Repairing crack in plastic bumper bar?

[henryw525i]

oooh goody I say as I pick up my car from getting its Eibach Pro kit put in...how nice it looks tastefully lowered I say to myself...lets go for a drive..

30 mins later...lets do a sharp u turn...oh **** big fat f*cking gutter....crunch..."f&%#!!!! f^%@$!!!" just a really awful night all round...

See attachement...photos tell a million words.

Now my car kitty is drying up. I would rather do a DIY fix opposed to getting new bar.

I was thinking of using some plastic putty and trying to brace the broken plastic up somehow...any advice on what to use how to do it?


heeeeeppps of thanks in advance....

[skr]

epoxy is the way. heat it a little and bend it till it's in line and then epoxy it. make sure it's suported or something because epoxy takes >10 mins to cure.
after that sand down the epoxy to the original shape of the bumper, and paint it with matte black.

[gale]

epoxy is the way. heat it a little and bend it till it's in line and then epoxy it. make sure it's suported or something because epoxy takes >10 mins to cure.
after that sand down the epoxy to the original shape of the bumper, and paint it with matte black.

Ditto. I would do that plus bend an aluminum backing plate and pop rivit it thru the plastic from the front side. Thoroughly clean the back side and rough up the backing plate and epoxy it to the backside. JB Weld is a good epoxy but use the full 30 minute or 1 hr cure, it's way stronger than the 4 minute JB Qwik. The repair must completely immobilize the crack or it will split out again.

[Bin_jammin]

Honestly, you're looking at a short term fix no matter what you do, as anything you can put on there will eventually crack. The problem is that the original plastic bumper (urethane, whatever) heats with the sun and expands, and cools at night and contracts. There's really nothing that's going to flex like that, so it always ends up looking terrible. It's the same reason you see paint cracking and flaking away from bumpers a year after a cheap paint job. Epoxy a plastic piece in place, then bondo over it.

Or, you could make lemonade out of your lemons. Cut out a square section, and another on the opposite side the same size and shape, and put a cheap set of fog lights in.