rotarypower101

Anyone have any fitment tips on making it fit correctly?

My stock 93 bumper fit perfectly along every seam, but the new RE one doesn’t seem to fit quite right.



The outside seems along the outer edges of the right and left fender seem to fit great, but the new polyurethane sticks out about a 1/8 of a inch to far on each side of the wheel wells and is squared off as opposed to rounded like the fender. I am sure with a little work I can easily blend this. (does the 99 have a squared off fender rim?)



The part that seems to be the biggest problem is the center section along the hood, it seems to need to shift and compress the center section together more so on the passenger side than the drriverside. About ~½ inch on the pass and ~1/4 on the driverside to make the inside lines of the popup headlights to line up. The problem is that the L shaped fastening flange that is molded into the bumper seems to need to compress and is no longer flat when torsioning the skin to roughly meet the lines of the hood.



It also seems that I will need to support the underside of the bumper in the center to make it line up closely.



The stock bumper has the aluminum spine that runs the length of the top of the skin and supports the rim around the lights and holds the bumper firmly against the hood. Did anyone reuse these aluminum pieces, or build there own, to support the skin better?



What is the best way to work with the polyurethane? Is it OK to sand and what is the best way to patch and work with the material to shape it to fit better?



What if anything did you guys do to correct any of these issues?

AgentSpeed

I've got the bumper too but mine is still setting in my spare bedroom floor. The wive sure does love that!



I am interested in other's thoughts on this because I am planning on installing mine and getting it painted sometime soon.

rotarypower101

At first I was a little disappointed after seeing the bumper semi mounted, but I have received nothing but good feedback from everyone that has seen it, so that is encouraging. The section the license plate used to reside is very large when viewed from very close, but as you step back the openings really make the shape and contour of the bumper blossom and it really adds to the car.

I have a painter lined up I just need to either figure out if I can handle fitting it or if I will have to take it to a professional.



Anyone have any tips to make sure and prep the bumper before painting? I was told the polyurethane needs to be baked at 180 F before being pained to evaporate the oils out of it first, any truth to that?

AgentSpeed

Please keep posting your findings. Hopefully others will chime in too.

I figured I'd mount mine and then take it to get it sanded, prep'd, and painted. I use a higher than I'd like body shop for most everything. They charged me just shy of $300 for painting my 99spec spoiler. I thought that was way high but it came out perfect. Sometime quality is still over priced...but they are the best place in town.

Rob x-7

all the old aluminum framing in the bumper gets re-used, the rivets get drilled out and new rivets put in the new bumper.



as far as the rest of the fitment goes, usually when your bolting it up to the car you push and finesse it where it needs to go, little here, little there, adjust a body panel here and there and its done.



takes some time, not hard work mind you, just time consuming sometimes. Bumper prep, paint and fitment usually runs about $500 for a unprimed bumper with no blends into the adjoing panels.



You should not prep it yourself and let the body shop do it according to the paint system they use, pre-baking a raw finish bumper is a really good idea that alot of places dont bother with, they use a bumper cladding instead.