Tore my bumper, what to do about this??
 

So the other day i pulled in a parking spot, went a little too far and barely over the parking curb. When i backed up the rebar sticking out of the curb tore my front bumper....see below.

Currently im a bit strapped for cash and am trying to figure a cheaper alternative to spending $1000 on an insurance claim. Any thoughts?

I was considering getting a front lip but im not sure if it would cover the tear or if the tear would mess with the integrity of the bumper attaching to the lip.

any ideas would be appreciated......

Ouch! 4 options

1. Insurance claim.
2. Lip.
3. New Bumper and Paint.
4. Live with it.

I would say new bumper and paint. I could not live with something like that. I feel your pain sorry to hear bro.

drill holes and zip tie together, hell of alot cheaper

I would get a bumper like Amuse or Zele or Stillen but second option, Front LIP for sure...

You wouldnt want to pay a shop just to bondo and paint the whole bumper. This is your chance to add an upgraded feature to the stock front... Just my opinion.

I was originally considering the stillen splitter. Would this lip cover the tear?

no.. no.. no no no no

we don't own herrafrush hatches.

Gross!!

if he's covering it up, i would certainly stitch it up.

An evo-r lip would definitely cover that up.

If you aren't in a hurry, you could just put a WTB in the classifieds and see if something comes up in your color. Being in Houston, I'd say you have a chance of that working out for you.

Maybe put something out to your local Z club to see if anyone went aftermarket and wants to offload their stock one for cheap? Again, in Houston I'd think that could work.

Check out carpart.com and see what you can find. You might be very surprised. I've replaced transmissions, bumpers, rearview mirrors, interiors, etc using carpart.com. If you aren't familiar with it, it's basically a consolidated search engine of independent junkyards' inventory. You can sort resultant parts based on distance, price, or other factors.

A NISMO S-Tune lip would cover it as well. A STILLEN will cover part of it, but if I recall correctly based on the tear some will show.

I wonder if the 3-piece Evo-r lip would work?

stitch it with zip ties and then add a bandaid sticker over it lol sorry for your luck. I would live with it for awhile and save up for a new bumper. I wouldnt put myself out over a fairly small tear. At least the bumpers not hanging off or something.

i agree.

That was the plan, but now the wheel well will not match up/attach to the bumper and im afraid that every time i scrape im going to tear it more, shift the bumper, ect.....

My thoughts exactly... a regular lip won't cover everything because it is too high... the (ugly) S-tune or a similar larger lip should cover it though. You might be able to get a used bumper and paint for under 1k though... hell you might be able to get a Stillen front bumper and paint for right around 1k.

it seems that the stillen splitter might cover about +-98% of the tear. Im more worried about the tear getting worse and ~$250 is a good alternative to spending +$1000

If it were me and I did not want to but a new bumper this is what I would do.

Pull the bumper off, they come off really easy. Get it back together as best as you can with something that will hold the tear as close as possible temporarily like super glue gel, and some clamps or tape, just something to hold it together so it stays in place.

Put some good masking tape on the outside so the glue does not weep through.

Get a small piece of fiberglass cloth, rough up the inside all over so the epoxy will stick. Mix up some high-end epoxy resin, coat the inside, put down the cloth, coat the cloth. Let it dry

Install lip of choice, if there is a small part still showing a good auto-body shop or dent guy can fix the rest, only you will know its there.

With the new lip on you will be fine, its not like everyone is crawling around on the ground looking at the underside car.

Good luck.

If your not going to do it right then dont do it at all... but then again since your broke, you can just get some color match vinyl from a sign shop and place over the rip to secure and if done correctly , it'll just show the ridge line.. make sure you use a heat gun... CF VINYL even better due to the thickness.. oh this sticky sound like a honda forum!!!drill holes and zip tie together, hell of alot cheaper...LOL

I like this idea, at least for temporarly fixing the tear. Now, just how to use fiberglass..... i need to spend sometime on google.

lol. i agree with the Honda forum.... not broke, money just needs to b allocated to other things right now.... it's just a car you know, i kid i kid.....

maybe i'll just wait for someone else to hit me, with this luck im sure it will happen soon.

If it was me I'd just live with the torn bumper. There is a silver one on the ebay right now though. OEM 370z

Why such a hack job on a Z? No Z is worth this kind of treatment my friend. Might as well put an El Cheapo sticker on your car his car. Zip tie -----seeeesh

Because it is a Z, here are some options as I see it (I do not have all the ideas as I am not a total expert). This is with the idea of keeping it right at or just under $500 on parts and prime/paint but you do the install by yourself.

1. New bumper is around $320 or so. Find a used one from a junk place, you save more. It is unprimed. Prime and painting is about $200. DIY for take down and install to save on labor cost. It is around $500 to get a new bumper and painted. You can sell your bumper later on to recover some of the cost.

2. Get an FRP Evo R lip for about $190.00 plus shipping, used if you can find in the forums or ebay. No need to paint, it is black and blends well with your Z's color. If you have it primed and painted, it is another $80 to $100. You will still need to fix the existing crack before you install the lip. Simple fiberglass work on the back side just so that it does not worsen before you install the lip. It's like a chipped windshield. It will get worse if you ignore.

3. The inexpensive way (other than just fixing it with fiberglass on the back side so it does not get worse) is to get a $120 FRP lip on e-bay, not paint it and not fix the crack.

4. The most inexpensive fix is to take your bumper off and do a fiberglass repair on the crack (from the back side) and reinstall without painting. At least you do not have to spend more than 20 bucks for the chemicals to do the glass work. You will notice a crack when you look closely but it would be barely visible unless you have someone scoping from the bottom up.

Sorry this happened to you. It sucks.

I am sure I missed some.