Kinda slow on here lately. So I though I would ask you guys if anyone has fabricated thier own rear bumper? I am having trouble finding one and thought I might try and replicate the removed one or what is left of it. Looking for ideas.
Does anyone know of a company that makes urethane products? I wonder how many folks we'd have to get together to get a run of bumpers made? We'd probably have to come up with a reasonable set of bumpers to get someone started on making them.
Ford is starting to piss me off...they are beginning to hit up companies with "Mustang" in their name for copyright violations, but we still can't get repop gastanks, dashpads, and bumpers. They should let the market do its thing and forget "market dilution".
Thanks 78CobraII, that's the thread I was looking for.
I did a search honest.
I am thinking about making new rebar from some old aluminum I beam cut close to the shape of the salvaged rebar. Then molding some filler from foam and reattaching the original urethane with some type of glue. "vette bond" probably will not work as it is for fiberglass to metal. I will use contact cement most likely unless someone has another idea for urethane to expanded foam?
I bought the Mas fiberglass bumpers. They were very inexpensive. Like $79.00 each! I peeled the original bumpers off and sand blasted the metal behind. The body shop then bonded the new bumpers on with "Vette-Bond". The bumpers and the Mustangs Unlimited dront spoiler are all made of thin fiberglass. I figured I would have to sweep them off the ground and fix them and have them repainted all the time. To my surprise after 3 years of summer cruising I have had no problems with any of the plastic-like-Barbie doll body parts
I am thinking about making new rebar from some old aluminum I beam cut close to the shape of the salvaged rebar. Then molding some filler from foam and reattaching the original urethane with some type of glue. "vette bond" probably will not work as it is for fiberglass to metal. I will use contact cement most likely unless someone has another idea for urethane to expanded foam?
I like that plan. You shave off some of the weight of the factory reinforcements without completely getting rid of them.
You might try pouring some urethane foam into the fiberglass bumper skin, lowering the aluminum reinforcement in, and let it cure. If the aluminum and fiberglass parts are clean and a little roughed up (say with 50 grit sandpaper), it ought to stick to both. I would go with one of the denser but still flexible foams.
If you Google 'urethane foam' you get literally hundreds of hits. It looks like if we could come up with a good mold, we could make our own near-factory replacement bumper skins.
I like the ideas about the denser foam and bonding them off the car.
For the time it will take to prep the old urethane I may just go for the fiberglass bumper also. Anyone see an advantage to preping the urethane vs starting with a new piece??
I guess it depends on how "factory" you want the finished product to appear, and how bad of shape the original skin with its built-in reinforcement is.
If you want a "factory" look, the fiberglass won't do because its missing the channel to mount the trim strip. Usually they also look a little "twisted" at the ends, but careful reinforcement would probably cure that.
If the original urethane skin is buckled from its cast-in reinforcement plate corroding, you'll have a tough time ever fixing it, but I recall that someone here tried. If you have a crack or crater in the exterior, then the urethane repair products from 3M might fix it right up.
For a custom front end (i.e. modified header panel, modified fenders, or attaching an air dam to the bumper), the fiberglass bumper is the way to go, especially with the aluminum reinforcement you are considering.
I have one decent set of bumpers (out of 3 MII's!) that I am fixing up for my Ghia. I removed the reinforcement panels, had them sandblasted, and painted them with self-etching primer and Eastwoods Detail Gray paint. I'm about to carry the bumper skins to the sand-blaster so that he can clean the exposed part of the cast-in reinforcement. I plan to bolt them to some 2x4 scrap so that he won't muck up the exterior of the skins dragging them around his shop. When the reinforcements are done and bolted back on, I'll carry them to a body shop for final finishing and painting.