I'm looking into 99 spec front bumper conversion and wondering what material the 99 spec plateless front bumper covers made of ?

The OEM bumper covers are polyurethane, I'm guessing.
Are the no plate bumpers made of fiberglass or a flexible material ?

Thanks

 

There have been urethane copies with no plate. Or you could do what I did years ago before anyone made one

 

 

While the results apear to have been very worthwhile Ihor, I'm pretty sure this is beyond the scope of my abilities and fairly expensive job from a bodyshop.

What did you use to bond the center plate piece to urethane ? Was the plate section fabricated ? From what material and how ?

Do you remember the names of no plate urethane cover manufacturers ?

Are there some poor quality covers (fit and finish wise) I should avoid ?

Thanks.

 

Local body shop I have been going to for years did it. They cut a piece off the original bumper and molded it in. Rotary Extreme used to make the poly bumper.

 

That it's the best way to go about it. I have an RE no front plate repica (polyurethane). The body shop fought to make it fit right, its good now but not perfect. After a few talks with the body shop owner, he expressed how much easier and cheaper it would have been if I would had gone the OEM then shave off the plate route. Bottom line NOTHING FITS BETTER THAN OEM.

 

[quote=montego;8746088Bottom line NOTHING FITS BETTER THAN OEM.[/quote]

Quoted for the truth sir.

 

see here: https://www.rx7club.com/interior-exterior-audio-26/plateless-99-polyurethane-pics-please-799200/

There are 3 ways to get a version of the plateless 99 bumper.

1) Buy OEM and remove the plate holder yourself. This appears to suck and lots of reports that it will sag if left out in the sun ( Dunno the validity there...)

2) Visit Pettit Racing and buy their plateless 99 front made of Fiberglass. Apparently it fits pretty well.

3) Visit RACEONUSA and buy their polyurethane plateless 99 bumper. As a rule of thumb, RACEONUSA makes junk by every account. HOWEVER, their polyurethane bumper is made by the same place that used to make Rotary Extreme's (RE) bumper. (ie: they dont make it) Based on several accounts on the forum, its the same mold with the same part numbers on it as the old RE. Also its pretty difficult and expensive to get urethane molds made (apparently) thus its pretty positive that RACEONUSA isnt making it, but re-selling it instead from the place RE used to get it from.

Those are your 3 choices. Every report I've saw says that:

1)OEM fits perfect - has that stupid plateholder though
2) Pettit fits pretty well
3) RE/Polyurethane 99 bumper doesnt fit great and takes a good bit of messaging to fit right.

that being said, the RE/RACEONUSA bumper CAN fit right as evidenced by several members. It can also not fit well as evidenced by those that simply bolted it on. The thread I linked to above has a guy with a white FD with the RE/RACEONUSA poly bumper that appears to fit OEM quality wise. There is also another guy running around with a black FD that is otherwise stock with the same bumper that appears to fit VERY well.

I figure it some can get it to fit well, others could too if they tried. That being said, I actually just ordered a RACEONUSA plateless 99 poly bumper over the weekend. Based on my research, thats where you want to go if you want a poly 99 bumper. Id advise you not buy anything else from RACEONUSA though because apparently everything else is junk.

Good luck

 

For any of you that have successfully fitted this ill fitting RaceOn bumper, any tips? What were the problem areas?

 

Interested in seeing if the RaceOn Bumper works

 

^^ it does work. As Brian said they use the same mold as the rotary extreme.