Bumper Filler Problems

One day I went to get in my car and found my bumper filler had decided to fall apart. The OEM rubber bumper fillers seem to look the same forever until one day they just disintegrate with no warning.

So rather than put rubber ones back in (and do it again 25-30 years from now) I bought some fiberglass ones from Replica Plastic. They said they were predrilled and everything. I had bought a set for when this day would come, and had them sitting on the shelf ready to install.

Or so I thought.

As soon as I removed the original one I knew I was in for trouble. They look nothing alike when side by side.


Straight away I saw that this would be no easy project. Forget about the predrilled holes, they were all wrong. The Replica Plastics one also had these "humps" where the holes go that were going to have to be cut off. The shape of their filler was also all wrong (notice how the arch of the outside rim at the corner is way off).



Luckily the OEM fillers were backed by a metal bracket I salvaged to show where the fillers need to be cut & redrilled.



But this was not enough to get the fillers to mount to the car. See how the shape & size of the corner was all wrong in the earlier pictures? Yea, that made it impossible for it to bolt to the car! Since the shape & dimension was so far off, like someone trying to win a shooting competition while suffering from vertigo- it just wasn't going to work. I tried then using clamps to force the filler onto the car but had to stop as the fiberglass cracked. It wasn't going to bend into position.

I had to get drastic.

I put two relief cuts into it, and that allowed me to bolt it to the car.





Its hard to tell, but there was so much pressure put on this corner by forcing it into position like this that the fillers were bowing around the cuts badly. The metal chrome bumper was what was forcing them into the general shape necessary- and now I had to fill in the cracks, sand them to the proper shape, and paint them.

But fiberglassing the cracks in from underneath was soon found to be impossible. The fiberglass would fall off, thanks to gravity, and nothing could keep it in place long enough to fill in the holes. Fiberglass and bondo has similar expansion rates, so I tried filling it in with bondo, sanded everything to have the right contours, and painted it.

Looked great, for a couple days then the cracks broke open again because the bondo couldn't re-solidify the filler.

If I could take it off the bumper and still force it to retain its shape somehow, I could fiberglass it back together properly and the repair would take. But I guess that's out and I have to find someone else, not replica plastics, to supply the parts I need.

*I tried emailing them with pictures for customer service and was promptly ignored and never heard from them again, they apparently didn't know and/or don't care that they are selling bumper fillers that can't physically bolt up. Shape & size are all wrong.