Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I thought id share some of the type of work that I usually do. Costuming is new to me, but fabrication is definately not. This is just an example of a custom build with a car's Urethane bumper cover.
Here is what I started with - this is a 1996/1997 Thunderbird front bumper cover - they never came with Fog lights, although previous years of the vehicle did and there were actually a few prototypes built which featured fog lights in this same style bumper, although very few pics exist of this - so my buildup was not meant to be an exact replica, rather an inspired build.
After quite a bit of measuring, etc .. I decided to just cut a hole in the bumper and cut out a fog light bucket from another bumper cover - I used a 1994/1995 Tbird bumper cover because the curves match that of the 96/97 bumper much better for my buildup. The left corner obviously needs a little more trimming here - the bucket is held in place with Duct tape and the edges were trimmed along the lines where the two urethane pieces meet eachother. Im not going to detail the specifics of how I got this placement - it took nealy 8 hours of trial test fitting to get this far.
Here is the backside - you can see how closely these pieces will fit together, but there are still gaps where I would like to make a rounded transition between the bumper pieces instead of creating a hard edge line.
After I was satisfied with the placement of both sides, the duct tape was replaced with Aluminum tape and I started to patch them in from the backside. All of the paint was sanded down to the Urethane on both material pieces, front and back. I used Mar-Hyde Flexible Bumper patch and repair, it is a 2 part epoxy that sets up very fast and can be sanded within 30 minutes. On the backsides, I used fiberglass reinforced tape along with the epoxy to create a strong - yet Flexible bond.
After the aluminum tape is removed, here is what the front side looks like - the gaps are filled with the epoxy and more will be added to create the lines and shape I am going for.
Here is the Driver's side - the distance between the pieces and the reinforcement filler can be seen, but the overall basic shape I made with the aluminum tape on the frontside before the back was epoxied in can be seen here - this is my base to start with.
The epoxy is added in small amounts due to the very fast drying time. Within 10 minutes of applying it starts to get thick and this is where I do most of my shaping / buildup before waiting to sand.
Once it has dried completely, I sanded it using 100 grit. The upper line is a hard edge across the bumper, so I used a block sander to get it straight all the way across. The bottom was block sanded as well to make a nice flat surface into the rounded transition. Everything else was sanded by Hand to achieve the proper shape. As with any type of buildup like this, the first sanding revealed low spots that were filled with more epoxy and sanded back down level with the rest of the surface.
Final shape and curves can be seen .. this is after about 8 additional hours of work to the bumper.
Finished bumper, ready for Epoxy Primer, Paint and Clear Coat. Total time spent somewhere around 16 hours.
Thanks for looking at my buildup. I do have more pictures, but im a little disorganized at the moment and new to the site as well.
- Dan
Here is what I started with - this is a 1996/1997 Thunderbird front bumper cover - they never came with Fog lights, although previous years of the vehicle did and there were actually a few prototypes built which featured fog lights in this same style bumper, although very few pics exist of this - so my buildup was not meant to be an exact replica, rather an inspired build.
After quite a bit of measuring, etc .. I decided to just cut a hole in the bumper and cut out a fog light bucket from another bumper cover - I used a 1994/1995 Tbird bumper cover because the curves match that of the 96/97 bumper much better for my buildup. The left corner obviously needs a little more trimming here - the bucket is held in place with Duct tape and the edges were trimmed along the lines where the two urethane pieces meet eachother. Im not going to detail the specifics of how I got this placement - it took nealy 8 hours of trial test fitting to get this far.
Here is the backside - you can see how closely these pieces will fit together, but there are still gaps where I would like to make a rounded transition between the bumper pieces instead of creating a hard edge line.
After I was satisfied with the placement of both sides, the duct tape was replaced with Aluminum tape and I started to patch them in from the backside. All of the paint was sanded down to the Urethane on both material pieces, front and back. I used Mar-Hyde Flexible Bumper patch and repair, it is a 2 part epoxy that sets up very fast and can be sanded within 30 minutes. On the backsides, I used fiberglass reinforced tape along with the epoxy to create a strong - yet Flexible bond.
After the aluminum tape is removed, here is what the front side looks like - the gaps are filled with the epoxy and more will be added to create the lines and shape I am going for.
Here is the Driver's side - the distance between the pieces and the reinforcement filler can be seen, but the overall basic shape I made with the aluminum tape on the frontside before the back was epoxied in can be seen here - this is my base to start with.
The epoxy is added in small amounts due to the very fast drying time. Within 10 minutes of applying it starts to get thick and this is where I do most of my shaping / buildup before waiting to sand.
Once it has dried completely, I sanded it using 100 grit. The upper line is a hard edge across the bumper, so I used a block sander to get it straight all the way across. The bottom was block sanded as well to make a nice flat surface into the rounded transition. Everything else was sanded by Hand to achieve the proper shape. As with any type of buildup like this, the first sanding revealed low spots that were filled with more epoxy and sanded back down level with the rest of the surface.
Final shape and curves can be seen .. this is after about 8 additional hours of work to the bumper.
Finished bumper, ready for Epoxy Primer, Paint and Clear Coat. Total time spent somewhere around 16 hours.
Thanks for looking at my buildup. I do have more pictures, but im a little disorganized at the moment and new to the site as well.
- Dan
