rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

Anyone have any fitment tips on making it fit correctly?
My stock 93 bumper fit perfectly along every seam, but the new RE one doesn’t seem to fit quite right.

The outside seems along the outer edges of the right and left fender seem to fit great, but the new polyurethane sticks out about a 1/8 of a inch to far on each side of the wheel wells and is squared off as opposed to rounded like the fender. I am sure with a little work I can easily blend this. (does the 99 have a squared off fender rim?)

The part that seems to be the biggest problem is the center section along the hood, it seems to need to shift and compress the center section together more so on the passenger side than the drriverside. About ~˝ inch on the pass and ~1/4 on the driverside to make the inside lines of the popup headlights to line up. The problem is that the L shaped fastening flange that is molded into the bumper seems to need to compress and is no longer flat when torsioning the skin to roughly meet the lines of the hood.

It also seems that I will need to support the underside of the bumper in the center to make it line up closely.

The stock bumper has the aluminum spine that runs the length of the top of the skin and supports the rim around the lights and holds the bumper firmly against the hood. Did anyone reuse these aluminum pieces, or build there own, to support the skin better?

What is the best way to work with the polyurethane? Is it OK to sand and what is the best way to patch and work with the material to shape it to fit better?

What if anything did you guys do to correct any of these issues?

MrBojangles

bump same question.

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

Urethane can't really be sanded down very well. You need one of those carpenter shavers...hand-held, and as you move it forward, the several small sharp edges on the underside will shave peices from the urethane. Needless to say, it's CRUCIAL hard labor. Lots of repetitive tiring motion to shave it down enough to where it'll fit right (vs. fiberglass, which you can just hold an electronic sander to it). But yea, that's how you trim it and get it to fit: shaving it down as necessary.

Good luck!

rynberg

You are supposed to transfer over all of the reinforcing pieces!

Work like fitment/finishing should be done by an experienced body shop, not a shadetree mechanic!

CrispyRX7

iTrader: (139)

http://www.negative-camber.org/crispyrx7/99bumper.htm

The body shop that did mine spent lots of time to refine the fitment. Sure it fit ok but to make it look decent took lots of time. He cursed me to high heaven and swore he wouldn't do another. :o

I am nonetheless pleased with the result and the overall quality of the bumper, fitment issues aside. SOryr not much help from the techcnical apsects but at least gives you another data point.

HTH,
Crispy

rotaryextreme

iTrader: (2)

Loosen all the fender bolts, including the one on the very front that bolts onto the chassis. On some cars, you need to do those to adjust the fender to meet up with the bumper. On the rebar, you need to sand down the top part. Email me for a photo on how to modify the rebar.

I am sorry that it's not perfect but this is a low production urethane bumper. Mazda can spend 250-500k on their aluminum mold since they sell thousands of the 99+ RX-7. We can only spend 15k on the urethane injection mold since we sold less than 100 so far. 1/8" error of margin isn't that bad consideirng it's a hand made product. It will fit if you know how to adjust all the stuff around it. If you have any questions, just send me an email or give me a call.

Chuck

SRA-FD3S

rynberg:You are supposed to transfer over all of the reinforcing pieces!

i need these pieces (i sold my bumber with them) for my 99 bumper

Josh T

Is it hard to find those reinforcement peices.. I bought my car with no bumper. I guess I will be in the market for those as well.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

http://www.mazdarecycling.com/

They should have what you are looking for.

Aristo

iTrader: (8)

You can get them from Malloy new I suppose, as I did, but all the parts (13 rivets, 6 screws) and brackets (like 9?) will come out to almost $200.

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

I can sell you the complete reinforcement thing for $120 + shipping (cuz it's really really long lol). Or, if you're gonna be in VA, you can pick it up

~Ramy

EDIT: To clarify, I'm talking about the metal frame bar attached to the top of the stock bumper that you use to install the front bumper. NOT the plastic/fiberglass re-bar used for slow impacts

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

Hey Chuck is this correct? Is the use of the stock aluminum reinforcement intended to be fitted to the bumper? The popup light area doesn’t seem to be able to facilitate the use of the aluminum reinforcement at all, as it only sticks down roughly Ľ” and the existing molding hints at the use of itself independently from the original aluminum mounting hardware?

I think this would really help the situation as the aluminum reinforcements will force and hold the center section right where it belongs if mounted correctly. If it can be used, I think I can force and hold the center section together and allow the lighting inner lines to match up fairly successfully because it is the correct physical length, it is just subborn in going where I wish it to be.

Does anyone have any pics of the aluminum brackets in use on the 99 RE?

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

thank you for the link Crispy very helpful!

Yes you can see from Crispys pics that the passenger side doesn’t seem to line up perfectly, you can see the gap between the popup cover and the bumper doesn’t quite look as even as the driverside. However like I said the physical dimensions of the bumper are as such to facilitate correct alignment with the proper motivation i.e. the aluminum supports or something similar I hope. I have been able to finagle the skin to align correctly with the help of a friend and a little force on the skin.

I am not sure if I am able to build or modify anything to create the kind of support the skin needs to line up perfectly because of where we where pushing and pulling, but it did seem to line up with effort. My only concern is that forcing the material may not be such a good idea in the long run, and may result in warpage and distortion from the suns heat and age.

And as you can see the bumper does protrude ever so slightly from the fender wells as mentioned before, but it seems to be a very trivial problem, and I hope to blend this as there seems to be plenty of material in this area to work with.

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

Also Crispy did you end up using the small original RH/LH stamped aluminum plates to support the 4-6 inch “sandwiched” strait section on the side view pic I posted?

Did you end up purchasing the RH/LH under tray pieces, as the stock pieces will not fit properly, and I do not wish to leave the gaps or leave anything unfinished if I can possibly avoid it.

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

Right now I am looking for sources for the correct parts for the undertray, and the only place that has confirmed they can get them is corksport.

Any leads on other ways to get these parts?

Undertray L/R 135
Oil cooler ducts L/R 110
Brake ducts: checking

Thanks

SRA-FD3S

FDnewbieI can sell you the complete reinforcement thing for $120 + shipping (cuz it's really really long lol). Or, if you're gonna be in VA, you can pick it up

~Ramy

EDIT: To clarify, I'm talking about the metal frame bar attached to the top of the stock bumper that you use to install the front bumper. NOT the plastic/fiberglass re-bar used for slow impacts

SRA-FD3S

yes this part and i will be in a few days so i would like to meet up with you for the part

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

Cool...just PM me when you're ready.

~Ramy

Fd3BOOST

iTrader: (7)

It's called a "planer" Ramy.

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

LOL yea you're right. That's what my dad calls it. To me, it's just another instrument lol. Thanks for the tip

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

Still wondering if this is correct?
Chuck and advise on what you intended?

If you look at the pics you will notice that the RE bumper is not constructed as the 93-95. Here are pics of the mounting points and the driverside headlight area.
The RE bumper has a integrated mounting structure that replaces the aluminum structure of the 93-95. and the headlight area is not constructed as the 93-95 either. If you look the RE is simply a molded spine, and the 93-95 is a much wider and shaped to accept the aluminum reinforcement.

CrispyRX7

iTrader: (139)

I was not able to use any of the AL support plates. Gap clearence was/is too small and the headlight popups woudl rub the plates. On the center section the rubber seal was separated from the AL support and mounted separately to the RE bumper. After the bumper has "settled in" (read: shifted slightly due to a few head cycles in the sun) I think I may have the room now to install the center section AL support.

I reused the stock undertray. It doesn't fit perfectly and I may replace it eventually but for now it fits fine. I use after market oil coolers so don't need the OEM oil cooler ducts and am in the process of running dedicated brake ducting so haven't needed the OEM pieces there either. But you are right the '93 LH/RH undertray bits don't fit perfectly but can be made to work as an interim measure.

HTH,
Crispy

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for all the useful information Crispy.

I am still having a heck of a time tracking down a source for the undertray pieces, and would appreciate any ideas or contacts people could post that I can try.

I have mailed RE, RX7store, cork sport, lauJesse, JT imports, and tried posting in the Fareast section under the correct premise, but the thread was moved anyways.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

If it's available, Chuck from RE can get it. Give him a few days, and he'll get back to ya.

rotarypower101

iTrader: (1)

"I have mailed RE"

Chuck said no such luck.

wish he would make some poly RE replacements