Lower Front Bumper Cracked...Any Suggestions?

[Sprinkle]

Long story short I let my buddy drive my G8 home as I was three sheets to the wind and he pulled to far forward and scraped the curb...hard. No structural damage but cracked the front cover. Any suggestions on a fix? Trying to avoid buying a front cover but will if I need to.



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[jzpiano]

No suggestions but ouch...

[Phil@PnP Tech]

I was in your shoes. My car was very cheaply repaired when I bought it. It didnt take long for the crack to open back up and the paint chip off.

I completely removed my bumper and disassembled the inserts, foglights, markers, harness, arrowhead.

First thing I did was use a heat gun to gently mold the bumper back into shape. The complete bottom lip was split on mine so I also had to tie a string from corner to corner when sitting up on the nose to keep its shape. I then took a sharp razor and cut out all the old glue and created a V-groove in the crack.

Next part was the welding. I followed the basics of the following video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmTWCzJbNBw

I bought a cheap iron from harbor freight but did not use the included steel mesh. I bought some finer gauge stainless mesh on eBay. Basically, I cut and molded the mesh to the backside of the crack. I then used the iron to gently sink the mesh into the plastic bumper. I would work my way around until the mesh was completely submerged into the bumper. This completed the structural part of the repair. Next, I used some 3m DP620ns which is a black non-sag urethane based epoxy. Great bonding strength and remains flexible even cold. It is important to get the "ns" version which is much thicker and wont run. It just stays where you apply it. I overfilled the crack on both sides of the bumper. Once cured, I sanded it down back to the basic shape. I am not a paint guy so that's where I stopped on the repair. I took it too a friend of mine who did the final sanding, leveling, adhesion promoter, color, and clear.

Heat Gun:
http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-wa...112-96289.html
Iron:
http://www.harborfreight.com/80-watt...kit-60662.html
Mesh:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesh-Stainle...item19f20abf76
Glue:
http://www.amazon.com/3M-Scotch-Weld.../dp/B000ND3X8A

Make sure you get a large enough sheet of mesh to make a continuous repair. I cheaped out on the tools too but doubt I will use them much again. The tip of that iron got really soft once it heated up and made it hard to press the mesh into the plastic. Once the mesh got some heat into it, it was fairly easy to get it to melt in.

[Sprinkle]

Thanks Tweaker