Can the aero front bumper cover be "repaired"? It dips at the edge near hood! (Page 1/2)
phils88GT APR 09, 10:47 AM
I am trying to see if I can fix the front bumper cover on my 88 GT. Where the top of the cover meets the hood, the gap has opened up, and there are two slight 'dips' in the plastic just left and right of center that just look terrible. I took the cover off to check out some other things, and I thought I saw somewhere someone had mentioned that the metal support bracket that goes behind that goes behind the top of the cover has a lip that needs to be bent up a little and that should help with this problem.

Anyone else done this with success? I have the bracket out off the bumber cover. I guess I can see where over the years it may have bent a little due to stresses on the front bumper cover, and just age...

Thanks everyone!
cvxjet APR 09, 02:36 PM
I had a dip start to form in my front cover.....instead of smoothly blending into the hood, it had a pronounced reverse curve....I had some high-density foam used for packing- carved it so that it would fit on top of the bumper egg-grate, and then used a few long wood screws to attach it.....the curve went away- at first a substantial improvement, then over time it has fully regressed to the original convex curve.
Raydar APR 09, 03:13 PM
If you remove it from the car, you can heat it with a hair dryer or (carefully) with a heat gun, and it will find its original shape. You might need to "help" it a bit.
Afterwards, add some reinforcement to the top of the "eggcrate" to support it, as cvx posted.
I have also thought about gluing something stiff to the underside of the surface, with epoxy or similar.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 04-09-2024).]

phils88GT APR 09, 07:16 PM
All great suggestions! I will try all suggestions. I also thought about getting some thick sheet metal to but under the bracket that goes on the inside of the edge in there. Something has gotta work. I wish someone made a decent fiberglass replacement. The Truefiber one looks great in the pics, but I have read that it does fit for crap! To boot, the one is pictures where is shows it on the car is photoshopped heavily!! Dang!!
82-T/A [At Work] APR 09, 07:53 PM

quote
Originally posted by phils88GT:

All great suggestions! I will try all suggestions. I also thought about getting some thick sheet metal to but under the bracket that goes on the inside of the edge in there. Something has gotta work. I wish someone made a decent fiberglass replacement. The Truefiber one looks great in the pics, but I have read that it does fit for crap! To boot, the one is pictures where is shows it on the car is photoshopped heavily!! Dang!!




Actually... I was just at Vilain's shop in Florida. He DOES make fiberglass replacements. Shoot him an e-mail (note, Cliff, I am not scam-bot! haha...)

Here's a thread he started all about his shop: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/100101.html

I was just there a little over a month ago, and he had literally had a solid fiberglass OEM-style replacement that he'd just made.
Stingray92 APR 09, 08:30 PM
The bumpers aren't fiberglass, look for 3m flexible parts repair 05887. You'll be amazed at what this stuff holds up to.

As far as warpage TPO plastics tend to go back to original molding pattern. Just watch how much heat you use, no torches!

The bumper is a urethane, I did a bumper corner recently and several can't we'll the hole was.

[This message has been edited by Stingray92 (edited 04-09-2024).]

PhatMax APR 09, 09:01 PM
I’ve good luck heating with hot air gun. DO NOT USE A TORCH !……you’ll be sad. I did it on the opening where the turn signals are. You kinda have to massage it as you’re heating it. Heavy cloth gloves worked best for me.
Stingray92 APR 09, 10:15 PM
Dog gone it, I don't like to edit my messages, the bumper corner in question several people who know me have seen it and ask where. Anyway I'm still learning.
cvxjet APR 09, 11:29 PM
Here is a pic of my front end approx' 1 year after I installed the foam support;
Raydar APR 10, 01:25 PM
Not a Fiero, but this bumper cover was given to me when I bought some other parts from a wreck. The car it came from had been driven into/under the rear of a pickup truck, hard enough to deploy the Miata's air bags. The car was totaled.
Took about an hour with a hair dryer, to push the bumper back into shape.
If you look carefully, you can still see some scratches around/under the driver's side parking light.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 04-10-2024).]