Feeling bummed. Can't find a polyurethane replacement bumper that fits stock fog lights for my car . OEM parts are too expensive. And fiberglass parts are too fragile. Any suggestions?

 

my opinion, zip tie stitch, drive it like that until you save the $ for an OEM, aftermarket fitment is horrendous, unless you go high end. I've research until my eyes bled, seen a few fiberglass installs up close and they sucked, so either OEM (~$300) or high end (over $1000) plus paint, depending where you are, $300 per panel for a good paint job. My buddy does body/paint and he will not touch the fiberglass bumpers because they never fit right, in order to get them right, you have to spend about over $500 in man hour, so not worth it unless you do it yourself.

 

I feel ya. OEM was my choice right off the bat. But pricing all the small stuff in the bumper assembly that's broken shot the total just for parts up to $900. add that to all the other repair parts costs and I'm at about $5,500 in parts needed if all are OEM. So I'm trying to source quality at a discount. Would even go for a slightly messed up used one if I could repair it. But there just aren't any.

 

what happened?

 

[QUOTE=Jedi54;4780855]what happened?[/QUOTE

Bad luck. I was entering a freeway at 45 because of rain so not entering at 70 as usual. But the great state of South Carolina did a shitty patch job on the ramp. Created about a 30 foot long bowl that was holding water. Couldn't react other than to aim for the ditch instead of traffic and gun it. I was recovering from that move as I approached the grass and was in an almost completely controlled angle on the edge. But a rear tire touched the grass and that was all she wrote. I might as well have been on a sled. Just started doing 360s. Was going about 40 when that started. Hit a small metal post. $7000 in parts and labor is estimated. Go figure.

 

why not just claim it with your insurance and pay your deductible?

 

Starting to look like that's the only option. I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Insurance already gave me $6000. After bumper is off might cost an additional $500-$1500 for bent metal repair/replacement. My deductsble is $1000. Too easy. But I wanted to save some for performance upgrade by getting after market body parts. Looks like that's impossible if I want quality products.

 

Unfortunately you're right. My car has been through 4 different bumpers since I bought it 3 years ago. It came with an aftermarket bumper, each time it's been hit, I've gone with a different style. The fitment on the ones you'll find for $300-500 is trash. Each time, was a different body shop doing the install so I would find it hard to believe that all 4 would do a crappy job. Mine is an '04, so it's a different series, but from what I've seen, you'd probably have the same luck.

From my experience, I'd save up and get a real bumper