Custom 1991 - 1993 Stealth/3000GT Bumper.

[J_Parker]

No, it's a T/T. I have two motors for it right now, one that just needs to be put back together and the other is patiently waiting for the 3.5L. I just need the shop soon is all I'm waiting on Thanks for the offer though! How about a trans? lol.

[bluzvr4]

thats what i need lmao

[IPD]

nice crashbar. nearly half that opening is crashbar. are you planning on pulling it or running one of jackhammer's? or are you planning on staying with SMICS (since the front opening is, imho, too small).?

[CoopKill]

Time to get back on that gauge pod till room opens up in the shop!

[J_Parker]

nice crashbar. nearly half that opening is crashbar. are you planning on pulling it or running one of jackhammer's? or are you planning on staying with SMICS (since the front opening is, imho, too small).?

Yes the ugly crash bar will be coming out. I'm not putting another one in, and it's getting an FMIC. The opening is more than big enough to allow for adequate airflow. Having said that, I may also look into some larger SMICS and put in a better thicker radiator nearer to the front of the valance.

[J_Parker]

Time to get back on that gauge pod till room opens up in the shop!

On it! I'm just doing a bit of cleaning up, putting all my engine parts in a place where they're not going to get beat on is a bit of a challange right now with that boat in there.

[Nihil]

I'm lovin this thread, you're doin a great job as far as progress/build and also with pics and info, I've been diein to learn as much on this as possible so I can maybe attempt making some fiberglass parts. Are you going to make a mold/plug for your bumper to offer replicas or make spares incase of need for replacement? I'd advise it...mostly because that's where I'm lacking the info in my searches haha

You should list supplies and quantity if possible, as well. Cheers To Ya!

[ViperZ]

Damn that's looking great, I can't wait to see it completed! I'm loving that rear bumper on the silver 1st gen too btw. We need to have more people post up their custom body work!

[J_Parker]

I'm lovin this thread, you're doin a great job as far as progress/build and also with pics and info, I've been diein to learn as much on this as possible so I can maybe attempt making some fiberglass parts. Are you going to make a mold/plug for your bumper to offer replicas or make spares incase of need for replacement? I'd advise it...mostly because that's where I'm lacking the info in my searches haha

You should list supplies and quantity if possible, as well. Cheers To Ya!

I suppose I could give a material list, good idea!

Great Stuff - I used about five of the larger cans to overbuild the surfaces to avoid having to waste any more time applying it. In total they ended up costing me about $30 CAD (Buy them in bulk at a building supply store it's much cheaper)
Bondo - Depending on how well you did your shaping of the grat stuff, you should only need a couple of the larger sized pain cans of it. Maybe one of the smaller ones to fill in some of the smaller imperfections. ~$80 CAD
Sanpaper - Various grits, look to spent about ~$20 CAD
Other consumables that you may run into which shouldt be too much more.

I will add to this as I progress further into it the build.

And last but not least, having the most awesome looking Stealth in town thus making me the the fucking man... Pricelss... Lol.


Some of the nescessary techniques I had to do, to do this properly.

1 - Clean the bumper! The Great stuff is remarkably tacky, but will not stick to a waxy, oily, or dusty smooth surface. Use brake clean or gasoline to ensure optimal cleanliness.
2 - Foam it up. Apply the foam in a general shape of what you want, don't be shy either. Another thing to keep in mind, if you're going to be making any air dams don't put the foam there, it'll just get in the way and be wasteful.
3 - Let it cure. Don't go all Edward Scissor hands on it just because it feels solid, I learned this one the hard way. The surface will feel hard for the first inch, maybe two. But really, once you get down there you'll be greeted by a nice stick mess that's going to fuck up your steak knife or weapon of choice.
4 - Shape away. Do your thing, keep everything symmetrical. you don't by any means have to be 100% perfect. Just get a ruler or a measureing instrument and work off of the easiest stand out feature you can, preferably one on the existing bumper. Unfortunately for some of the Yokels out there, a piece of string wont work very well for this.
5 - Put the bumper on the car, properly. Because the foam has some give to it it will still stretch and bend when you put it back onto the car. Measure the distance of the bumper edges and tie them together or find other methods of securing them. The measuring was a little tricky, because mine is outside I put two stakes in the ground plumed them up and measured the overall distance between them then measures off of key points between them and the bumper. subtracted and valla the overall width of the bumper. The same thing can be done squaring up your car in a shop and using the walls.
6 - Hog tie it. I used fishing wire, I fish a lot and I had a shit tonne of it lying around so I put some to use. I prefered this over using blocks like stated above, simply because it's much easier to move the bumper around if need be, which in my case was very necessary because I always keep the work area clean of dust and debris.
7 - Apply your bondo. Start off in smooth thin layers. Mix it light on hardener to elongate the amount of time you will have to work with it. try to keep all the lumps and bumps to a minimum as they will complicate things later on.
8 - Leveling... Woot... I use a thin pice of wood about three feet long that flexes easily and consitantly. I then run it along the larger surfaces of the bumper to see where my high and low spots are, cutting and filling as I go. (If you run into a spot that you will eventually hit foam in, don't worry about it. When you go to make your mold you're going to be spraying a lovely thick application of release agent that is not only going to hide the minimalistic fuckups, but give a nicer smooth surface than we can wo with our sand paper. Afterward the gelcoat etc, to be cont.)
9 - Finishing. After all the shaping, we're going to move onto some final sanding stages. Pretty self explanitory.
10 - Primer! Prim it up with some good spot filling primer, I recommend two to three heavy coats. (No drips though)
11 - Floor wax. I use a wax called Aero Floor Wax, It's extreamly good at keeping things from sticking to it, use a few good aplications of it.
12 - Release Agent. Spray on some thick coats of this, it's going to be what does the majority of the imperfection hiding. I'll get back to you on the brand I use.
13 - Glecoat. Spray this on according to the manufacturers recommendations.
14 - Fiberglass mold. What you're going to want to do with this, is make yourself some flat peices of fiberglass to add borders to your molds. in any areas that the mold will catch on when releasing it from our final product. I am predicting that the mold I will be making will come in about five pieces. unless I can find a more efficient way to do it. You're going to want to be very generous with your molds fiberglass too, unless you want your finished products to be warped and piss your customers off over time this is the only way to avoid it... Also, make sure you have signifigant refrence points on the seperate sections on the mold to ensure that they are going to line up through all the manufacturing!

That's all I can think of for now, if I come up with any more I'll add to this one as well.

Thanks for all your interest guys, the positive feedback is keeping me going.



As you can see I did a little illustration of what my molds will be doing .

[Scorch]

Wow that looks great! It's nice to see it on the car, it's coming along great I can't wait to see the finished product!