TAC Tech => Exterior => Topic started by: 737driver on March 28, 2021, 11:52:39 AM
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I am looking recommendation for anyone who has replaced the urethane bumper cover with a fiberglass one ( or other composite material) .
Specifically I have to replace the original bumper covers on a 77 TransAm . The car has sat outside for 30 years and both the front and rear bumpers are absolutely roached. I’d like to replace them with fiberglass ones and wanted to know if anyone has any recommendation.
Thanks,
Jim
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I tried to replace my original with a fiberglass one from stingerfiberglass.com. It was $700 and for me, a very expensive wall ornament. I couldn't get it to align or fit right, it was a huge PITA. I was drawn to how straight the lines were but in the end, gave up and fixed my originals. In hindsight, I wish I bought a new after market urethane bumper. There is more give with them.
YMMV - provided you are willing to work with fiberglass, you may be ok. For me, after spending $700 the last thing I wanted to do was cut and form a bumper the vendor said would fit. They also included a scorpion inlay with the bumper, their marketing I guess, yet another thing I would have needed to smooth over. Pass.
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I've had no luck with the fiberglass replacements or even the reproduction urethane ones for the same reasons mentioned by Tony.
I ended up having a urethane bumper restoration company restore my original bumpers instead. So far so good.
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I've had no luck with the fiberglass replacements or even the reproduction urethane ones for the same reasons mentioned by Tony.
I ended up having a urethane bumper restoration company restore my original bumpers instead. So far so good.
What company did you use? My front bumper may be salvageable, but the rear is really toasted.
Jim
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I don't have direct experience with these, but many comments seem to say that the fibreglass or urethane copies are often undersized. I bet they copied them off a shrunken original.
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A good original is better than the best repro, but you know that already Jim. I wouldnt have a clue who rehabs the originals but I have read on other forums that its quite expensive, very labor intensive. I have also not read anything good about the fibreglass replacements. From my understanding from people like Tony, they require a lot of work to get them correct. IMO fibreglass is pretty easy to work with and I wouldnt be afraid of the task, however I would not buy the most expensive product out there. May even be able to find an unused one that someone tossed off to the side after not getting it to fit right.
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As part of my rebuild, I made my own. Well not me alone though........
I tried al sorts of things to get the originals back to top condition. Paint would last a week or so and then cracks started showing. Different primers didn't help much. Bondo is not going to last. Elastic primer, elastic repair glue, man I can't even remember all of the products and brands.
Being on the other side of the world importing new wasn't an option. First a mould was made for the rear. That one went ok and came out great. You can sand and use filler on fibreglass with the correct products, so this helped.
The front was a different story and took two tries. Ended up making a top and bottom half mould, and made it much easier. The two halves were joined after they came out of the mould.
I'm pretty happy with the fibreglass over the original urethane. The fit came out great and painting was way easier to deal with. Almost 6 months now and not a crack in sight!
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I've had no luck with the fiberglass replacements or even the reproduction urethane ones for the same reasons mentioned by Tony.
I ended up having a urethane bumper restoration company restore my original bumpers instead. So far so good.
What company did you use? My front bumper may be salvageable, but the rear is really toasted.
Jim
Front bumper I tried was the repop urethane one from OER. The fiberglass rear bumper I tried was from Eckler's.
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I ordered a fiberglass front nose from Stinger as well for my 79. Body shop refused to use it claiming that the hours needed to get it to fit correctly would not be in my best interest. I went to with original and now have a $700 garage orniment as I wouldn't feel right selling it to some one else knowing how it fits
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I used my original urethane and they came out pretty good but not perfect.
The car is really straight and nice.
You just can’t get urethane that nice. If I had it to do over I would use fiberglass. You can block it super flat.
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i bought front and rear from year one
rear needed a little modifying
front was almost unuseable
grill openings were wrong shape, no provision for headlight buckets to mount
studs pulled out when mounting to fenders
being in australia, cost me $1,400 plus $1,400 shipping, yearone offered me $100 off my next purchase but then renegged when i next ordered parts, so last time i bought from them
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100 dollars is nothing to sneeze at, very generous of them, briefly!
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New urethane skin for my 78 was too small also. Heat & bottle jack helped stretch it a bit. This seems to be an issue with too many repop parts. Wish I had the $$ and smarts to create and sell better fitting parts.
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New urethane skin for my 78 was too small also. Heat & bottle jack helped stretch it a bit. This seems to be an issue with too many repop parts. Wish I had the $$ and smarts to create and sell better fitting parts.
I constantly have the same thought!
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I’ve heard the rear fiberglass bumpers fit well. For the nose I haven’t heard anything positive. The flex glass bumper cover from OER have been out of stock for a while and Stinger Is one of the only other ones I have found. My original front cover is mostly shot from being outside in the heat .
It does seem either way, urethane or fiberglass, there will be fitment issues.
Jim
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So I ordered two different front bumper covers. The first one was from Showcars in Canada. At first it looked okay, but closer inspection showed it had some manufacturing defects. First of, the glass layer was too thick, additionally it had some warpage. I contacted them, and they said they would accept a return. Which was fine.
The second one I ordered was from NPD, it was made by Stinger and it was much better. Everything seemed to fit well. It is marketed as flex glass bumper cover and the grills and inserts fit pretty good.
The rear bumper cover I got was a fiberglass repo as well. I got that from Second Gen Graveyard. It fit pretty well also.
This doesn’t mean that either one won’t need bodywork / finishing to get a great fit, then again any repop body part will always require some bodywork.
Overall I’m pretty happy with both pieces, of course I say that before actual bodywork begins, but I think it will work out just fine.
Jim
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Thanks for the initial review. Let us know what you think of them once you get them installed. There are a lot of us that are contemplating these parts and would find that info very useful!
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So Im not seeing many positive reviews for fiberglass nose pieces. My 77/78 style nose piece is drooping here and there. I believe I can get it back into shape. What are people using for stress crack repair? Overall mine is in decent shape. A paint job is probably a couple of years away so I want to get it looking as good as possible during the winter months ( Michigan) I saw the stinger nose piece and thought that would be the answer for sure. Well Now Im changing my mind on that.
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I put front and rear covers on my 79 a couple of years back americansportscar.com straight as an arrow, took some time to fit but well worth the effort.
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Thats the stinger brand, correct? Pictures?
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Yes, Stinger, unfortunately my car is in winter storage. otherwise I would be happy to. You just can`t expect perfect fit without fiberglass time to fit.
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I haven't tried one for these cars, just others. But seems many issues after tweaking and making them fit is that they are still slightly undersized. That goes too for the shrunken 40 year old originals. You have to wonder if they found a 'good' one for their mold casting. I thought they needed to make slightly oversize as they shrink when setting and are released. But just convo without substance on this one!
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To expect any parts to fit out of the box, NOS, used, OEM or aftermarket is a little unrealistic.
There is so much build variation is a literal crap shoot.
Expect to panel fit virtually any part.
Good thing about fiberglass is you can body work it, and it will be nice and flat.
Urethane is what it is and always wavy.
If I had it to do over , I would find some fiberglass bumpers.
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I'd rather spend time (or money on a bodyshop) fanagling a fiberglass bumper to fit right, knowing that when it's done it will be laser straight and stay that way forever than the alternative. After having a '79 with the notorious "driver side grille warp" from the jack point, you don't want to settle for less.
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Exactly why I spent the extra body shop $ to get them fit. I was tired of wavy covers.
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My 79 rear cover was trash. Front cover was good, but I'm putting on a 78 nose. So, I bought a better 79 cover to fix, we'll see how that goes. This was after I tried two OER rear reproductions. First one looked worse than my old one. I can't believe they let it out of the factory. For the price, it was a joke. The second looked OK, but was about 3/4" longer than the car is wide. That's when I gave up and bought the used one to fix. At least it should be the right length. For the front, I also bought the Stinger piece, knowing the headaches to come. But as others have said, you can work with fiberglass, urethane is what it is. So far, I have tried my new repro grilles in the openings of the Stinger, and they did seem to go in OK. We'll see. I need to find a new home for the 79 piece.