Front Spoiler Repair

[Thunder-71]

The front spoiler on my 1984 944 NA has a couple small rips, can it be repaired/glued? Also it has some warping/distortion at the center section. Is there any way to straighten it out?

[porsche4life]

There is a rubber bumper repair kit you can buy at your local auto parts store...

[mikepellegrini]

When I got my 83, the valence was pretty well toasted. The PO had driven the car over some curbs or something. There were a couple good rips and a bunch of gouges and scratches.

I took it off and using fiberglass and body putty, got it back in top shape. It was pretty easy.

The warping, I think, is mainly the support brackets on the car. You just have to adjust them (bend them) until the valence isn't deformed.

Here's pictures of mine:



There were good rips or tears in both sides, plus lots of other damage.

I reinforced the back of the tears/rips with fiberglass, so the rip would not spread.



Then using body putty, I filed in the cracks and scrathes and what not.



A whole lot of sanding went on.



Finally, after a whole lot of filling with body putty and sanding, I primered it and painted it with bumper paint.



The finished product looks pretty good.

[Rasta Monsta]

Somewhere out there too is a polyurethane repair kit, that recommends cutting out a "V" over your crack, and rebuilding it with this goop. Can't seem to find it now, someone will post it though.

[Thunder-71]

Is there a way of straightening out warped/distorted areas?

[porsche4life]

Looks good Mike but the fiberglass will crack... Needs to be polyurethane or rubber.

[VII]

Originally Posted by Thunder-71

Is there a way of straightening out warped/distorted areas?

When I got my car the rear bumper endcaps were terribly distored from what I would imagine was a rear impact and the PO must have let the bumper stay compressed for a while. I took them off and reshaped them with a heat gun. You may have similar luck.

[porsche4life]

Ya you might have some luck with a little heat popping it all out...

[mikepellegrini]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Looks good Mike but the fiberglass will crack... Needs to be polyurethane or rubber.

I did that repair three years ago and yeah, just recently the cracks have reappeared somewhat - I s'pose the fiberglass is too rigid.

But it still looks good. You have to look close and know where to look to see anything.

Using the fiberglass on the back like I did worked okay - I figure three years ain't bad.

I'll take it off maybe next summer and repaint it - it needs the paint, anyway.

As to straightening the warped/distorted areas: like I said before, at least on the cars I've owned, it was the mounts (the metal braces/attach points) being screwed up that made the valence warped.

Try bending them to stretch the valence, and that may just get rid of the distortions.

[Thunder-71]

Many thanks to all of you. When I will put the car in for the winter (yes I am still driving it in fairly good weather here in Buffalo, NY !!!)I will remove it and try the heat gun and the brackets. I will let you know how I will make out.
Thanks again, George.

[petrolhead611]

We have a strong polyurethane tape with hot melt glue on one side designed to bond to polyurethane coated fabric. We use it to weld (with a heat gun)some fabric covers together( these are not car covers) and it creates a very strong flexible waterproof joint.
This may be the answer to reinforcing cracked areas, but it requires maybe 5-600 degrees C on fabric, who knows what on bumpers.