After I bought a different bumper stay, I got started installing the front bumper. As said the front bumper itself didn't need much work. Most of the work went into aligning the fenders, hood and headlights.
After half a day of alignment (it really is that hard), I wasn't quite happy with the connection of the bumper to the fenders. Because the bumper was a few millimeters too high in the corners, these corners were pressed tightly to the fender, while the seam to the wheel wells was too large. So I ground some material off these corners and sanded them to a smooth finish.
Here you can clearly see that the seams are reasonably straight. Of course any aftermarket bumper won't fit as well as a stock one, but I'm satisfied with this result.
The Savage side skirts for the Celica T18 and the FX designs rear bumper needed a lot more work than the Andy's front bumper. To fit these I had to get into the world of gel coat, polyester resin and fiberglass. To get information and the appropriate materials, I first visited a professional glass fiber shop. I won't try anything with a cheap do-it-yourself kit from a hardware store.
As could be seen on previous pictures, the fronts of the Celica T18 side skirts were a centimeter too wide for the Prelude, so I cut out the part that didn't line up with the fender. I then made a copy of the skirt by making a mold of it. For starters I put two layers of mold release wax on the part of the skirt I wanted to copy, and let it dry. Then I put on a layer of get coating which smoothens the inside surface of the mold. Finally, when the gel coating is drying and still feels sticky, the glass fiber mats with polyester resin can be laid.
Because of the small size of the mold, I made it using three layers of mats. Each layer was impregnated with resin by using a brush. I tapped the resin into the glass fiber mats with it, preventing air-bubbles. After an hour or so the mold was easily removed thanks to the release wax. For the mean time I'll stop here, because I'm going to focus on the rear bumper first.
The FX designs rear bumper can be ordered with or without LED's. I ordered it without them, and presumed there wouldn't be slots in the bumper then. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, so I cut it open!
Here, the outside was taped off here to keep the shape of the bumper. Next I sanded the inside of the bumper and put in two layers of gel coat. Subsequently I filled the holes with strips of glass fiber mats. With the holes filled, I laid two more large layers which overlapped a large portion of the inside of the bumper, for reinforcement.
When the glass fiber was hardened the tape could be removed, which was easy to do because I put a layer of release wax on it. Now the finishing of the outside can begin. I first sanded the gel coating so it became easily visible which areas needed filling.
I used special filler which is reinforced by glass fiber strands, making it very useful for this application. A downside is that it's hard to smear out because of its viscosity..
During the sanding of the filler, it quickly became apparent which areas lay deeper. After sanding the first layer of filler, the bumper was shaping up very nicely already. The second layer will be for finishing.
I deliberately waited selling the Andy's rear bumper until I actually got my FX designs bumper. Smart move, because now I was still able to copy the upper portion of that bumper, needed for custom fitting the FX designs bumper.
I built up this mold using five layers of mats because it's a big object and needs to keep its shape.
I mounted the mold of the Andy's rear bumper (which is for the 90-91 type Prelude) onto the FX designs rear bumper (which is for the 88-89 type) using clamps and screws. If you look carefully, you can see that the ridge which lines up with the taillights is much higher now.
After careful measuring, I cut away the upper part of the FX designs rear bumper. It's scary as hell to mess up a bumper that cost over 700 Euros like this, but I believe in a happy ending !!
Once the mold was in the correct position, the gel coating could be applied. Once that was hardened enough, the glass fiber mats were laid in. In total five layers were laid, of which three were overlapping the rest of the bumper.
After taking the mold off the bumper, this was the result. I was quite pleased with it. The new part and the rest of the bumper have become a solid unity. Finishing will be done with the glass fiber enforced filler.
First I sanded all uneven areas and used a Dremel tool to grind open small air-bubbles. Next the first layer of filler was applied. After sanding with a large sanding block, it started shaping up really nice.
