Toyota Corolla Fiberglass Front Bumper Fabrication – Part 1

By: Bob Goodson
November 8, 2021

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The process here was similar to the rear bumper with a few of distinct differences. First, since the front bumper is one piece, I had to lay it up in separate portions or I wouldn’t be able to extract it from the mold.  Second, the stock bumper runs straight across the car even though the grill and trim come to a point in the middle.  I wanted the shape of the bumper to mimic that grill/trim profile.  Third, I wanted to completely remove the license plate detent in the middle of the bumper. Picture below shows the bumper vs a cardboard template with the profile of the trim.  

The corners laid up separately.

I need a template that I could attach the bumper pieces to in order to achieve the 10 degree bend in the middle of the bumper – made out of a piece of plastic channel.

Here you see the template with the end pieces screwed into place.  

A head on view – aluminum ruler used as template in the other plane.  Cut out the bumper detent and laid up additional filler pieces from either side and used the template to screw them into place.

As with the rear, TONS of fiddling and fitting to join all 6 pieces together into one.  And the same process as at the rear to create brackets and magnetic wrap arounds.

Lots of filling and block sanding later….

Once again – very happy with outcome.
 
Subtle changes – only folks who really know these cars know what’s been done.  And we knocked about 20 lbs of weight off.  Of course, they’re useless as bumpers – but the original ones were little better.
 

1 Comment

  1. Michael Yount

    Those bumpers look damned fine if I may say so myself!

    Reply

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