I've been working to get this thing ready for shows this summer and so far so good. Still have a ways to go but everyone at the shop and a few friends are working hard to help get it finished.
If anyone has any comments or ideas feel free to post them, I'm always looking for new ideas.

The bumper has been built from nothing. No part of the old bumper was used which made it easy to freely form everything.

Well here it is from start to where it is now...

Before...


No more Bumper Cover.


Looking like a mess of foam.


Some more cutting and sanding done.


Looks like a bumper, kinda.


Starting the lower section.


Lower section sanded.


Side profile. Flows inward rather then out.


Carved out the "Brake Duct".


Something was missing... a lip!


Added a lip and sanded it to fit.



Keep in mind there is still lots to do but I'm almost there.
If anyone ever needs this done let me know.


- J-R

Wow the fab work looks really nice. Going to be unique for sure. Keep the mould when youre done because you can make more and sell them.

CRX Forum

Thats DIRTY!!!! i mean that in the best way possible. props man on the clean work. i like the fact that its gonna be YOUR bumper!

really cool! Keep posting pics

Wow - you got skilz!!! Well done.

You could do this as a side hobby for other people *hint hint*

good to see people taking projects into their own hands rather than ordering from a distributor or buying from a shop....atleast once u have the mould you wont have to worry about ordering new bumpers if u crack one!

keeewwl

Wow, this has got to be the first "custom" bumper I've seen on this site that doesn't look like total ass.

Almost looks like it took its inspiration from the current GT500 front. The side profile looks good, although I think the lower section of the bumper should be more vertical.

Thanks for all the comments and ideas. There really is not much left to do. We have a new way of forming theses bumpers and because of it I really did not need to do as much work as I did. We now only have to form half of the bumper which makes building one a lot faster and a lot cheaper.

As for what is next; The foam will be measured by laser into a CAD drawing. Then a new, stronger mold will be machined. The new mold can then be reused as many times as we need. Next the mold is covered and using Pressure Vacuum we end up with the final product.

Doing something like this is not cheap but it's worth it to have something that no one else has.

It is great to see people interested in this kind of work. If you have any questions or want to learn how it is done feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer any questions you have.

- J-R
Mettetech Automotive

wow! very nice! I like it!

Impressive work !! As matt said, this is the first custom bumper i've seen that doesnt look completley hideous.

Was the design free made or skected out prior to cutting? What material will the final product be made from ? How many hours have been put into this so far?

Please keep updating this thread, excellent work thus far !

Hello again.

Was the design free made or sketched out prior to cutting?
The design was originally a Photoshop I did and a really bad one at that. The idea came for a lot of places. An Audi style indent in the front, a little bit of the new GTR and some creative design. But that was the “original” plan. You kind of have to start somewhere and my big thing was the top grill. The original is much smaller and opens up the other way. Once I knew how I wanted that to look everything else kind of fell into place.

What material will the final product be made from?
Polycarbonate. That’s right, it can be clear if you wanted. Polycarbonate in short is a mix between Lexan and Plastic. It is cheap and VERY durable. It usually comes in Grey, Black, White and Clear (like Lexan).

How many hours have been put into this so far?
Good question but if I had to guess I would say around 160 hours, so far. It would be done by now but we have so many other projects on the go it’s hard to make time. This weekend will be the end of the foam molding.

I’ll post pictures of the final mold this weekend before it gets measured up for the CNC machine.


- J-R
Mettetech Automotive

Only problem with polycarbonate, is that it cracks and spider-webs is even a small amount of flex is put upon it.

I used to make custom windows for work vans with polycarbonate. It's easy to work with, and bend (with heat), but it can't take too much.

^^ That depends on how thick it is..

R/C car bodies are made from Lexan(which is polycarbonate, its just GE's brand name for their formulation), and they take a HUGE amount of flexing before they crack.

The only problem I can see is if its thin enough, and flexible, getting paint to stick to it if(and when) it flexes will be a big challenge.

I've never had any problems with it before. Then again i havent ever hit anything with it before.
Like most bumpers it is fairly thin as well.
We were using fiberglass a while back and it was really bad for cracking. No flex at all.

Lexan is tough as hell, but with anything the thinner you go the more prone to cracking it is. The thing about lexan is it's pretty ductile so you really need to bend the hell out of it before it brakes, not like some of the more brittle plastics.