Glassfibre over chrome 2nd gen bumpers?

[Tony260Z]

Hi all,

Just a thought and it's probably been done/tried before, but is it possible to smarten up rusty chrome back bumper corners on a 2nd gen by covering the chrome with glassfibre and then painting it? I know the chrome would have to be keyed pretty hard and it'd be a job to get a decent finish on the glassfibre, but considering how they look now it might be an improvement!

Or, for that matter, how about carbon fibre matting? Would that work better than glassfibre because it can be stretched tight?

Cheers,

Tony

[shokenore]

You would be better off using the corner bumpers as a form for the fibre glass, than trying to get the glass to stick to the metal.
But if you wanted to you could build the glass onto the bumpers.
Using metal mesh fixed to the bumpers with self tappers, you could build up the mat on that.
Labour intensive but doable .
Should add that if the base rusts then the fibreglass may lift and crack.

[Tony260Z]

That's what I suspected. The corners are already rusting so that'll continue - I might be able to slow down the process but I can't stop it. Hadn't thought of metal mesh and self tappers - that'd need a a pretty thick covering to hide the screws. I wonder if deliberately making some holes in the bumper corners would help the glass or carbon fibre grip better.

Might be worth some experimentation either way... new chrome corners cost an arm and a leg and the plastic ones are hard to come by!

[shokenore]

You could use pop rivets.
Either way you will need to slap a fair bit on.
A thin skin of glass will be prone to cracking.

Might be worth breaking out the wire brush and angle grinder and see what base metal you actually have.
There are plenty of rust cure potions that might be worth trying.

The grief involved is lots hence why I suggested using the bumpers as molds and make new ones no rust smooth exterior all the rough surfaces on the inside.

[Jon Tallis]

Glassfibre bumpers

Dont even try glassing over bumpers. Unless you gel-coat it, and fully flat and polish it (huge amount of work) it will look a joke.

You cant use the plastic (or chrome) corners as molds themselves as what you're trying to re-create is the shape of the corners themselves.

The only way you can do it is to clean up / fill / polish the existing corners and use them as a form to create a mould from, then use this mould to lay up new GRP corners. It's a lot of work for just 2 corners.

If you really want to go down this route, why not see if there's anyone else on here interested in buying a set of GRP corners and then get a local GRP laminator interested in making a few sets for sale, with you getting the first pair.?

PS - Carbon fibre is no more stretchy than glass (less so in fact) - stretchability has got nothing to do with what fibre it is - it's do do with the style of weave.

[Maverick]

It's been done before.

http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48664

[jmcbohola]

Both my corners were rusting quite badly I cut out the bad bits put the glass fiber on the inside and filled on the outside it worked fine then sprayed the bumpers the paint has chipped in a couple of spots but nothing major

[andyverran]

Funnily enough I'm about to try moulding mine for just this reason...fiberglass turned up today...