Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

I wish I had pics, but I don't. My question is whether cracks in the nose piece/front bumper cover can be repaired, or whether replacement is usually necessary.

I got hit in a McDonald's parking lot many moons ago and it cracked the nose in the area around the passenger side parking light. The crack is all the way through the material and it left a pretty decent sized gap. I don't know if this something that can be bondo'd & sanded etc. Just looking for input/opinions.

I have a similar question regarding the doors. I opened my drivers side door into one of those steel retaining posts that some stations place around their gas pumps, which caused it to crack/shatter towards the rear of the door. It affected both the inner door shell and the outer door panel, which are apparently two separate pieces. It isn't completely fubar'd, but are there compounds available that can seal the cracks and restore structural integrity.

I'm asking in the event I ever get the car repainted. OEM parts are getting pretty hard to find and I have no idea what kind of aftermarket replacements might be available or how well they would fit.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

I'd take the front bumper cover off and get a fiberglass repair kit from 3M. It comes with the fiberglass resin, as well as fiberglass sheets to fix such problems. Pretty easy to use as well. I just recently fixed a hole about the size of a marble in my drivers side door with it. I had to use fiberglass bondo to smooth it out after it was all said and done due to the contour of the door, the hole was a bit recessed after using the repair kit. As long as yours is just a crack, and not a sizeable amount of the bumper cover missing around said crack you should be able to fix that relatively easy with the fiberglass repair kit. Patch it from the inside.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Thanks for the input.

I don't believe there is any actual material missing from the bumper cover. It's just cracked in one place around the parking lamp as a result of the impact, and there is some space between the two sides of the crack.

My door is also just cracked, but not really the same type of crack as the bumper cover. For lack of a better description, I would say it's more like a spider web crack in a windshield. Both the outer panel and door shell are cracked.

I've never done any body work and I'm not sure I would try to tackle these repairs myself, and that's assuming I ever do anything at all. OEM bumper covers can still be purchased, as well as door panels. The door shell appears to be no longer available. I'm kinda trying to decide whether to pull the trigger on parts that are still available.

I guess for someone that knows what they are doing, there may be numerous methods available to address each issue.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Well - I guess I'm a little confused on the exact issue - but I'll provide what I've seen for insight...

Cracks that look like spider webs with no physical material missing = most likely the paint (or clear coat) itself cracking... I got hit in the rear bumper and it looked OK for months after impact - but over time it developed that feature (spider web cracks) - Problem was lessened by polishing the paint:cool: (with specific extra focus in that area) - but the 100% solution is to sand and repaint (sometimes requires blending to other panels)

If there is physical chunks/chips/particles missing - It could be lessened with paint chip applications (Dr Color Chip for example) and some polishing - depending on how much material is missing or broken? But best solution is typically body work here.

You may also try and find a local "Detailer" that is focused on "Paint Correction" and let them have a look at the car - they may be able to get the paint to a happy level as well in case you are not well versed (or have all the tools/polishes required) in detailing;):)

So yeah to 100% solve the issue paint/body work is probably in order - but don't count out the simple/lesser solutions mentioned - they may get you to happy medium to live with the damage:D:yes:

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

The composite or fiberglass material of the door is definitely cracked. It's not just the paint. I don't believe there is any missing material on either the door or the front bumper cover/nose. Pics would be helpful to illustrate what I'm talking about, but I don't have any right now.

There isn't really an issue. I was just curious whether things that like can be repaired without actually replacing the part. Front bumper covers can still be purchased, as well as driver side door panels. I'm just trying to figure out whether to buy what I can while I can, or not worry about it knowing that the damage can simply be repaired.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...159d33afc3.jpg
Bumper Cover Crack
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...3891ff8043.jpg
Bumper Cover Crack
Here are a couple pics of the crack in my front bumper cover. Is this repairable damage?

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

That can be fixed with a fiberglass repair kit I would think. It's pretty easy to use.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...108d931793.jpg
Wide angle of the dirver's side door damage.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...dfa54632d4.jpg
Inside door view of damage.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...15d45155f2.jpg
Close up of interior door damage
I finally got around to taking some pics of my door over Christmas. If only I could figure out how to attach them, that would be awesome. It seems like the stars have to align for image posting to work with the latest releases of this BB software.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Interesting. I had not tried that particular method, but it seems to have worked. The funny thing is that it opens the same dialog box as manage attachments and the other methods I tried. Maybe I was posting at a finicky time of day. I did however get a message that I had attached more than the limit of ten messages, which apparently includes HTML tags, smiley's etc. I'll have to try posting the pics in multiple posts. Maybe I was getting an error before due to the number of pics I was attaching and simply did not notice it, but I like to think that is not the case. This time the manage attachments method worked fine.

Attaching a couple more pics here.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...78719f3cf0.jpg
Close up of damge below door handle
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...e9b3869909.jpg
Close up
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...a15448114f.jpg
Close up

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Just the for the heck of it, and for no particular reason, here are a couple pics of the car. When I was home over Christmas, I actually washed it with some Mequiar's Gold Class Car Wash, clayed it with a Mother's clay bar kit, which was a first for me, broke out my brother's dual action polisher and polished it with some Meguiar's M205 then followed that up with some Meguiar's M7 glaze and Mequiar's Ultimate paste wax only on the hood, roof and rear hatch deck. It cleaned up a bit better than I was anticipating, but I'm not sure how noticeable it will be. I'm sure there are some other products out there that would better handle some of the swirls and scratches accumulated over the years.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...4ed932f25b.jpg
Passenger side mirror before polishing. You might be able to tell from the passenger side shot that it polished up pretty good.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...1765d49268.jpg
Polished on the right, not polished on the left.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...6941cc2e75.jpg
Polished on the top, not polished on the bottom.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...75d25454fd.jpg
Driver's side
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cam...1a82be1698.jpg
Passenger's Side

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

That's a good looking car! I really like the color. Good luck getting the cracks sorted out.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Thank you. It's certainly seen better days from an appearance perspective, but all things considered the car is probably not in bad shape. The paint has lots of imperfections in it at this point, but it cleaned up pretty good with the DA buffer. It removed a lot of oxidation, swirl marks & scratches. I'm sure if I used a more aggressive polish/product, I could remove more.

I'm the original owner and it was my daily driver for around 6.5 years. For a number of reasons I parked it, or put it in storage, in October of 2000 and it pretty much sat, unprepped, for the next 17 years. It sat in dirt floor garages & barns until my brother & I started messing with it when I was home for holidays/vacations, which was around 2006/2007. It needed TONS of TLC after sitting for so long. We put headers, exhaust & a CAI on it, and replaced all of the stuff that no longer worked or we felt should be replaced. I thought that some day maybe I would get a cam and have the heads ported etc., but who knows.

I started driving it over Thanksgiving 2017 for the first time since I parked it in 2000. It's a lot of fun to drive, at least for me. Getting in & out of it is a lot more difficult than I remember, but it has been lowered, so it probably has nothing to do with me being 20-25 years older. I don't know if I'll ever get around to addressing any of the cosmetic blemishes. The older I get, the less I seem to care about that kind of stuff. I wish I had bought a door when they were still available, but I never did. Maybe some day I'll get a wild hair and try to find someone to fix that stuff and paint it, but I'm feeling no sense of urgency. I also hear that paint jobs are crazy expensive these days. I don't know whether that's true, but one of my gearhead buddies says paint has gotten really expensive. I want to put some wheels & tires on it, but the choices seem endless. It could probably use some motor mounts too. I've got just over 2" of clearance at the lowest point on the y-pipe. I'm not sure how much new motor mounts might increase that number, but probably a little bit.

Sorry for the long winded post. I'm off work today due to the polar vortex and don't have much going on.

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Makes it easier to see why you are working to restore a car with a lot of potential.

The photo attachment procedure got screwed up when Internet Brands made changes to the software, but didn't tell us, because they thought the changes were minor. I had trouble, and several others indicated the "Manage Attachments" method didn't seem to work. Internet Brands responded, made a fix, but it seems like in most cases, photos can only be uploaded by starting with the icon, not Manage Attachments.

See post #!5 in this thread, and the posts that follow. GaryDoug got his uploaded with "Manage Attachments", but it never works for me.

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sit...6/#post7000353

I'm no wizard with the site software, but bottom line is I'm pretty much the only person left that cares. The site Administrator has not signed in since 2017. One other Moderator (JakeRobb) shows up periodically, but some of the others haven't been here in more than 5 years.

I'm always "home".... I retired 3 year ago,

Re: Cracked Nose/Front Bumper Cover & Doors
 

Something interesting and related came up yesterday in a boating forum that I frequent (thehulltruth.com). It seems that some members cannot upload photos by using the Manage Attachments method and some others can (like me). Of course, it is also an Internet Brands site. So this is obviously an IB problem. Now get this....even though there is plenty of staff to address this problem, they are refusing to even try. And if you ask why, the admins get real nasty.