Im thinking to replace my bumper to e55 amg bumper, love the way e63 looks but that just won't look right without the side skirts, cuz 63's bumper is lot more aggressive, n mine has no pipes lol

I found a few online of e55 bumpers but are made of fiberglass. Anybody have any experience with fiberglass body parts as how they fit and how the paint would be like? I know fiberglass is lot more rigid than plastic. and it's around 200$. The original e55 bumper at a junk yard they said would set me back 500, no way putting down $500. But that includes the grill as well which i don't need.

 

You could also maybe search on www.car-part.com for a used bumper. It does a continent wide search of used part yards with many different pricing points available. You may find cheaper ones available that may just need a re-paint. If you need any misc parts for the install or anything else be sure to check out our site. Good luck!

 

Almost all small boats are made of fiberglass and they withstand hitting the water at 80 mph.
Not so at 140 mph.
Fiberglass is also easy to repair, unlike plastics used for bumpers.

 

hitting the water at 80 mph...you mean like the rain or hitting a pool of water on road at that high speed?

i havent taken this car over 100 yet lol which comes at a surprise that i drove my old camry at 118 once lol was an open freeway with few cars driving around 100mph.

only thing is i dont want to spend 500$ on the whole set and pay more to get it painted silver, that would run around 600-700 for me total.

 

Hitting water at 140 mph is like hitting concrete >>> everything disintegrate.
Point is that IMHO fiberglass is more rigid material than plastic, beside being easy to modify.
Price calculation aside.

 

What more than likely is going to cost is the body shop doing work on the bumper. I've yet to see a fiberglass bumper that doesn't need some type of work before paint.

I bought an OEM Power dome hood for my Ranger off some guy for $50 (also fiberglass/steel, it's raised cowl almost). It was in excellent condition with no damage, the problem was that the color was blue and my truck is white. Took it to the body shop and it cost me almost $400 to have it painted/clear coated.


-Nigel

 

haaaah...i was just about to ask that lol

The one i was looking at is like black paint. Besides the paint job and costs on fiberglass bumper or any body part, what are other downsides for them. I dont think me driving around 70-80mph would damage the bumper as water puddles are not really a problem here.

How exactly are they easy to repair than a plastic bumper?

My friend has a fiberglass bumper on his '12 camry, it's low af and looks pretty aggressive...yes, on a camry lol he hasnt had any problems with his so far and it fit his car perfectly, no sticking out or anything like that.

 

Fiberglass boats, canoes, surfing board look very good with no paint on them, so Nigel had some substandard product.
I would compare fiberglass to steel welding. You can add, cut, refinish any shape in any spot without sacrificing structural integrity.
Plastic used on bumpers don't glue very easy and the repair is pretty weak.
Lot of small-series body parts are made from fiberglass as the mold can be made relatively cheap.
Plastic require very expensive mold, but then production is very cheap.
We went deep into material comparison.
Fact is that both material will work on cars as long as they are manufactured with quality control.

 

Definitely didn't have sub standard product. Again, it was an OEM Ford hood. It needed painted.

If you put on a non oem bumper and expect it to be 100% then you are fooling yourself. No body shop that values the end product would ever not prep a part before painting it. As smooth as some fiberglass is and yes you will pay more to have a finished part that needs less work but it will still need work. At 200 for a entire front bumper how perfect do you really think it's going to be.

One would still need to use an epoxy sealer and then paint it. If there were any imperfections one would need to sand it, prime it urethane primer, sand, and paint it...etc. What I am saying is more than not you will spend more money on said prep/paint than the actual part costs.


-Nigel

 

You should consider the facelift 2007-2009 sport bumper.

 

I wont be purchasing the bumper soon, at least for at least 2 weeks i think. I'm just looking around for different options. I will talk to my friend about what he had to do and maybe a shop as well to get an idea what the cost might be if it needs additional work like sanding and stuff.

And for 07-09 bumper, i would need the grill as well. the reason I'm not going for that year model is it might look pretty low and aggressive from front and my side kits are base, therefore it will look odd as front being low and sides slightly higher...if you know what I'm trying to say here? haha

I'm still researching on the bumpers yet. Simply, i can just buy an e55 which isn't expensive but can't afford it with my work, i commute about 100-150 miles on my mobile job, however, i get paid for the mileage too, but i rather not go that route at this moment.



So what I'm seeing here that the fiberglass bumper is lot cheaper than plastic, but the labor of painting, fitting, and god knows what other things need to be done to it will surpass the expenses if i just buy an OEM plastic one...max i want to spend on a bumper is 300. Let's see what else i can find out there.

 

The fiberglass type will be a total waste of your hard earned money, and overall not the best looking. Image you just purchased a set of nice wheels, and put retreads on them, lets be real pretty sure you wouldn't think of such foolishness right? Fiberglass will chip, break, and cost more in the long run, but for a piece of mind spend the money for what you work for! Besides it just look better.
Just my humble opinion
​​​​​​​R, 2merks

 

Hmm, thanks for all of your input in this issue. I was strongly for it to buy a fiberglass bumper because, hell it's only $164, but had no idea what else i would have to go through than just paint job. Plus my friend has a fiberglass bumper and has had no issues at all.

I'm just going to take my time to find one. If i dont, I'm not going to spend my whole paycheck on that thing.

thanks guys!

 

No need to thank us, we thank you for possibly doing the right thing! Believe me, sometimes the short cuts are like a band-aid on a bullet wound.
R,

 

i get all yours points.

i honestly did learn quite a few things here in these forums, still am. and i open approx 1 thread every other week with a question lol


ShockerGuy,

i have yet to create the thread about the hid upgrade i did. But somehow, my right bulb is dimmer than left. Can't figure that out how that happened. However, My right lens is a little yellowish than left, i sand paper them twice, but there isn't that much of a diff but i dont think it's the lens making the less light output.

Pics cant tell much diff but if driving thru lets say a tunnel, wall on left will be lit more than the wall on right. The aim is perfect tho, if bring it up close to wall.

any ideas on that?

 

Take the bulb out and switch it with the other headlight. Does the problem follow? If so it's the bulb. If the problem doesn't follow and happens to the new bulb that was just transferred it's more likely the ballast. Either or TRS will warranty and replace said problem. Their customer service is fantastic. I've yet to ever have an issue with them regarding something that is defective.


-Nigel

 

Cool, no idea why i havent thought about switching the bulbs lol

Will do that this weekend and see if it resolves the issue if not, will contact TRS. When that thing settles down, i'll post a thread.

u know, i sometimes think now that I should've went for 6000k. 5000k isnt bad either, but i like the way 6000k looks with that light blue hint.

And related to current issue, left bulb gives out slight blue hint on the projected beam but the right one doesn't. I think the bulb or the ballast could be defected.

 

The bulbs have to color shift. It takes about 100 hours for them to slightly change color.


6000k you are loosing lumens. Ideally 4300k is what you want but most people think they are too yellow. 5000k is pure white. Anything higher than that and it's getting into blue then purple. I laugh everytime I see people driving by with cheap HID kits and it's purple light or blue, because they are actually worse than using halogen bulbs since you are no loosing quite a bit of lumens/output in light for the sake of it looking cool.


I have osram nightbreakers and reading tons of people comparing the output in color to be like that of a halogen bulb. Even though they have a very high lumen rating. I took a chance and bought them and couldn't be happier. There is no way anyone could compare the color to that of halogen bulbs. I get people like the CBI's and that but honestly it's just too much to me, it's very hard to see at night when the light is like that. Especially in the rain or on blacktop.


Did you wire the bi-xenon shutter yet?


-Nigel

 

you might be better off trading with someone who wants to go the e63 route. you take their bumper plus some cash and they get the e63 bumper

 

yea i bought 5000k because in TRS pics, 4300k looked yellow. I'll try 6000k next time i need lights and how they go, for now i'm happy with 5000k too. they are bright, a co-worker thought i had high-beams on when i went up the driveway and it hit his eyes lol i understand and take ur word for that, that's why i ordered 5000k, else i would've gotten 6000k cuz that's all i've learned, 6000k is brighter than 5000k, but yea every bulb temp has it's own perks and downsides.

I haven't wired the shutter yet. I just haven't had time to open the hood and do all that. Been busy with school man. Picked up 5 classes and full time work...i am willing to quit on one of those lol I'll probably do that at the end of this quarter, another month left.

@Ithlc63
And bumper wise, I will do that a little later now. I have some stuff with school n stuff so Ima take my mind off the bumper for now and will look into it little later. But that's a good idea tho.