Thread: Customizing this "rice" bumper

So my side skirts and rear bumper were damaged when I purchased my car and I recently ran into a good deal with a full kit (only paid 300.00 for all 4 pieces) and so I picked it up, but the front bumper is a little to "sharp" for my taste. I was wondering if anyone had any tips or good how tos on modding bumpers. I have been interested in fiberglassing and stuff and figured it might be simple enough to kinda round off some of the sharp edges or eliminate some parts.

picture of the bumper


and ideas would be great, I don't really need a new front right now, but mines kinda rough and so i figured this might be an opportunity to mess with fiberglassing and maybe make this some what decent.

Thanks in advance,
Chuck

if you could smooth out the ridges I think that would help.

me to.. thats really my goal, not really anything to extreme but just to kinda round some edges. I don't like the real sharp edges and I think thats what kills the kit. Just don't match the lines of that car

Fill in that silly scoop.

I don't have any tips on how to do it though, sorry.

well a good compound to work with thats basically like bondo for fiberglass is this stuff called kitty hair will allow you to build up very quickly and take areas down. another thing to do would be to cut at the edges of the spikes or whatever and basically remove them. then using small fiberglass strips dip them into your resin and apply. but on the back side of the hole your filling make sure to put tape. it gives it a semi ridgid area to hold to while curing. then when sanding your body filler get a moldable sanding block to help you keep the contour you want. from looking at the pictues the ridges look to be interagle for bumper support and removing them all at once would cause parts of it to sag so do like 10 inch sections at a time but wait to do your sandign and sculpting till you have completely replaced the ridges with fiberglass so that way you can get a consistant curvature

So put to much on purpose then just sand it down to what I want. Just cut the tips of the "fins" off then put a lump of resin on top of it and sand them down more rounded?

yea you alway want mor on than what you need. and dont put it on to much before letting the first layer cure properly. and the lump of resin has to be used with fiberglass strips , wear gloves...

with some patience and practice your could make that bumper look good and smooth

well the only reason im even interested in doing this is cause its a spare.. I've heard goggles, a mask and sleeves are a very good idea with fiberglass.. What do I use to make sure it doesnt stick? with the vent on the nose I could cut out a cardboard shape of the hole and then just fiber glass on top of it right? put the cardboard in the hole then lay fiber over the cardboard overlapping the bumper now and the board then just bondo and sand to make it completely smooth?