Not real happy with the hood to bumper fitment. The bumper did not fit very well but I guess I shouldn't have expected much.

 

I'll have to dig into the files, but I am sure I spent a lot less for the wife's Magnaflow. Granted it was a couple of years ago but I can't see it raising that much. And while I appreciate your support vis a vis GoodWin, money talks and if you can save money then go for it.

 

Actually, the price difference is about 12 bucks but the shipping from RB is cheaper. It ends up being a wash.

 

Don't forget about the Borla, it sounds awesome and quality will be at least as good as the other's.

 

Talking to the wife about my replica bumper and how the original is suppose to fit, and how the price justify's the means and blah blah blah, and she said she will buy my the original next year! Oh well, I can live with my "gap" for now. I would have never been able to justify the cost of it without proving my point, but now she understands. I explained to her in her language, "it's like those fake Rolex's you see", oh yeah they are cheap and they break, exactly! The RE-Amemiya spoiler went on without a hitch last night and fits beautifully, imagine that?

 

pics!!!!


you lucky bastard.

 

I don't have any pics with the spoiler on yet, but here is another of the front where you can really see the hood giving off a shadow glare. The damn hood actually lies over the top of the bumper! I told Boitnott's to tell me if the bumper wasn't lining up, to let me know before they went any further. This is really embarrassing to me, and I know I am probably being too picky, but the bumper should at least look better than this in terms of fitment. I am afraid to even take this thing to FUEL for fear of being laughed at now, that's how bad I feel about it but it is a hard lesson for anyone who thinks a POS replica bumper is a good idea, even if my total investment was only $600, it's $600 that could have been used to save up $$$$ to buy the real deal and not have any fitment issues. I know I am probably blowing this up more than I should but, you know how stuff like this can get to you Oh, and I specified to the owner to NOT shut this car off before it got warm, and even after all his yeah yeah BS, and I know cars and what not, I get a call this Monday from one of the guys saying the damn things flooded and it was because the car has been sitting! So after I go over the de-flooding procedure, he wastes another day, doesn’t call and then I call and he says “oh yeah we tried that and it sounded like it was going to turn over, but it just didn’t”. Now, without blowing my top, after I specifically explained to him how it works, and showed him the link on RX8club, he says, “well, we’ll have to charge up the battery again and try on Monday”. They got it started and I picked it up on Tuesday after work, and then my bumper alignment surprise when I get there to pay the bill. This was a really bad experience for me and I both drained emotionally and financially at this point and only semi-happy. I must say, I am glad it’s over with…for now.

 

James, we can probably get your bumper lined up a little better. There's actually adjustment built into the top mounts. I'd imagine that a little dremel action and maybe some washers, we can get it looking a bit better I'm out of town the next two weekends, but after work someday will be fine, hell we could probably do it at fuel on a wednesday night to save one of us a trip to the other's house. I can bring my cordless drill and a small grinding stone, a couple files and some washers if i have some.

 

...even if they used pop rivets (yeah pop rivets!) to put the top of the bumper on by the top cross beam? Are those the screws you are talking about?

 

If we have to, I am willing to drill those suckers out and start from ground zero, ...I am desperate here

 

The stock bumper has a plate that attaches to the bumper with 4 bolts and a couple of plastic rivets. Then it mounts to the car with 4-6 bolts and a couple of plastic guid pins. I don't remember what yours looked like or if it even used that plate, but i'm sure we can figure out something. If it doesn't use the plate, we may be able to still use it as support under the fiberglass, and drill out the rivets and do it a better way. It's worth a look.

 

I would imagine those pop rivets probably pull quite a bit down on that lip. So you think we could drill those out and go back to a conventional (right way) of attaching this top support? I really need to swing by your house.

 

I have some wood shims we can use. A couple of those suckers and it'll line right up. I can bring a BFH with me too. If you have to guess what BFH is, I'll just say "a really big tool that'll pound it into place.".

James, that really does look pretty crappy with the fit. Why in their right mind could they let that out the door without asking you to look at it first? I tell you, now days customer service sucks. Just ask me about Duke Energy experience I had this week.

 

I still have my old bumper and all of the hardware and screws to go with it. I just can't understand the whole pop rivet thing? When I questioned him about it, the owner swore up and down he did what he could to get the top to line up, but to me, it looks like he didn't try that much (pop rivets, really?) Now, I have never done body work on a car with glass stuff, but I would assume that more careful planning, and some more work, it could look a little better than this. I honestly think it is the worst fitment I have ever seen, and that includes all the Honda Civics with unpainted **** I see flying around. WTF? I just hope Kevin can get a look at this since he knows more about these bumpers and how they are supposed to attach. I am just afraid that once the rivets get drilled out this thing just pops up and then the hood won't shut. The silly thing is the owner said, "well if you don't like it you can always put the old bumper back on". What a douch, oh yeah chief, I forgot to ask about the metal work, for obvious ****, I would go elsewhere.

 

Okay, went out at lunch and looked at it. I see what he did here. He used 4 pop rivets in the top mount cross beam area where the 4 bolts used to go, probably because he didn't want to get to close to the end of the mounting lip. So I figure we pop those out, and we should be able to shim, and move the top up and forward enough to clear the hood... hopefully not as bad as I thought. I will post up some pics tonight.

 

Let it sit out in the sun for awhile. Might be a little more pliable even though it's 'glass.

 

FRP is not that brittle Steve, it can give a little.

Okay, here is a decent pic of the plastic cover removed from the radiator support to show how this thing is attached. The circles in the indented part are definitely where 2 of the rivets are. The arrow shows approximately where the other two are located on either side respectively. The yellow line is where the bumper actually ends. It doesn't attach using the two outer most 10mm bolts on each side near the ends like the stock cover. Obviously you can see the stock bumper cover doesn't attach anywhere in the middle portion on the radiator support. I think once we pop out all 4 rivets, we may be able to manuever this where we want.

I will post the picture of mine later for perspective. Hope this helps explain things a little better.

 

That sucks James. The owner of the place sounds almost like Goodwin! I'll look elsewhere.

Steve, I don't have a receipt for the exhaust just the installation sheet. I'm looking at my PayPal now to see if I can find who I bought it from and for how much.

Edit: just found it, paid $727.34 back in 2010. Bought from wUnderCarParts.com. Wow, I just checked and it's $1022 now.

 

ok, now that i have a mental image of where yours sits, I think we can make it work and possibly use that black support that the bumper bolts to where it should be and give a little more rigidity to the top of the bumper. Let me know if you want to head over to the house, or whatever James. I don't usually have much going on during the week after work.

 

Instead of using wood for shims (not sure if you were serious about that or not), I'd use some little pieces of aluminum. That way no worrying about swelling or any of the other things that wood does. You can get different thicknesses of aluminum bar from Home Depot/Lowe's.

 

You took me serious Mike?

Heck, I ripped out some face boards from behind my steps out of my sunroom tonight. Lots of untreated wood the DFs used when they enclosed my desk. I wouldn't call it rotted, just "seasoned". It might work on James' car.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...02#post4281902

 

Silly me, I forgot who had made that comment. Blame it on a week's worth of work on the Miata, my brain is fried. The end is in sight but unfortunately not in time for M-O. I'll see you all there in the 8. And just so there's no doubt whose car it is, just look at the license plate.

 

That's really unfortunate about how shoddy of a job they did installing your bumper. Luckily there are great people around to help fix the work. Good luck with it I hope all turns out well with the adjustments. Would love to help and get my first experience getting my hands dirty working on 8s with knowledgeable people but still have 5 months till I can get around. Limited to work and school for now.

 

Thanks, I think Fuz and I have a good plan of attack, and hopefully it will be fixed Monday.