 Disco 1, it drags across the top of the bumper. Hinges look good, pins look good,no movement in the door when lifting on it. I noticed the bumper does look like it is tipped towards the body a bit, and there is a noticeable gap between the hitch and the bumper. Looking at the plastic seal between the bumper and the body on top of the bumper, it looks like the passenger side sits lower than the drivers side. The bumper viewed from the back also looks to be bent up a bit on the pass side, about the last 12-15 inches before the plastic end.

so the question is, bumper? or rear body mounts? any idea of the size of the space between the body and the frame in the back? thanks

 

Sounds like you have a tweaked rear bumper, have any photos?
Its held on with 2 (17mm i think) bolts, so you could loosen them and see if you can shimmy it down any and get a better gap.
I just went through this on a 97 D1 I bought to flip, ended up replacing the bumper because the old one was pushed up too high.

 

Its real easy to check your body mounts. They are very visible by crouching and looking up. That said, pray its the bumper. Once the body mounts are so bad that the door is impacted there usually isn't enough good metal left to make a repair.

 

A tweaked bumper makes sense as it does look like it has a good bend on the pass side. and I noticed the gap above the trailer hitch receiver after some trailer towing which may have bounced enough to push the bumper up. I'l try to add pictures. Busy day today!! I don't usually get home until around midnight (2nd shift)

 

On my old '98 Disco 1 the bottom hinge pin was cracked from corrosion. It made the door sag due to only having 1 hinge support the whole door.

 

I’m with Fish, the rear mounts follow the C pillar mounts. They’ll stuff in very nice along with the box under cargo door threshold. You said it looks like it’s leaning. I gave mine away. Cargo door did the same. Removing the rear bumper isn’t hard.

 

bend on pass side

gap above hitch

dragging at outside edge of door clears once it is past the bumper


maybe the wife needs to stop bumping into me when she parks.. door doesn't hit the pass side of the bumper where it is bent, tire hits the light first. Bumper is higher away from the body than the side closer to the body so tweak does make sense. Surprisingly with all the rust, lights still work good!

 

You're gonna want to check those body mounts. You shouldn't need to pull the bumper, but it helps. I'm betting you find something like this!

That's my truck. Body mounts were shot and there wasn't enough good metal around it to attempt a repair without major work. The bumper didn't move, but the body sagged. It sagged enough where it sat on the fuel lines and wore a hole in one.

 

That is one rotted bumper bud. I don’t even need an imagination. What’s the cargo floor like at the door sill?

 

not terrible, but not great either. so far just a hole on each side about 6 inches in , hole is about 2 inches long. Floor under the carpet looks ok (so far) I can see through the front bumper in a few spots too, and I wouldn't trust the brush guard any farther than I could throw it.

Might be time to give this thing a decent burial...

Gotta love that Minnesota Weight reduction system, pour a ton of salt on the roads and in no time, your car weighs less.