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Purchased the Shine Auto Project front bumper recently and had it shipped to Australia. Reason for this is there is a local distributor that brings it in by the container load once every 6 month, and it just happens he had one leaving the states.
Why not genuine?
A: Costs
B: Costs
C: Costs
The bar costs alot, the shipping even more. Does not help living on the bottom of the planet.
My Body shop also makes Fibreglass kits for a living, so i had no doubt that he could fix minor issues in fitments anyway.
The kit arrived, with a hole on the bumper, few hair line cracks.
Most would be jumping up and down, for me this is nothing new. Its either the courier sucks in our country only or i am blessed by bad luck.
Never had a body part shipped without multiple damage. Anyway, was not phased by it, common occurrence.
First inspection of the bumper, ignoring obvious freight damage, they use a very fine fibreglass, very thin as well, the bumper is not rigid and stiff. I believe this was used as one of their selling point. My body shop was not happy with it being too thin and having flex especially around the main sections. (below bonnet, around headlights, above vents) he stated that when a bumper is too flexible, the bumper will dent in on stone chip and then pop right back out, what this can cause is hairline fracture on the paint/clear. Therefore we reinforced the weaker sections with another layer of fibreglass.
In terms of fitment, nothing after market will ever be perfect, unless that kit is made specifically for your car. There is only one slight gap, which is where the bumper meets the bottom of the headlights, meh ill live.
Looking again the backside, there are multiple weak points in the structure of the bumper, that are layered with a carbon weave to strengthen it without adding extra fibreglass, this showed me that shineautoproject really knows what they are doing with this kit, As my bodyshop makes a replica mazdaspeed style bumper, those weak points that were strengthened with carbon weave caused them alot of grieve when they first made the kit, They fact that shineautoproject strengthened these points means they either knew what they were doing or had this issue before, by whatever the reason the outcome is the same, a better made bumper.
Another issue was that there were points in the bumper where the clip suppose to go in (side wheel arch, undertray) These holes are not drilled but are indicated through a dip, i did not expect the holes to match perfectly, but they were fairly close. Meaning i can get all my factory clips on, through drilling slightly off the indicated mark. Nothing was impossible to fit, however one side of the wheel arch was a bit harder then the other.
The under tray section was long enough to reach the undertray clips.
Side marker fitment was perfect.
To make it abit more different i added a two tone effect and a pair of Canards, i am aware there is a slight gap, the reason is that these ganards were not designed for the kit, but rather the C-West Canards for a s2000. I think it compliments the bumper well.
So in conclusion: Do not expect Aftermarket Bumpers to fit 100%, it will not happen, unless that kit was custom made for your car. What is important is having a body shop that is experienced in bodykits, if they are also familiar with fibreglassing then its a A+++ since they can repair any damage, or can even change the kit to your liking.
I love the look. And wonderful write up. I am really leaning towards this bumper as my replacement and I knew it was flimsy but your write up helped me understand exactly where it really shows and what to do about it. Also love the blacked out center. Might steal that idea... Anyway, great write up, and thank you, helps out a lot! Lastly where did you get the canards at? They look fairly well but I cannot really make out gaps from the picture.
Nice review, tofu. I've had my car for almost 10 yrs and I was watching this bumper come together. I seriously considered it for my car at one time.
It looks nice. Have a good time with the car.
Whilst i understand the originals are better, but because my access to a highly skilled body shop/fibreglasser it allows me to be abit more bold with buying bumpers, but if you do not have access to someone like that consider well before buying a replica and taking it to your average joe panel beater. They will not be able to make it work! Even if they do they will send it off to someone else and charge you ontop of that, research is your friend!
In terms of gap,you can see a line where it separates from the bumper that was the gap i mentioned. Whilst it would be very easy for me to get it moulded to the bumper, i opted not to just incase i get asked by our law enforcement to take it off, thus its held on by 3 screws.
I got those Canards from my bodyshop, he had a pair lying around, rather then building a whole new one from scratch ($$$) he just modified these ones a bit to follow the bumper's lines.
Looks good. I might be mistaken but this is a replica of the Feed front bumper no? I think the canards make it look alot more aggressive, Personally I probably would've had the canards painted black for some contrast. But overall I like it.
Definitely a mean looking car
I also have the Type F currently in-process as I was attracted to the aggressive look and Shine's reputation amidst my vast and tedious search for a new front.
Been considering this bumper more and more, mostly because of the HUGE oil cooler openings (which will work great for the Setrabs I plan to upgrade to.)
Either this, or an authentic RE Amemiya AD8 Type II, but leaning toward the FEED replica because of the aforementioned reason.
I had the shine autobahn kit on my car for ~5 years. It was repainted twice, once because I pulled over a curb stop and once because a woman hit me with her horse trailer.
When I had it installed initially, the installer had the same complaint about it being thin. However, in the 50k miles I drove with it on, I had only 1 incident with cracked paint and it wasn't on a section that could flex / pop.
It all really depends on the installer. I've seen people who had their bumpers installed cheaply (same bumper as mine) and the fitment was terrible.
Basically, shine builds a decent kit that if installed properly will last a long time and fit 90-95% as good as the real deal.
hey Tofu, that's some really detailed and professional review there, thank you. I've also been looking for front bumper for limited budget. While I'm all on my own right now without any experience of fiberglass job, do you guys think that's also gonna work if I apply carbon fiber sheet to enhance the bumper? Would that be easy? Does any of you guys have the experience with DIY carbon fiber? And do you think I have to enhance the entire bumper or just weak spots? Thanks
I love it. The eyelid and the canards gave it an aggressive look. I was thinking about getting that bumper or the RE II but mann, you gave it a nice look! kudos to you
I have been eyeing the Type-F from Shine as well, since I want a Feed bumper... this review give me some hope... now I just have to find the right body shop to put it together.
My buddy (who is an awesome painter and body guy) got this shipped from Shine. Just a small sample of the quality and even he decided to go another route. My other Buddy had the Autobahn rep from Shine and it was just as bad.
I had a vadar kit on my car till someone backed into the front bumper this summer. I decided to go with this shine bumper. Will post pics when the install is finished.
Here's the kicker. While my car was parked waiting at the body shop, one of their vehicles hit my REAR bumper, cracking it in half. They say they will replace it with any aftermarket one I want but then sent me a website link that only sells duraflex crap. What do??
02-25-2014, 08:10 PM
