The bumper has one major crack in it, and the paint match is not really a concern as I had planned to have the car painted soon, anyway. I just want it to be as strong as before and look decent. Also, there was mention of a clip, is that the whatzit that holds the bumper on? (It is a Toyota Camry '98)
Hey, guys and gals, thanks for your time!|||the bumper is not fibreglass. if it was it would be cracking everytime it had a little bump.
fiberglass is what corvettes are made of, ridged material. your bumper cover is a more resilent material.
it can be fixd though. if it has a crack in it, it will need some sort of reinforcement for it to hold.
it ill be best to remove the bumper overlay from the car. there should be clips hplding it onto the bumper frame support. don't be surprised to find styrofoam inserts behind the overlay.
not hom much clearance you have between the overlay and the underlayinf bumper support.
wash the bumper throughly with hot water and soap. a little paint thinner or mineral spirits to remove any wax will help. clean outside as well as the inside. the removal of wax will prevent embedding it into the paint when you sand. if not, you will have paint problems.
you can use fiberglas to build up path on the inside of the overlay to fix the crack. cut a sheet of glass cloth slightly larger than the crack. let it extend about an inch or so beyond the edges. mix the fiberglass resin and the harderner per instructions'
coat the interior of the overlay with resin/harderner and quickly embedd the cloth into the mixture. alernatively, you can soak the cloth in hardner and lay it onto the bumper overlay. you have to act quick in that it will set up quickly.
use a popscicle stick to push the cloth down and remove any air bubbles.
you will need to apply at least two or three layers to the bumper overlay, alternating the lay of the cloth.
on the final layer, make sure the resin mixture covers all of the exposed cloth.
you can no sand the exteriour surface of the damaged bumper with 80 grit sand paper to smooth out the edges. auto body shop sell the correct filler for your bumper.
follow the directions and sand smooth. finish by applying sanable primer and et sanding;
do not paint if you are havimg your car repainted. aerosol paints do not mix well with modern auto painting systems.
make sure that when they repaint the bumper sections that they use the proper additive to insure adhesion and flex to the paint.
if not it will flake off when it is tapped or sees a large temperature change.
ps if the crack is not that large, jb weld works great. any autoparts should have it.
i have used both methods depending on the amount of damage.|||YOU CAN BUY A NEW AFTER MARKET COVER FOR LESS THAN 100.00 . IF YOU HAVE NO EXPERIENCE REPAIRING PLASTIC COVERS AND ARE PLANNING ON KEEPING THE CAR I WOULD REPLACE THE COVER. THERE ARE TWO PART POLY REPAIR KITS ON THE MARKET BUT BY THE TIME YOU BUY THEM FOR A FEW MORE DOLLARS YOU CAN GET A NEW COVER.
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