Plastic bumper repair (cracks) - what to use?

hoarder85, Nov 10, 12:32am
thinking of doing a repair job as opposed to a replace job (unless we can find bumpers in the same colour).

Has anyone used Bondo products! They seem to do a reasonable job, have a bit of flex in them and are fairly inexpensive.

a.woodrow, Nov 10, 12:36am
Take it off and get it plastic welded. will be the best repair at a reasonable cost

kazbanz, Nov 10, 12:39am
What is the car!Where and what size are the cracks!

gammelvind, Nov 10, 12:46am
Is it cracks in the actual plastic!
Cracks in just the paint, or cracks in the paint due to previous repairs cracking!

hoarder85, Nov 10, 12:51am
It is a cheapie - 95 civic. Bumpers are around $50-100 each, more from a wrecker. Waiting to hear back to see whether strong has any that match the car.

Largest is a 7cm crack at the bottom of the bumper - that would be the most difficult to fix and the one that may re-split if hit again.

Cracks in the actual plastic - my cousin is the epitome of a bad female driver *shakes head*.

gammelvind, Nov 10, 1:07am
Plastic weld crack, fill repair with fine filler, paint, buff and reassemble. Easy if you know how, close to impossible if you dont.

hoarder85, Nov 10, 1:34pm
Thanks, have seen the vids online. Am really wanting a solution that does not require a plastic welder. Have found a tutorial online that a guy in the US used that uses Bondo products and it seems to be ok. I just don't know where to find those products (they're made by 3M).

kazbanz, Nov 10, 2:45pm
hoarder. MANY years ago i worked for a crowd called Race Resin.We repaired plastic bike fairings and plasdtic bumpers. We used what on the surface seemed to be a 2 part epoxy. It came in two tubes and you mixed it like normal epoxy.
Trouble was it was REALLY expensive to buy the product.
If things havent changed you may find that its cheaper to have the crack plastic welded.
to be honest if thres a cheapie bumper around I'd just fit that regardless of the color. If shes as bad as you say then its only a matter of time.

rob_man, Nov 10, 2:47pm
You can weld some plastics with a soldering iron If you hold your mouth right.

hoarder85, Nov 10, 3:02pm
Thanks for the info. Strong got back to us and want close to $320 for both front and rear and they would need to be painted.extortion lol.

Unfortunately no private wrecks around our area.

I think the two part epoxy is similar to the bondo bumper repair kit:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/3M-Bumper-repair-syringe-kit!itemIdentifier=572655 This is the link to the tutorial from a guy in the US, doesn't look too bad (and his bumper is more mangled than mine):
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php!123683305-How-to-Fix-a-plastic-bumper

If I can get all the supplies for under $50, I think I will give it a go myself.

gammelvind, Nov 11, 1:17am
If I can get all the supplies for under $50, I think I will give it a go myself.[/quote]

I sell all the stuff your require as a job, the 3M bondo range comes to NZ under various different 3M names. Sorry you won't get the glues required for under $50. If you were repairing 10 to 15 bumpers, you could use $50 ish product per bumper, but the outlay for one, would be out of your budget. The last 3M bumper repair kit I sold was about $650 + gst, but had everything in that you would need to do 10 to 15 bumpers.

rob_man, Nov 11, 1:21am
I have a 2 pack material that I bought from RA Johnstone years ago, I used it last week to repair one of those annoying rubber bits on a WRX. It didn't cost anywhere near that.

lovemore_mbigi, Nov 11, 12:24pm
Remove and fiberglass it from behind = stronger than new.

hoarder85, Nov 12, 1:29am
Douche.

hoarder85, Nov 12, 1:32am
Thanks gammelvind, I have found the bits and pieces I need and it should come in at under $100 for both bumpers which is pretty good (excluding paint of course).

lovemore, I did look into using fibreglass but it seems it isn't really suitable for flexible plastics as there is no flex in fibreglass. I have heard of people using the epoxy then reinforcing the back with fibreglass but not sure how successful that would be!

brad166, Feb 21, 6:48am
proform does an epoxy plastic repair product for around $60