Thread: Customizing this "rice" bumper

Originally Posted by Danube_3KGT

with the vent on the top i could do the expanding foam in the hole, then sand the foam down flush, then use fiber glass resin to make it hard and just come in behind the bumper and either cut out the excess fiberglass and foam or just leave it and body putty over the resin right?

Not quite, expand foam, sand or cut that smooth to the bumper, lay down some painters tape over the foam because resin eats through foam, scuff the bumper all around the scoop with 80 gritt, cut a piece of fiberglass matt about 1.5" bigger than the scoop area, mix resin and dab it into the fiberglass matt on the bumper till its soaked but not dripping wet wait 24 hrs to fully cure, block sand smooth 80 grit, go over with body putty, block smooth till its seamless. If that sounds like too much work it probably is. Like somebody said before fit the bumper to the car first to see how well the sides and top fit to the hood and lights

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if i was to do the foam thing and try to round it off kind of like trons front bumper. so I just put a lot of foam on the bumper and sand it and cut it to the shape i like, then place like a trashbag over the foam, wax the bag and start laying fiber glass and painting resin on the sheets?

Originally Posted by IPD

if that's the end result, it's still fugly. gotta remove the ridges on the sides.

p.s.

i'll politely disagree with psycho. seems like every single person i've seen install a FG bumper that uses the car for anything more than a trophy...eventually had regrets or problems with the bumper. even if getting "zero flex" is possible, it's a car. the frame is going to flex a little bit. now adding a splitter is a great idea, because i can assure you that if you drive it long enough, you'll curb the bumper in a parking spot--especially if it's lowered.

I will agree to an extent. You have to take better care of a car with fiberglass parts but what most people over look is that the parts were created for people who race and "trophy" cars which are not driven daily so if you use fiberglass parts on anything else thats the risk you take

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well my car will be a daily driver and cracking something i am worried about.. are there not any other options?

theres not really anything wrong with my front one i just figured if I could mess with this one and see what happens

you always have to add copious amounts extra then what the end result will need its a rule of thumb for body work. if it was me i would cut the scoop out trim the piece you cut out adhere it to the open hole from the back side and then build your fiber glass up. then sand it down .

so, ill start with deleting the scoop.. just cut the scoop out, and take a piece of cardboard and put wax on it (ive heard to put wax on it to prevent the fiberglass from sticking to the board) then just cut the fabric sheets about an inch bigger then the hole on each side and lay on a sheet and brush it with resin, lay on a sheet and brush with resin, and repeat to desired thickness. then sand it down to fit the basic shape and put bondo on top of it, then sand the bondo flush, and repeat bondo until its completely smooth

I think it actually looks pretty functional but needs some edge work. There's an air diversion compartment for everything if you were intending on using it that way. FMIC, radiator, brakes, drivers side oil coooler, passenger side power steering cooler. It's good that it's adding a ton of surface area to the front of the vehicle with diverters to pickup downforce too. I doubt it was built with the intention though so I'll bet it'll crack. Maybe you could vac bag it with a carbon fiber when you're done smoothing it out and it would hold.

Sometimes functional and ugly cross paths, when they do it's fugly! That thing is fugly!

+1 on fiberglass cracking when you look at it funny. It's definitely not structural.