progress on the front bumper

[lostforawhile]

ok i got the initial coat of primer on,this is a guide to show me where all the high and low spots are,then i started sanding it with 600 grit sandpaper,since this is a semirigid plastic,all the really shallow imperfections can be filled with glazing putty. the flex compound is primarily for the deeper areas. i'm typing this while i'm waiting for the glazing putty to dry. then it's sand fill,sand fill,sand fill,you get the idea. i hope by wendsday night to have the paint on it,i'm going to do more work tomorrow,and some more tonight. they said it would be in the thirties,but it's about seventy degrees out.

[lostforawhile]

ok got some of the wet sanding done

this is the area where i had to cut out the material to make the bumper edges line up
before

after,the arrow is the area i had to cut out

[mkymonkey]

wow its coming together nicely. job well done

[russiankid]

what mkymonkey said

[lostforawhile]

ok i'm here today because the accord refused to start due to the extremly cold weather and wind we had all night,but here are a few pics from school on monday night. cathy was finishing up the three areas on the bumper where we had cut away original plastic grill.

[mkymonkey]

wow, man if only my girlfriend was half involved as your wife....id be a very happy man












you lucky bastard

[lostforawhile]

in monster garage mantra-DONE!!! cripes theres about 200 hours in this bumper now but it's finally done







the only problem i ran into was one bad ground pigtail which means none of my lights worked and involved removing the entire bumper over again .

[russiankid]

dam thats looks sweet

[gfrg88]

that looks great, i think it would of looked better if you had somewhat mold the fog lights into the grill some how....

[lostforawhile]

well I had thought of that,but these lights are huge,there just isn't enough room,the upper grill bar is seperate from the lower two because it bolts to the steel part of the bumper,the lights attach to it,the lower two grill bars attach to the plastic part of the bumper so they float with the bumper. we have a lot of unlit country roads around here so the lights are a nescisity, as i have explained before on here they are a system,they switch automatically with high and low beam. the amber for low beam and the clear for high beam. the outer amber lamps are antique hella lamps,and the inner two are cyber white simulated H.I.D beams from navigator. they had the city blue light extra bulb in them that has been converted to an amber bulb,they function with the side turn/marker lamps. I just replaced them because i had broken one. they are extremly bright. as far as the bumper i'm done except for a few small runs,I'll let the paint cure for a couple of weeks,then wet sand those out and recoat them. The only thing left to do is finish the grills up that go under the bumper on each side,where the plastic grills keep falling out. it was a bitch with that ground, I had it bolted directly to a nut that was welded to the frame from the factory,it was tight,the crimps on the pig tail were tight,but it still wasn't grounding. I had to pull the bumper back off and move the ground. for a laugh I had stood that bumper cover up in the shower and wet sanded it with a hand held shower because it was too cold to do it outside last night. this was at 3:00am



you can see the small amber bulbs in the bottom of the lights,these are naxl 194/or 194naxlbp2 these will replace most of the push in bulbs on lights with city lights that can be removed.

[crazykamper]

wow, really does look like a mon star, (i know how to spell, lol.) it looks great, i wouldnt mind doin somkind of fog lights, just need to find time and $$$$$.

[lostforawhile]

all right i made the grills that go up under the bumper,I'm sorry the pic sucks,bad lighting,they are aluminum and painted to match the new grill.

[Sporno]

i love that kinda grilly ou have ... reminds me of an old supra.. i think it would look nice off on the right side

[lostforawhile]

you must be talking about where it says honda,thats off of an 81 civic,I thought of moving it to the side,but the center support on the grill made it eaisier to mount there. on the lower grill bars I had to cut 11 inches out of one side and move the dividers around in order to mount the ps cooler in there. I made a small piece that fits on the opposite side. this makes the grill look like one big piece again.

[A18A]

i didnt read through the whole thing so dont kill me, but was the bumper at all warped? if so, howd you de-warp it?

[lostforawhile]

It shouldn't warp,theres a steel bumper under it, the top is held to the steel bumper by a bunch of screws at the top and the bottom and screws to hold it at each side. it's prettty well held in position on all sides. it might appear to warp by sagging.but this is caused by the rubber bumper mounts. this can be fixed by removing the mounts,and installing metal metric washers in them,this makes them rigid. the rubber in the mounts deteriorates