I may start playing with fiberglass.
 

I've done some research on amateur fiberglass + urethane foam fabrication, and I'm committed to making a basic piece to replace the front bumper with a fiberglass "blank" of sorts. Even with the bumper blacked out, it looks pretty good. But you need something there for appearance and protection. So a basic face plate, flat black or body color, should be easy enough to fab up. If it works out, maybe I'll donate it so it can be made into a mold.

I'll keep y'all posted.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...g?t=1262796772

greg i was working on exactly this a while back, i made a mold out of some nice foam and laid glass over it and started bondoing to smooth it out but never finished it. i look forward to seeing what you come up with.

If you still have the bumper - and it's not in bad shape - it could easily be used to create a mold. Are you planning on keeping the turn signals? By making a mold of the stock bumper, you would have the openings for the signals built-in to the mold.

I've made a number of fiberglass parts. In fact I wrote an article for a car magazine a few years ago describing my procedure for making parts inside the external skin of a given body panel. This process won't work for a bumper - but many of the same principles apply.

Let me know if you think I can offer any help.

I can post pictures of some of my projects if there is any interest.

I've also toyed with the thought of making new body pieces (should I ever have steady work again). There is a TON of information on the net about making molds, and fiberglass/carbon fiber.

The one I think I'm going to use involves covering the stock bumper with kitchen plastic wrap. Covering it with the Home Depot spray insulation foam, to make the mold. Then you can either just fiberglass a stock bumper, or cut/modify the foam to make a custom bumper with the stock shape.

The hardest part I think would be getting the mounts positioned right.

Here are a couple of places to buy the fabric and resin online.

http://www.tapplastics.com/index.php?
http://www.shopmaninc.com/index.html
http://www.fibreglast.com/

this works well, also helps to put like cooking spray of wd40 between the foam and the part even if its wrapped. i made a mold of a 944 intake like that too lol

You are correct, sir. Generally the most difficult part of such projects involve engineering a way to attach it to the vehicle.

Regarding buying supplies - local marine (nautical) supply places tend to offer a good selection of mat, cloth, resin, etc.

Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to go with a totally different configuration than the bumper, so I will not try to make a mould from it.

As to the mounts, I am working from a months-old visual image of what it looks like back there, but the bumper mounts would easily accept a lateral piece of material (eg plywood) between the upper/lower tongs on each bumper mount (plywood piece parallel to the ground, cut to the shape of the front of the car). I would make the plywood into the lateral frame, attach the foam to the outer contour of frame, and shape it. Leave room for a couple layers of glass, then glass-in the back side.

I'm sure it will end up a clusterf*ck, but it's too cold to have fun outside anyway.

Ahh yes, I forgot the cooking spray. Thanks Spencer.


You're going to have to make some kind of mold of the stock bumper. You need to get the size and shape of it (Even if you're going to modify it) to get your new bumper to fit correctly in the nose. Especially for the $10 it will cost you in cooking spray, plastic wrap, and spray foam. Its FAR to cheap and easy to not do it.

Even if you just mold the outside lip to get the size and shape. Then you can make the rest from there. Otherwise you'll be months just getting it to fit evenly in the nose of your car.

at least the back side of the bumper you would want to replicate, the front side can be whatever you want.

Any pointers on how to cut foam block? A hot wire setup would be cool, but even a firm cold wire saw might do the trick, right?

When i use to be into imports i would use a car battery, jumper cables and a small diameter wire. The wire heats up quickly and you can cut foam with it.
However do this at your own risk there are some risks while doing this

keep us posted!!!

If I don't post anything here for a few days, send an ambulance to my garage.

Electric knife, like the kind you use to carve a turkey.

Tom

i think by that time u might be a nice crispy char already.

That's what I was going to say.

Go steal your Wife's electric turkey knife. It goes through that spray foam like butter.

Then you can use 80 grit paper to smooth the lines. You will never get a really smooth surface from the foam, so just make the shape exactly like you want it, then you'll have to cover it with plastic wrap to make it smooth, then spray it with cooking spray so it will pop out of the fiberglass.

I was going to make a 2 piece mold. An inner and Outer. That way you can clamp the fiberglass between the molds, and get out all of the air bubbles.

Then, if I could find an oven big enough to hold the entire part, I could make an F1 car tub in my garage :D