Fiberglass Follies

Bob, you might consider just replacing it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsch...SlBYr4dg&vxp=mtr

You might ask Carey Hines at Beck: 574-546-4656

Or Kirk at Vintage Speedsters: 562-865-2814

It's possible they have one cheaper than the $300 on Fleabay

The car is a Vintage, so I could probably get a new one, prime it and paint it for considerably less than $300. The bumper lists at $115.00 and the deco strip I have can be cleaned up and used on a new one.

I see this as a fun exercise to test my latent skills. If it doesn't come out I'll either replace it or continue down my way towards a little more outlawing of the car.

Thanks for the leads, Will!

After you're sure it's properly aligned- tape off the front side, clean (you want to be bonding to clean fiberglass) and feather the back edges so you're working with progressively larger pieces of mat or cloth (cut pieces beforehand), build the area up to the surrounding height (and maybe even a layer more in the middle of the bumper) and make sure (with probably a small paint brush- I don't think you'll find a small enough roller) you're using as much cloth (or mat) and as little resin and trapped air as possible (for strength). 

Once the back side repair is complete, do the same to the front, taking care to not go over the surface height of the surrounding area too much or you'll be grinding and sanding for what seems like forever. Some filler, sand, fill again, sand, and repeat 'till it's smooth enough to prime. Sand, and if it's smooth, now you can paint! Al

Bob: you can do this. There are a bunch of YouTube vids showing similar repairs, step-by-step. It's certainly not as involved as my fender stretch project.

I think the key to getting this right is alignment. You need to take the deco strip off and grind both edges down. Like Al says (above), get the surface down to bare glass on both sides. On the inside go about four inches from each side of the crack. On the outside, 2-3 inches will do.  Feather it carefully.

Next, get a piece of metal with the same curve as the deco strip and match the bolt holes. Bolt it on the outside with at least two bolts on each side of the crack. Blue tape the outside.

The cloth that comes with the Bondo auto repair kit is fine for this. Six ounce weave. Cut a 3-inch wide piece that will lay across the whole crack vertically, then a 4-inch wide bit, a 6 and an 8-inch wide square. Mix your resin, wet the inside repair area, all the way out to your feather edge, then lay in the smallest piece and wet it clear, pressing out any bubbles. Then the next larger piece, and so on, wetting and smoothing each one. You don't need too much resin.

Go away for an hour or two. Or leave it overnight.

When you come back you should be almost done. Peel off the tape. The stuff under it will still be sticky. If it's out past the plane of the bumper, sand it down. If it's not, fill with kitty hair, tiger hair, bondoglass or the stuff Dr. Clock recommends, Upol Fibral. Sand it smooth, prime and paint. 

$300 for a single fiberglass used bumper is a different kind of madness!  it should take less than $20 in materials and maybe 4 hours.  Hot FL sun speeds up fiberglass resin cure time (so only mix a little at a time).  I'd remove trim strip, cover front of car, mount bumper, use pine 2" wide stick on rear side and screw in 2x2 dry wall screws one contour is correct.  Grind 2-3" either side of crack past gel cost.  Apply resin and cloth - maybe 3 layers.  Once dry.  Remove and do same to rear may 4" either side of crack.  A belt sander is handy or even one of those electric drill round sanders.

Thanks gentlemen. 

Vintage $125

Argh, Plus at least $50 shipping since oversize. It still has to be drilled, sanded, primed and painted too

By the time he'd done getting it ready for paint he'll have two day's work in it. $200 for a new part makes sense here. But, like he said, some of us like to putter and fritter.

Putting and frittering as I write this.