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I've gone back and forth over pure delete of these for years. Instead of modifying my bumper I had my shop paint the fronts and backs. I'm 50/50 on the results - the rears look "natural" in Red, the fronts not so much.
I've been trying to find this type of "plug" for a long time and have an observation from watching the process unfold over the years. It seems the more "perfect" you try to make it the more it becomes obvious it's not. Meaning, if you purposely let it project slightly, whether in body color or black, the result might be pretty good. Most of the offense is covered by the ROW corners... Bolted of course.
I've gone back and forth over pure delete of these for years. Instead of modifying my bumper I had my shop paint the fronts and backs. I'm 50/50 on the results - the rears look "natural" in Red, the fronts not so much.
The fronts painted are tough for me and even more so in Polar Silver. My solution will never look perfect so to speak. Upon close inspection, you will see a panel with a light edge. I don't know if it will project slightly as the intent was that people will sand it down to be at the same level as the bumper if there is a projection on one side or the other.
Anyway, the bumperettes were a personal hate for me. A member here had produced a modeled in place resin cast and I thought that was genius. BUT, I got the last of the useful casts from him as each time the mould is used it loses accuracy and detail. I wanted something that worked along the same lines but could be produced again and again with complete accuracy. There's nothing to say that you couldn't build up the visible insert rather than reduce it where needed.
I've gone back and forth over pure delete of these for years. Instead of modifying my bumper I had my shop paint the fronts and backs. I'm 50/50 on the results - the rears look "natural" in Red, the fronts not so much.
I've been trying to find this type of "plug" for a long time and have an observation from watching the process unfold over the years. It seems the more "perfect" you try to make it the more it becomes obvious it's not. Meaning, if you purposely let it project slightly, whether in body color or black, the result might be pretty good. Most of the offense is covered by the ROW corners... Bolted of course.
I've actually been thinking this route as well. My car is black, so the bumper ***** aren't as much a distraction for me as if I had a contrasting color, like white or silver. So I think when I get ready to have the road rash touched up, I'll just have them painted.
I've actually been thinking this route as well. My car is black, so the bumper ***** aren't as much a distraction for me as if I had a contrasting color, like white or silver. So I think when I get ready to have the road rash touched up, I'll just have them painted.
'
The cost of having them painted would be more than the cost of painting the visible part of the tab for these parts. Then again, you still have to buy euro lenses.
Anyway, it's a personal preference. I'm European and HATE the bumperettes on the front. They are an abomination in my eyes. I had the bumperettes painted on the rear. They don't bother me at all. double standards.
Gmorat - hats off to you for attempting this. Don't let my idea sidetrack you...
With the assumption that a perfect fit is impossible, given the variation across cars, would a plug that has a similar lip as the bumperette, only much thinner, still be an improvement?
I'm thinking something like the B5 Audi headlight washers. You can see that they are not flush with the bumper cover, but ride above it. If a plug was thin enough, with just the right edge radius, it could ride above the bumper cover seamlessly and still be an improvement over the relatively huge bumperette.
Just an idea from a guy that doesn't really mind the bumperettes
I think finding a shape that goes over the hole but stays close to the bumper-cover regardless of the position of the hole would be as or more difficult. The other issue is that the bumperette hole is situated on the edge of the bumpercover so there's no good place to let it transition to nothing.
I have to say though, even if it were 10 times easier than this piece, at this stage I am officially close to done! I'll be happy to arrange for the additional pairs to be printed and hopefully never have to think about this again for at least as long as it takes to let people decide they want another batch.
G.
Originally Posted by mpruden
Gmorat - hats off to you for attempting this. Don't let my idea sidetrack you...
With the assumption that a perfect fit is impossible, given the variation across cars, would a plug that has a similar lip as the bumperette, only much thinner, still be an improvement?
I'm thinking something like the B5 Audi headlight washers. You can see that they are not flush with the bumper cover, but ride above it. If a plug was thin enough, with just the right edge radius, it could ride above the bumper cover seamlessly and still be an improvement over the relatively huge bumperette.
Just an idea from a guy that doesn't really mind the bumperettes
I'm interested. Please PM me when you have available kits.
Just to be clear, I will never have kits 'available' as such. I will take orders for kits, people will pay in advance for the kits and I will have them produced. I will then package and ship them to everybody who ordered and paid.
People will receive them, modify them slightly as needed, sand, prime, paint, clear-coat and then install them.
I never envision a situation where I will have a stock of kits ready to ship for orders that haven't yet been placed.
If in the future there is enough demand, I will collect orders and payment just prior to placing an additional order. May never happen or maybe there's demand for an additional 50 sets a week!
As things stand at the moment I'm talking to a fabricators to print in the region of 50+ copies, but this may go up or down depending on who actually ends up paying. Once I'm happy with the test prints and am ready to actually place the order I will ask people to PM me and I will reply with information on how to place an actual order.
It's a lock at this stage that I will be only offering the bolt in version with a 25:1 ratio of preference against the glued in piece.
03-09-2016, 09:57 PM
