Got rid of 993 front bumperettes...kind of how to

[Cooper911SC]

Last year my wife's 993 got clipped while parked at work...some clown was cutting diagonally through a nearly empty lot with the 993 out in the center, and they clipped it, ripping off the left bumperette, mount and all, as well as the blinker assembly. Of course they left a nice note

I thought about turning it in to my insurance but with a 1k deductible plus the hassle I figured I'd just fix it myself and get rid of both the bumperettes and put the Euro front signals in.

Accident pics:





Temporarily superglued broken light while waiting for the Euro ones to show up...




Here's how I fixed the problem and 'upgraded' to the smoother front bumper...the irony is that if the bumperette for DOT impact standards hadn't been on the car in the first place, the damage probably would have been less involved...

When getting rid of the bumperettes there is a square cut out that must be filled in:




Step one is to remove the bumper cover



Next I decided to graft back in the piece of ripped out urethane that the bumperette is attached too. I used SEM Flexible Bumper Repair #68422 and fiberglass cloth. It is important to scratch up the base urethane with 80 or 120 grit sand paper and wipe it down with a good paint prep. solvent such as PCL Aero prep.

[Cooper911SC]

After repairing the mount I sanded down to the urethane around the two cut outs that needed to be filled. I first took a piece of fiberglass cloth and glued it to the back side of the bumper to act as a bridge or filler to support the glue as I built it up on the front of the bumper.




Mix the glue in small batches as it kicks off in about 2-3 min. and can be sanded in 15min. It smells and works kind of like JB Weld but is flexable and bonds well with urethane. It took several layers to fill up the cut outs. I used 3 of the syringes shown to do this job...if you are only filling the cut outs 2 will probably be enough.




After building up and sanding down the flexible filler I filled the final pin holes and low spots in with Evercoat Z-Grip body filler and sanded smooth.





I sanded the final body work with 220 grit and then primed the areas with UPOL High #5 high build convinience primer. I sanded this with 500 grit wet and re sprayed it with more primer until smooth and well feather edged with the existing paint.




The next step is to prep for painting...

[Cooper911SC]

Although the bumper had been resprayed in the past and has had a clear bra on it since we got the car a couple of years ago, it was time to sand out all of the small stone chips and start with a fresh coat of paint.

I chose to use a small 3" DA and sand the majority of the paint off of the bumper. I used 120 grit with the DA and by hand. I followed thid up with 220 grit by hand.




It is improtant to use finer sand paper even though it is slower going...if you use 40 or 80 grit it will raise lots of "hair" on the base urethane...that leads to problems when applying primer and trying to sand it smooth as the urethane hairs stick up...

I also took the time to sand down the curb and driveway rash on the two lower side pieces.

Next I made a phone call to a friends bodyshop to see if I could scrounge the use of their paint booth over a weekend...




That worked out great...

I used SEM Flexable Urethane Primer, Standox Base Coat, and UPOL Clear




First I Primed all of the parts and let them sit for a day...I then sanded wet with 500 grit and wiped everything down before spraying color and clear.








Finished product



This was a good project overall. It took about a day and a half to remove the front bumper and fill up the cut outs. I spent another day sanding down and preping the bumper for paint and about a day spraying and reassembling things.

I am very mechanically inclined and work with my hands for a living.

I have done lots of paint touch-up and small blends in the past...this bumper was the largest piece I've sprayed at one time.

Regards, Cooper

[kurquhart]

Nice work!

Not a criticism at all, but did you consider swapping the orange lenses for clear?

[Don Plumley]

Great information, nice work - thanks for sharing!

[kang]

Cool!

[North Coast Cab]

Looks great. I get my car back Friday and had RS splitters and tail installed along with removing the bumperttes and washer nozzles. The bodyshop was going to weld in little plates I beleive. Can't wait.

[Cooper911SC]

Thanks for all of the nice comments...

Kris, I have thought about the clear lenses, probably would look clean on the GPX White.

North coast cab, I like the RS splitters alot...Just too much $$ for now...I want to get the factory urethane ones not FG...Thoughts on this? What did you buy? I have heard that the FG re-pros get crunched worse than the factory parts when you you do the inevitable driveway or parking curb scrape.

I fabbed up a stainless copy of the carnewal type under body protection bar too... hopefully this will help the fresh paint job last a bit longer.

I want to lower the car, but it is the wife's Daily Driver...I'm worried that it will get thrashed...she is pretty careful but I noticed a fair bit of abuse when I did the re-spray.

Cooper

[Scooter]

Nice work. Two questions:

1) Did you think about filling in the front license plate holes prior to painting the bumper?

2) Are you going to paint the rear bumperettes as well?

I only ask because I did both on mine and have received several positive comments.

[Cooper911SC]

I debated on filling the front plate holes...really had to think about it...I decided that since the CA law enforcement have been more actively going after no front plate violators that I would leave the holes and run with plugs...I figured if I filled them up the wife would get nabbed and I'd have to re-drill...I wanted to though.

I am considering either painting the rear ones or removing and filling them in too. I haven't pulled one off to see how the mounting works or how big an area needs to be filled. Any insight on this?

I assume that all I would need to do is fill in and blend (repaint) only the center area where the rear plate goes. I don't really want to paint the whole rear bumper too.

Coop

[Don Plumley]

Rear bumper: pretty big hole. I'll be pulling mine one day to install the tire trailer hitch. They look pretty good painted on a white car:

[Cooper911SC]

Thanks Don. I figured it was a pretty big hole.

They look nice painted.

Coop

[North Coast Cab]

I went with the MA Shaw fiberglass splitters. However, I back filled them with some expanding foam to try and give them some more rigidity. I didn't mind the additioanl cost of the OEM ones, but I figures a little farming at the track and even those would be torn apart. Time will tell.

[Cooper911SC]

Great idea, thanks. Hopefully you won't do too much 'off roading' !

Coop

[yel911]

Great thread!!! I have restored a 74 911 to original color (base coat/clear) with Carrera steel flares. Body work is VERY rewarding if you have the place/tools to do it. Question.... how did the color match??

[axl911]

Where did you get the amber turn signal lens?

[92964cab]

Coop,

Nice work! You got lemons and made lemonade

I am getting ready to do some work on my 993 turbo rear bumper. The main purpose in the project is to go to a center exhaust config. Long story...

So, I have some work to do in filling the existing cut outs. I also planned on filling the rear bumperettes. This is a spare bumper.... so a bit of an experiment.

The rear bumperette cut outs are on 2 surfaces, similar to the fronts, only larger. My plan is to use the same SEM product and "borrow" some material from another bumper to fill the larger openings. Planned to use cloth to back it all and tie it together.
How does that plan sound to you? Feasible?

Mark

The exh cut outs are another story... some serious curves there. I'm still not sure if this will fly.