enuttage

Does anyone make a knock-off of the '99 J-Spec bumper (without the damn license plate holder) that isn't fiberglass?

Or if not, could anyone name a few aftermarket bumper options that ARE polyurethene or urethene, not fiberglass?

TIA,

-E

theman

I think Wings West has a KS knockoff in PE.

dclin

iTrader: (4)

The Wingswest copy is FG unfortunetly. Nobody makes an aftermarket bumper in thermoset polyurethane, thermo plastic olefin, polypropylene or any other the other 'rubber/plastics' that are commonly refered to as 'urethane'. Its just the OEM 93-5 and the OEM 99+.

A Wingswest guy did say that eventually molds will be made of their current RX7 products and production thereafter will be 'urethane'. Not sure if it was just a load of bull he was feeding me though.

the_glass_man

iTrader: (2)

Why not contact Rod Millen or Stillen or who ever the hell it is that does make these kind of bumbers? They mostly do Nissan stuff, but they do Mazda stuff too! If we could get enough people to contact them about doing one, maybe they would do it. What do you think? I would be in for a 99 Spec with out the plate holder.

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

in regards to wings west starting to make theirs in polyurethane.....I can't speak for the 7's, but I know they have been telling the 300zx guys that for close to 3 years now, they said they were going to start new production in jan......hasen't happened yet, but I hope it finally does.

Andres

off to exterior mods

enuttage

Yep, I'm very much in if someone can get me a '99 replica w/o lp holder in polyurethene...but they better make it FAST, 'cause I'm having the FD painted in the next coupla weeks.

So NO ONE makes a poly bumper, eh? Well...except the factory.

Why the HELL did they ruin the lines with the ugly *** license plate holder? Otherwise I'd buy that thing in a second.

-E

frankadelic

DITTO!!!

Mld>7

Same.

But i have found a pic of what it would look like.
I dont know if they just sanded it smooth or this is a replica but it looks nice. That plate holder sticking out just rewens the whole flow of the front end. Im in if you can find one.

rmani

i've seen that front end before it's a replica and it's really cheap too. it looks fantastic i think. here's the link to the place where you can buy it. http://www.mbautosport.com/

TURBOTIME

wow under $ 300 for a fg front end ? is this thing solid ? never saw one this cheap.Hope its not plastic From what I can recall this was a Petti 99 fg front end with a Veliside lower wing added . Not sure how efficent this is at high speeds If anyone has one hows it holding up ? Also Jason started a thread on the gb section about ordering a urethane (holder removed) 99 jspec front end . I havent seen any action on that for a week or so but it could happen with enough request.




94 touring PFS exhaust, intercooler,kn,99 air jpec rear wing

dclin

iTrader: (4)

The Group buy 99 front end is the Pettit FG replica w/o the license plate holder. Having a mold made for a 'urethane' bumper is very expensive, and not justifiable (from a manufacturers POV) due to the low volume sales of parts for the FD. Only larger companies can afford to absorb the initial cost, assuming there is a large enough market for it (think Civics ).

Still though, I think FG might be ok - most of the problems of FG bumpers stem from the fact they hang so low, and are prone to catch a manhole cover... or pebble. The 99 is no where near as low as the aftermarket style bumpers, and have the polypropylene (rubber/plastic) lower lip to take most of the hits....

If one is careful, does not follow gravel trucks too closely, and maybe use helicopter tape on the leading edges - the FG 99 replica could last a good whiles.

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

Therewas a silver FD for sale by one of the mechanics at pettit a while ago with a polyurethane 99 bumper w/o the plate holder. he said that pettit made a few dozen of these before deciding that it wasnot cost effective, and then switched to FG. can't someone buy theurethane mold from them and make this happen? or mabye they wouldmake some more urethane ones if we had a large enough pre-paid group order? anyone want to look into this?

pweizman

I think what a lot of people do is buy the OEM '99 bumper, and cut the plate holder off...and fill in the area with resin.

That is what they did with the SCC RX7. I think they used some wire mesh, and filler...

Maybe that is how Pettit got a few urethane front ends...

Later,
Patrick

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

nah, the mechanic selling the car said that they were making them in urethane but it was really expensive and they were gonna stop having them made until they found a cheaper supplier, then they started making the FG ones, so i figure the urethane ones weren't profitable enough.

there are pics of the car with the pettit urethane front end on pettits site. its the silver car without the rear spoiler in the gallery

dclin

iTrader: (4)

The problem with this method is that is that one would have to use another material to fill in the gap, and having two dissimiliar will result in two different rates of thermo expansion/contraction - and over time, will result in warpage. the company i approached that specializes in repairing 'urethane' bumper says the only correct way is to take a 2nd 99 oem bumber and graft the parts along side the license plate blister from the donor bumper onto the gap area. Thats a bit expensive, figuring the cost of two oem bumpers + labor.

rx7even

That is pretty much what SCC had done. They took the 99 bumber, cut out around the liscense plate, then cut that area out of the 93-95 bumper and epoxied it in. Not exactly a cheap way to do it, but if you had to have urethane, then I guess it's worth it.

I looked awhile back for another source to have urethane bumpers made for Pettit, and I found a good one, but I'm guessing it turned out to be too expensive too. I never followed up with Cam to find out what happened, but I might ask next time I talk to him.

am3210

Hey guys if I recall correctly when Sports Compact Car Magazine did their project Rx7 car. They purchased a 99 spec front end and had the body shop remove the license plate holder. I'm not sure of the method they used and who knows how much it cost but it might be worth looking into. I believe you can still find the article on www.overboost.com.

maxpesce

The OVERBOOST car is a DIFFERENT Car than SCC's CAR.!!!

am3210

Maxpesce is right about the overboost thing my bad, but I do happen to know what issue of SCC has the vital info October 1999. The front end was converted by Kee's Auto Body in Concord, California. Please let us all know what you find out. I want a smooth 99 spec front end to.

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

heres a pic of the silver FD with the urethane pettit front end.

am3210

I talked to the guy at Kee's Auto Body about cutting off the license plate holder and smoothing the front end out. He said it was expensive because you have to cut a part out of the old bumper to do the job right. He recommended going with the fiberglass front end because it would be cheaper and it's easy to fix if damaged.

Touring FD3S

Dan-
Like someone said, would it be possible to use the 93-95 bumper off your car when you replace it to fill the hole?