tcampb03

Wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on DYI on improving this crack of a little over an inch on my front bumper. On the way home north of Chicago a big block of that black snowy ice behind the wheel from another car came off and hit the front of my car. Didn't think anything of it until I got home and saw that the fog light grill was completely gone and a small crack in the bumper as shown in the picture.

Replacing the fog light grill is cheap on line, under $30. Dealer quoted $132 for the part. It's the bumper I don't want to replace or spend much money on (over $100) for that size of a crack. The inside crack will be covered by the new grill, only the outside crack a tad longer than an inch will show. Any suggestions much appreciated. Thanks!

Don Keener

Perhaps treat it like a boat hull and use some fiberglass mesh and resin on the back side of the crack to beef it up.

USAVAGEU

I think that needs to be plastic welded. Maybe you can get a price to do that from a bumper doctor type of place and do the finish work yourself.
But you may end up paying more for supplies than they would charge for the complete job.

Sharks

Bubble gum on the back side

Redd

You must (MUST) drill a small hole, even 1/16", at the end of the crack. This relieves the stresses and stops the crack from going further. Bigger is OK too, just center it on the crack.

Then a shop might be able to plastic weld it from the rear, or you can try West System Epoxy "G" which is designed to bond plastics. Remove the bumper (probably) clamp it in place so the crack closes, apply the West "G" to the rear side, maybe with a piece of fiberglass or other mesh to help strengthen the bond.

Hockeymonkey

My suggestion is use a body shop if you have never done this before.
The plastic weld was not difficult but removing the bumper is a pain. Plastic weld, mask it with tape, then wet sand for evenness, then use an orbital buffer with heavy compound to buff it even and build a shine back to it (this assumes that paint is still intact and in good shape.

tcampb03

Appreciate everyones recommendations. Especially Redd's suggestion to drill a small hole at the bottom of the rack.

Shortly after making this post and taking the picture of the damage I went on a week vacation. I hadn't driven the car since taking the picture but it looked at as if the crack grew a smidgen while I was gone. maybe my imagination.

Since drilling the hole Saturday morning and driving 50 mile the crack hasn't extended beyond the drill hole.

Kudos though to Rockauto.com. I ordered the part late Friday night. The cost was $13.96 plus $5.47 for shipping for a total of only $19.43. The dealer wanted $132 plus sales tax and the the other internet providers were in the $30 to $70 range. The part quality and fit is near identical to the OEM part on the right side of the car. However the appearance is not 100% identical, albeit close enough for
me.

The hole for the flood light has 2 rings if you look at the picture. The inner ring on the new part is smooth while the OEM part is slightly textured. It is hard to distinguish the difference visually, especially since you cannot see both fog light holes at the same time close up. The part shipped on Monday and arrive on Wednesday.

If the crack doesn't grow I might leave it for noe. It looks worse in the picture than it does in person. Where it wouldn't show I put Gorilla tape on the crack.

Thanks again,
Terry