Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 22:26:52 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Fiberglass rear bumpers (vanagon)
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Sure the metal backing/support bar or plate is a fine idea.
I suspect it will need to be curved a little. I don't think the bumper is
'flat' between the main bumper brackets.
Fiberglass is not hard to repair structurally if you use the right type of
fiberglass.
The hard part is getting the color right with the gelcoat ...
but if you paint it, that's not an issue.
I bought a fiberglass sea kayak broken in half once ..a good one too, a
Necky.
Had a wind surfer friend who loaned me 'The Ding Repair Scriptures' ..
handy little book about repairing surf boards.
I went to some industrial type supply place and got 'the' right kind of
fiberglass ..
Made it as solid as could be , and as I said, the structural part isn't that
hard...
it's getting the outside to look right, but if you are painting it ..no
biggie.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Milt Schullian" <parillamilt@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 8:36 PM
Subject: Fiberglass rear bumpers (vanagon)
Hello, need some input on my '90 Vanagon rear bumper. I was in a parking lot
and backed into a car. Not one scratch on the car, but my fiberglass bumper
got tagged big time. The bumper mounting brackets were pushed through the
fiberglass. This was years ago and the fiberglass is flaking apart. I was
able to find a used center section of the bumper at a junkyard and bought
it. While I was cleaning the massive amounts of dirt collected on the
junkyard bumper, I noticed that the mounting points on the fiberglass were
either cracked or sheared off. I then took the bumper off my van and
discovered that the fiberglass mounting points were shattered, so really
nothing holding the bumper to the van except the bolts holding the side
bumper covers.
So, can these bumpers be fixed by a body shop that is familiar with
fiberglass? Could the weak looking bumper mounting points be fixed? I've
seen aftermarket bumpers, but they have no appeal to me. While examining the
bumper/bracket set-up, I came up with an idea. See if you guys think this
will work. I was thinking of having a bodyshop weld a steel bar/bracket
between the two bumper supports and then use the bracket as a new mounting
point for the fiberglass bumper. Maybe use 3 to 4 ss carriage bolts to mount
it with maybe some rubber sandwiched in between. ----Milt