After the accident (earlier thread) we thought it was the perfect opportunity to replace the standard front bumper with a nice new one inc. 99 spec lights.
Bumper arrived at the bodyshop, no problemo until they decided that it wasn\'t going to fit! :2eek
The place that have supplied the bumper have said they have produced many more with no problems, and cannot understand why this one is different, and all that is needed is to shorten/remove the reinforcement bar at the front and....well that will be that!
Bodyshop are not convinced, have said that the bumper needs ALOT of prep work to get it right, and that even after that it will not be, not just not a good fit, but a S*** fit!
Now I really don\'t know what to do.....All of you with aftermarket bumpers...did you have similar problems, or is the bodyshop just being picky?!
Any help appreciated!
Depends... if it\'s genuine or not, obviously this one isn\'t so it\'s hit & miss with fit- in most cases they\'re never too far off to be deemed impossible but perhaps there is that off-chance...
Is it fibreglass, generaly the fibreglass one are cheaply made and crap. Thats a general rule. The companies that got to the expence of makeing them from grp normaly fit alot better. Personaly i would only touch good jap manufactures oem and places like shine auto project.
Send it back saying it is not fit for purpose as it does not fit make/model specified.
I got a new front end from ebay, i have never seen anything so thin and VERY cheap and the fit was way out, so i binned it. You will only get what you pay for.
Quote from: Timmy;509746Is it fibreglass, generaly the fibreglass one are cheaply made and crap. Thats a general rule. The companies that got to the expence of makeing them from grp normaly fit alot better. Personaly i would only touch good jap manufactures oem and places like shine auto project.
Send it back saying it is not fit for purpose as it does not fit make/model specified.
Err... you chose grp over fibreglass when they\'re the same thing?
All the genuine bumpers I\'ve seen to date are fibreglass...
It\'s an awesome material just used craply by some...
Glass Reinforced Plastic instead of Fibre (normaly glass) Reinforced Resin. Genuine bumpers are all grp and don\'t crack so easily and have a degree of flex to them.
Hmm, yes it is fibreglass. I thought the place i got it from were going to be pretty good to be honest!
Does anyone have any pics of their cars with a "replica" or cheaper bumper fitted??
Quote from: Timmy;509762Glass Reinforced Plastic instead of Fibre (normaly glass) Reinforced Resin. Genuine bumpers are all grp and don\'t crack so easily and have a degree of flex to them.
I digress but have you got a link to the differences? I\'ve been confuzled...
FRP is when you have a mould and randomly lay glass fibre matting chop strand or a weave. held together with resin.
not sure how the grp process goes but it\'s plastic with glass fibre mixed in.
Quote from: Timmy;509780FRP is when you have a mould and randomly lay glass fibre matting chop strand or a weave. held together with resin.
not sure how the grp process goes but it\'s plastic with glass fibre mixed in.
They are one any the same... GRP is Fiber Glass
In my experiance of GRP bumpers.......DON\'T DO IT!!!!!!, Simply because even if you do get it to fit properly (often it costs more to get the Bumper to fit than its cost) they tend to Stone chip very easily (if you have a Black car like me white stone chips look an eyesore) also there is no Give in the bumper so its easily damaged/Cracked.
Can you tell i\'m not a fan :) I have Painted and Fitted Hundreds of Spoilers and kits and the good quality ones are Plastic not GRP and you usaly tell a quality kit if you can offer it up and and it doesn\'t need cutting to bits to make it fit right.
i was under the impression GRP is plastic. not the layed fibreglass stuff which i would call frp. Never mind ill go with what you say as its your trade.
I think gel-coating might be confusing you Timmy, or perhaps you meant plastic full stop...
Interesting though... apart from oem, how many manufacturers make their bumpers out of plastic?
My c-west is plastics as it comes. I think veilside shine and i assumed all the other big jap brands were plastic typre stuff too.
i think you\'ll find 99% of aftermarket bumpers are fibreglass inc veilside, c west, shine etc....the only aftermarket company i know of that makes plastic bumpers is Wings West...a genuine 99 spec bumper is plastic ( a yellow coloured plastic)......If your bodyshop cant fit it then take it to a place who has experience in fitting aftermarket kits..most bodyshops are good at production work but are lost when it comes to aftermarket kits....
Fitment is pot luck a lot of the time, even with genuine stuff to a degree - altho you hope you are going to get lucky if you\'ve paid genuine $\'s. All C-West\'s bumpers are availalbe in the flexible stuff - but it still disintegrates if u hit some thing hard enuff...
Bin\'s right, try another shop that fits a lot of kits, some shops will just offer it up and say \'nah, dont fit\' when the majority of kits will need some degree of fettling to get to fit well.
Yeah well to be honest, what I\'m tempted to do is tell the bodyshop to go ahead and order the Mazda front end, (as it\'s going through the insurance so it all needs to be done there) and then once I\'ve got the car back take my new bumper (and matching skirts) to a different place.
Just too much messing about, and I want my car back!
What bumper is it and what company did you use ?
it could be that they dont want to change small things to make it fit.
are you allowed to work on the car to get it to line up if so take the bar out and just line it up to see how it fits
Aha, so thats the hold up Alison, don\'t worry i\'ll keep it quiet lol :)
Shame about the fit, but as you say, i would get the insurance to go down the genuine route to be honest if the 99 spec is being that much of a pain, and then you can get this sorted out at a later date, at least you will have the car back...
I am suprised that they are saying it\'s that bad tho, where was it from? Or maybe they just dont want to do it? As others have said if it\'s GRP then it\'s bound to need some "sorting out" to make it fit properly as the moulding / making process is never 100% accurate...
Hope you get it sorted out soon :)
Quote from: chopper2k22;510032What bumper is it and what company did you use ?
it could be that they dont want to change small things to make it fit.
are you allowed to work on the car to get it to line up if so take the bar out and just line it up to see how it fits
It\'s a "vanquish" bumper, I wasn\'t going to name names with the company to be honest.
I think we\'re going to go and take the bar off tomorrow to see if that makes it a better fit! Jobs a good \'un if it does!
Quote from: SmbFD3S;510056Aha, so thats the hold up Alison, don\'t worry i\'ll keep it quiet lol :)
Shame about the fit, but as you say, i would get the insurance to go down the genuine route to be honest if the 99 spec is being that much of a pain, and then you can get this sorted out at a later date, at least you will have the car back...
I am suprised that they are saying it\'s that bad tho, where was it from? Or maybe they just dont want to do it? As others have said if it\'s GRP then it\'s bound to need some "sorting out" to make it fit properly as the moulding / making process is never 100% accurate...
Hope you get it sorted out soon :)
Dammit you found me out! lol. thanks for keeping it quiet.
It\'s fibreglass, I think the bodyshop just want it to be 100% perfect fit, which I know it won\'t be, I understand that, it\'s just so aggrevating!!
I have found that it is never 100% perfect .. not even 90% . I bought 3 front bumpers for mine .. a cheap off ebay one that was so out if was unreal . Still got it as cant sell it . I got another aftermarket one that didnt fit to well and would have been a effort for a bodyshop but do able (sounds like the one you have ) . and 3rd .. spent more on one from SRBPower and fit was great ....
Cheap bodykit = expensive to make it fit
Expensive bodykit = cheap to make it fit .
Quote from: Timmy;509945i was under the impression GRP is plastic. not the layed fibreglass stuff which i would call frp. Never mind ill go with what you say as its your trade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-reinforced_plastic ;)
Just my penny\'s worth, but i bought a Full fiberglass body kit off fleabay (although not for an rx 7) and was expecting it to need alot of work, but the bodyshop who fitted it for me said it went on perfectly, with hardly any modification at all (little bit of smoothing off here and there). The kit was not a named brand, and cost £400 for the full kit! Not all of them are bad, just luck i guess.
Quote from: Locki;510345Just my penny\'s worth, but i bought a Full fiberglass body kit off fleabay (although not for an rx 7) and was expecting it to need alot of work, but the bodyshop who fitted it for me said it went on perfectly, with hardly any modification at all (little bit of smoothing off here and there). The kit was not a named brand, and cost £400 for the full kit! Not all of them are bad, just luck i guess.
The thing is every ones idea of a perfect fit is different, i personally have never seen a perfect Fit Grp Bumper. Even if they go on and are flush with the wings often things like corners are really rounded off or the head light holes are not quite the right shape etc. Then there is the heat factor, GRP is renown for its Defects, what i mean is for example i spent quite a lot of time fixing VX220\'s that the layers of Glass matting had air bubbles between from the factory then the Great British weather had warmed the defect and cooled it a couple of Summers/Winters, that caused visible Bubbles to appear. That was just one of the Defects, put it this way the VX T.I.S recommends that the body does not get over 40 deg which means you can\'t bake the paint (which is designed to be baked) so it starts a vicious circle so the paint is not warnteed by the Manufacture if you don\'t bake it and the car voids its warantee if you do bake it.
I just really don\'t like Fiber Glass, it causes me no end of headaches. Sorry Rant Over ;)