I got some damage to the underside of my front bumper so I figure I'll just replace it and scratchcoat repaint my whole car while I'm at it. I have the '99 taillights and have wanted to complete the conversion to the front for a while, now is a good opportunity.

I always noticed something wrong with the aftermarket plateless front bumpers for FD's. There was always something that didn't look right with them, and it wasn't just from the lack of plate holder, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
But since now I'm actually looking to get the front bumper, I've been looking more into them. After looking at the "post pictures of your FD" thread and seeing the '99 aftermarket plateless front bumpers, which i know pettit racing sells, and the normal oem '99 year ones it's become apparent. The aftermarket ones seem to stick out further, and or are more "pointed" at the end right above the air dam, and also they look like they have less "form" to them on the piller between the middle air dam and the side ones.

Really minor things.. but enough to really throw it off.
I did a photoshop of one with a plate holder on it, just removing the plate, following the same lines, and it comes out like:

It looks nice without the plateholder. Just what I'm looking for!

I found one with an aftermarket plateless front bumper, looks like the one pettit racing sells, and at a similar angle.

Just looks.. off.

Most of my friends seem to agree with me that there is some things off with the aftermarket plateless bumper. It's pretty minor, but for me it ruins it. :/

Does no one else make a plateless bumper the matches the oem exactly, except for having that ugly plate holder in the mold?
My only alternatives I see are A: Find a shop that can plasti-weld.. which would be expensive. Or B: Get an OEM bumper and have a plateless one custom made out of fiberglass from it. Also expensive. Unless there is some place I don't know one that makes an accurate plateless bumper.

You would think there would be a market for it. :/ It's a shame mazda didn't just do one of those bolt on plate holder things.

 

neither of them look good to me. i like the stock bumper but needed something without a plate.

 

Well I like how the '99 oem one looks, minus the plate holder. Just the plateholderless aftermarket ones don't look right. :/

I do like the burnout kit's front bumper alot(well, the fenders aswell too), but I want to keep things clean and all. :/

 

I think the problem is all of the plateless bumpers are curved from the hood seam to the bumper opening which makes for a jumbo-jet like snout. If the section of material right above the main bumper opening was a little more flat, the curved area between that point and the hood seam could be more shallow, which would make the whole thing look more aggressive.

 

Yeah this is the biggest problem with them. . Both RE's urethane one and pettit racings fiberglass one have the bumper going from the hood right down to the air dam. With the oem one it is much more flat and blunt above the airdam with a curve, and it appears to be a bit shorter and rounder overall.
Thats' the MAJOR problem. They also have less defined/shape pillers between the air dams it looks like, like mainly towards the bottom outsides of those middle pillers between the big and same air dams, at least that's what it looks like.

For a lot of people I guess it's okay. For me it looks really off. :/
In this attached picture it looks DEAD ON PERFECT. I wish I knew what bumber it is. It's probably just a one-off thing.

 

Zaque, I completely agree with you, and have noticed this "Problem" awhile ago. This is why I prefer the bumper with plateholder vs. the plateless replicas~..
I really like the photoshop bumper you did in the 1st pic tho!

 

nice job on the photoshop, it does look really good.
i gotta say though, in the jurisdictions where you require a front bumper (as my city does) i prefer the look as the bumper w/ plate holder as opposed to a non-plate bumper with a metal fromer thingy to hold it.

 

zaque that picture of the red rx-7 is actually wearing a oem 99 front bumper photoshoped plateless. Give it a closer look. If you blow the picture up You will see it. It is an old picture that comes up all the time, but I do believe it is an oem bumper.

 

Haha damn! You're right, it definitely is a photoshop.

So I'm guessing my only chance to get a good looking plateless bumper is to buy an oem one, shave off the plate, plasti-weld polyurethane in the hole, then cut and sand it down? That's going to cost me a lot, but eh at least I'll have the nicest front bumper.

 

One reason I would like to have shine copy the original and then remove the plate and smooth it out a bit. I have the RE and am not happy with its waviness. I have a thread in shineprojects area but he never responds in it. If there were a few more people interested in a version from him I think we could get something better.....

 

yeah i was just about to say..
https://www.rx7club.com/shineautoproject-161/99-spec-platess-bumper-653334/page2/
in this thread it looks like people are trying to get ShineAutoProject to make a plateless '99 year front bumper. Hopefully they'll do it if enough are interested and willing to pay the right amount, and most importantly hopefully they'll make it LOOK RIGHT! RE's and Pettit's don't look right. :/

What do you mean smoooth it out a bit?
I think they need to make one that exactly matches the oem one, except with the plate removed and it filled in accordingly where the plate would be.
Of course it shouldn't be wavy either, and should have the proper mounting so it doesn't sag.

 

This white ones looks dead on too. I have no idea where it's from though


This raceon kit looks pretty dead on.. I'm not sure though. Could shave off the bottom, put on the '99 spec lip and it be exactly the same?
Anyone have thoughts on it?


/edit
Seeing them one on top of the other.. seems apparent that the raceon kit's bottom side is much thinner, and the sides look odd too. :/ Blah

 

I just noticed this..but that red cars license plate bracket was poorly photo shopped out..if you look close you can see the bottom of the plate holder in black and how the line is kinda smudged...no wonder it looks dead on....oops this was already mentioned.

 

JESUS TITTY ******* WAGON JUST GET A VERTEX KIT ALREADY

 

I think what the guy with the red car did was get a OEM 99 spec and shave the license plate.

 

^ no dude it is photoshoped from a 99 oem bumper.

 

ya dude you can see the grey area underneath look closely

 

Ah my bad. But i think the answer is too get a OEM one and just shave the license plate if you really want 100% authentic lines.

 

not an FD owner but i think it's mostly dependent on the angle you're looking at it. If you're looking at the front straight on you won't really notice the bumper sticking out more. I personally like the 99 spec with the plate but with the "RX-7" plate.

 

If I'm looking for the clean stock look, why would I get the vertex kit? :|

It's not that simple.. The plateholder on the OEM one is apart of the mold and is hollow behind it. Shaving it off leaves a hole. Would require plastiwelding polyurethane to fill the gap. This is something that very few people can do, so expensive, and will likely take constant upkeep(lines between the hole and the PU filling it showing up over time..)
It'd be even worse doing something like filling the hole with window sealant, while that would be much easier.

I might just have to make my own fiberglass bumper, eh?

 

^ Damn, sounds like a pain

Maybe FDnewbie can find a Japanese company that makes a plateless version?