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3K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  BlankWave 
#1 ·
This Eclipse right here is a certified badass 4G if you hadn't already seen it on YouTube. I can't do most of the custom amazing mods he's done for performance, but I'm wondering if I might be able to emulate a backyard version of his custom one-off front bumper mod.

You can see it here in blurry screengrab quality.



I've never taken my bumper off, but I was thinking it would be relatively cheap and harmless to snag a front end from an 09+ Eclipse from a junkyard and go to town on it. That way any hideous bumper I Frankenstein wouldn't matter. I was hoping you guys might shed some light on potential problems I might encounter if I take this on. Seems as simple as a rotary tool, some fiberglass reinforcement and Bondo, a large sheet of mesh and maybe a trim gasket to hide my amateurism; but I'm sure it's not as easy as that.

I was thinking I could cut out the blue area to lay a single sheet of mesh and cut it to fit, leave the green area for upper support for the bumper (reinforce it probably) and to give me somewhere to secure the top of the mesh, and then surround it with some trim gasket around the pink outside edge (like the kind people use to edge their rims, and sometimes interior trim I guess) to give it a clean outside edge. Maybe paint the trim line with something glossy so it looks like it belongs there. Paint the inside the same way to hide my mess, and slap a Bishi logo in the upper center of the mesh overlay.



Can this be done simply with some hours put in and basic tools or am I severely underestimating the scope of this work? Some pitfalls I have already identified are finding a mesh sheet that large (probably needs to be custom ordered), curving it properly for the shape it needs to be to sit flush and not flat, and I assume there's a very large beam under there that may or may not look right if exposed (even if it is covered by the mesh).

I have a dremel, which I think is capable of cutting through most of this, and some minor experience with both fiberglass resin and fiberglass reinforcement, as well as Bondo and spot filler (not on a car, but I built an Ironman helmet out of cardboard and used autobody materials to make it permanent).

Any thoughts?
 
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#3 ·
One of his videos shows a lot of his process, shaving out the inside and laying down fiberglass strips and (I assume) resin/bondo/spot putty to cover his tracks and fill what needs filling. His design looks just a bit out of my league so I'm hoping to simplify it and come out with something not quite as good, but close. The work he did between the hood and the mesh looks like it might be out of my league. That's a clean line that doesn't exist on the OEM bumper (unless he modified an 06-08, I'm not as familiar with the structure on those). I'm also too poor for paint work and not skilled at vinyl wrap like he is, so I have to be careful what I cut away and mess with. I can rattle can plasti-dip well enough, and even spray a decent gloss black, but matching OEM paint color gets me all kinds of nervous; especially up front and visible, right in an area where anyone who knows the car will be looking at my custom work.

I'll dig around for the thread you're describing, though. Always good to check someone else's work first.
 
#5 ·
Probably would look at lot better with an intercooler in there haha. I did notice he had a custom etched something or other behind his mesh and the crash bar wasn't visible.

I think I could hide the crash bar if it looks bad behind the mesh. Covering it shouldn't be one of the hard issues; plastidip or CF vinyl should work alright. Shaping the mesh is almost certain to be my toughest problem. I'll wait to tackle this until I know which Eclipse I'm driving and whether or not I'll be selling the GS Spyder, but I think I can do this!

My dream mod for the front would be to fabricate pop up halo headlights as a nod to the 1G, while we are discussing things that are out of my league. With the size of those massive headlight housings I bet you could fit a flip headlight in there with some sawing off and some filling. Maybe move the line on the hood back and move up the bumper so it's a straight flush line (no "hood teeth"). Ooh that would be pretty. I wish I was cool enough to know how to do this stuff well and have a space to do it in. If I did something like that with my current level of know-how, it would almost certainly be embarrassing.
 
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