I know this is a fiero forum and all, and its kind of geared towards GM products...Heres my problem:

I was commissioned to repair the bumper cover and reinforcement, along with the drivers side parking light, on my stepfather's 95 Ford Contour GL. His daughter pulled out in front of someone driving a Jeep and it got ripped off and bent the bolt holes/ripped the bolts right out of the reinforcement. So the old bumper cover/reinforcement was bungee strapped to the bumper and frame. Real safe if you ask me...

Went to the bone yard today and found 2 matching cars, a 94 turquoise Contour and a 96 red Mystique. Seeing as its my mom and stepfathers car, I called my mom to find out what bumper to pull. Was told to grab the turquoise one, even though it was in worse shape than the red one (she wanted it to somewhat match the car, don't ask me why...) Got the parking light housing and installed it, so no problem there (besides the fact that it was a pain in the ass to find a drivers side housing, and the one I found is cracked.)

The 94 Contour bumper has a hole in it on the passenger side about the size of a tennis ball, and the reinforcement was cracked to sh*t. Repaired the reinforcement with some plastic weld the best I could, now its on to fixing the hole. Would a couple of Bondo patches work to repair it, or should I use fiberglass mat and resin? There's a nice crack running down from the bottom of the hole to just about where the vent is (where the fog lamp would be if it had them.) I have never used Bondo patches before and know nothing about how well they work. I know I will probably have to sand and prime everything when I am done anyway, but what would be the easiest/cheapest way of fixing this?

[This message has been edited by Xerces_Blackthorne (edited 12-05-2008).]

bondo brand, or bondo body filler? I think bondo brand makes some flexible panel repair kits, but if it's the body filler you're looking at, it will fall off in no time at all. I would cut out the corresponding section of the first bumper and use the flexible repair stuff to paste it in, and use some plastic weld on the back. I think you can get plastic weld kits from harbor freight.

I thought about just plastic welding the piece of the bumper that is hanging there back into the hole. But after fighting with the reinforcement and the Loctite plastic weld tonight, it looks to be more work than its worth. AFAIK, Bondo makes a patch, probably the flexible panel repair kit that you were talking about...

Problem with cutting the section from the old bumper though is that I don't have the old one. Bone yard took it as a core, only way I could get them to avoid charging me $3 extra...I'm not exactly fond of that yard in the first place, seeing as their prices are so high, they charge $2 at the door, so much to rent a hand cart, and so much for a core charge on certain parts...But its the largest yard within 30 minutes of the house...

So why did you even ask which bumper to grab if it had a tennis ball sized hole? In my books that one was fubar before you started.

Ya, a $3 can of spray paint would have solved that.

If I remember those are urathane. I use Flexible Bumper Repair Kit from auto body supply shop. Rough up both sides with 80 grit sandpaper at least several inches back from the hole. I then put masking tape over the front, wipe some filler around the opening on the inside, lay a piece of fiberglass matt a few inches larger than hole on that (still on inside), followed by the rest of the filler over that. Let it dry, flip it over, remove the tape. Then just wipe on a new batch of the filler on the outside. I let it dry overnite, then sand, refill, prime as necessary, paint. The soaked matting will reinforce the patch so its less likely to crack back out.

If the bumper is molded plastic, I do the same method with the repair kit for hard type plastics.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 12-05-2008).]