Re-Building A Front Lip

[nicr4wks]

Hey Guys,

For the last 2 years I've been looking around for an R33 s2 mspec front lip, about a year a go I bought a front bar that had been in an accident with ~60% of the lip intact, it's missing a section that wraps around the passenger side. I'd like to have a crack at repairing the current lip or replicating a whole new one, where should I start? I've never done fiberglassing or molding.

I assume taking a mold of the drivers side would be required, then somehow 'flip' it so it's a mirror image for the passenger side? I'm not sure how I would go about that.

[75coupe]

Nah you cant flip it to get a mould for the other side, dont work that way...

I threw that lip away the other week, it was a little damaged, but better condition than that one

[Hanaldo]

You can actually ^ Not to make a mould, but given that piece of the lip is symmetrical, one can take a skin of the one side and flip it around to fit the other side. Works for things that are symmetrical and don't taper in a certain direction.

If you haven't done fibreglassing before then I'd advise playing around with it before attempting to fix your bumper. You might be better off trying to find another one, but have a play with some fibreglass and resin and see how you go. That said, this isn't the hardest of repairs. Nor is it easy to explain. One way to do it would be to cover the drivers side of the lip with clear packing tape (make sure it's the polythylene stuff), then use EPOXY (polyester shrinks and the styrene will attack your paint if it is exposed, nasty stuff) and woven fibreglass cloth to make a skin of each individual bit. Break it down into the bits that you can flip and fit into place on the passenger side. I'd estimate it is likely to be 3 pieces, the inner piece on the left that is partially cracked, the piece that runs along the bottom edge of the bumper, and the piece the sits on the side of the bumper. Get me? Then you can cut the lip off where it is cracked so it is square, and bond on your new pieces. Then feather them in using body filler, before spraying high build primer to fill the final low spots. Easy right?

[75coupe]

There are quite alot of complex shapes there to flip im not sure it would be of benefit using a flip method...

Id say just get a better one, there is a heap there to recreate especially if you havnt done it before

[Hanaldo]

Yes but you don't have to copy all of them. Just the ones that work, to give you a profile. Then you can fill the rest.

It's not the easiest job, but it's not super hard either. For a production item like this it's always going to be better to find another one though, unless you want to make it in carbon fibre

[nicr4wks]

The problem is I can't find another one I've only seen 1 complete bar with lip and it went for just under $800.

Thanks for the tips, i'll get some gear and have a play around.