cacrawfo

Hello,
A number of months ago I bought a used body kit on Ebay for my 94' GS300. It consisted of full fiberglass front bumper, skirts, and rear bumper. I knew what I was getting into! This kit was from a car in Japan, had been installed, hurt, fixed, hurt again, and the car finally bought by a US company to cut into a front clip. I decided to tackle installing the front bumper first, as side skirts or rear look like crap with no front bumper.

I'm sure someone will recognise the brand of front bumper, the name escapes me right now!



first test fit




starting to strip all the many layers of paint off with a DA sander and by hand.

cacrawfo

OK, so it look pretty good right?!?!?!? um, no. it fits like dump, and would be an utter embarrasment to prep, paint and install it the way it is. The corners where the bumper meets the fenders are completely wrong, with one side sticking proud of the fender, and the other a half inch inside the fender! The shape is also completely wrong. The Lexus fender has a complex convex and then concave shape, while the new bumper has a bulbous curve that does not have any chance of being correct. Also, the fit under the headlights is terrible, with a large gap of various size on both left and right headlights. The "fans" that stick up to meet the grill shell are completely the wrong shape, and there is a huge gap under the grill. To top it off, the bumper does not even sit flat on the support underneath the grill that is bolts to. Very disapointed at this point....

cacrawfo

So if a reputable Japanese aftermarket body tuning factory can't make a bumpr that fits, who can? Toyota can..

I started down the road to recovery by cleaning and sanding my factory bumper cover. I re-installed it and gave it several generous coats of wax. The wax will serve as a mold release agent. At the sides where the bumper meets the fender, I inerted thin sheet metal inbetween to make a dam for the molding compound. I also masked off any areas that I did not want to get completely covered in plaster.

cacrawfo

With help from my father, who works with dental plaster all day long, I began to slather a very thin plaster mix on the bumper with my bare hands. This will pick up all the details of the bumper, but not provide much strength. My father mixed, I spread. I got dirty, so did he.

cacrawfo

To build thickness, and provide needed stregth, we then started to soak wet burlap strips in the plaster and layer them on. I think I used maybe 4 layers of the burlap and plaster in this stage. This works similarly to fiberglass fibers and resin. The resin/plaster is not very strong by itself, but add the fibers of glass or burlap in this case and it stops the cracks.

cacrawfo

I wanted to have a good way to handle the mold once it was off the car, and to add more strength. I cut a scrap of wood to fit the shape of the bumper, and bonded it to the mold with more burlap and plaster. I let it sit for about 3 days, and removed the bumper and plaster mold from the car. With this piece of wood on the mold, I could clamp the whole affair unto my bench vise. I carefully pulled the stock bumper cover out of my perfect plaster mold!

cacrawfo

The plaster mold has a perfect surface, and retails EVERY detail of the factory cover. I cannot fiberglass directly inside the plaster, as it is way too porous and I would never get the glass pulled out of it! To this end, I painted the inside of my plaster mold with automotive surfacing primer, and wet sanded it to a high shine. This to several days of painting, block sanding, more paint, more sanding etc. This is a very important step, as a poor mold finish makes a poor piece of fiberglass! More generous coats of wax function as a mold release for the fiberglass.

After I was satisfied, I started glassing the mold with thin resin, and cloth. I used 2 layers of cloth, then 3 layers of mat.

cacrawfo

cacrawfo

After letting the glass cure for a few days, I could not wait to see how it would turn out. (and if it would come out of the mold!) This was obviously a one-time mold, so I made sure the glass came out OK at the expense of the mold. Some of the primer stuck to the glass, but it picked off easily. I trimmed the glass with a grinder, and test fit it to the car. I choose the natural body line on the bumper to graft the two pieces together. So to make a long story short, I cut the aftermarket bumper in half with a saw-zall.

cacrawfo

More test fitting, grinding, sanding, adjusting the concours, etc

cacrawfo

Starting at the middle of the bumper, I carefully blocked the bumper in place to meet the new fiberglass upper. I then glassed the 2 pieces together, with 2 inch wide strips of mat. I started with one piece in the middle, and let it cure. Then I did another 2 inch strip next to it, and let it cure before moving on to the next. I could not just do the whole thing, as there was no refference to work from. I needed the strength of the previous patch to adjust the fix for the next patch. You can see I have the pieces taped together, and a pencil shoved in to press the glass in a little to line it up just right! (my arms itch now just thinking about it!)

cacrawfo

I worked my way all around both sides, making sure the fix was as good as it could be.

cacrawfo

OK, now we have a new problem. Even though the aftermarket bumper has the style line in it like the factory, it is not in the exact same place as the factory bumper. With the new glass upper molded from the factory bumper cover attached to it, the sides of the bumper are now not long enough to match the wheel arch lines. More cutting! I drilled and rivited a piece of aluminum sheetmetal to form a mold for more fiberglass. It does not stick to smooth aluminum, and the sheetmetal peeled right off after drilling off the rivet heads. It conformed so nicely to the shape of the bumper!

cacrawfo

Glass-reinforced body filler and a lot of block sanding...

cacrawfo

More filler and blocking to get the fit just right at the fender.... These pictures are shown before re-shaping the curve to match the wheel arch lines...