I bought the best 91/92 Trans Am front bumper I could find for restoring my 92 GTA.

As you can see in the pictures, there are warps which I have circled in red. I have removed all of the inside bracing and the one on the upper passenger side still remains.

Any idea how I can get this thing razor straight and flat? Would a heat gun and patience work with getting it back into shape?

The original on my 92 has none of this, however it's badly torn and floppy from accidents over the decades and way beyond saving.

Thanks for any suggestions! I want to avoid as much filler as possible and it has none right now and I also want to avoid fabricating some kind of braces to straighten the warps in front of the fog/turn signal areas.

 

A heat gun and patience is about your only choice. That's what I would use and do the best I could and NOT use filler.

 

That was my thinking.

I was going to buy this heat gun from Amazon for doing it:


I'll be sure to try and practice on my old bumper first lol.

I'm also wondering about aluminum plates cut to fit then glued and clamped overnight with PVC cement on the inside. Seems like that would also be more permanent. Damn I just wish someone made a new fiberglass reproduction that was spot on :/

 

Try a bumper place, I have one here in So. Cal. that does them for $175

 

There is no place like that here in Bakersfield. Can you give me the info on the place down south and I'll just take it to them?

 

In another post here I saw that using ice after the heat would help keep the 'set' when straightening the urethane.

 

I'm trying to find a solution for this also. The problem I see about heating it, is after a few years in the sun, it will warp again

 

I'm come to the conclusion I'm going to make stencils from cardboard and have thin aluminum plates made that I will then glue with clamps and PVC cement to the inside.

 

Mine has plenty of cracks and a few missing chucks so I asked a friend who manages an auto body shop what it would cost and he estimated around a $1,000 to fix mine up. The car may not be worth that much.

 

I have played with my Camaro bummer and decided to gamble and buy a new one off of thirdgen ranch { $ 275 }. It's really a good piece. Glad I did it.

It is possible to remove warps... sort of. The heat and cool trick dose work to a point. I felt my bumper still would need more filler than I wanted add and sand smooth and add and sand ....

Check out "KBD85" 's "plastic body repair" post. Should give you a idea how much work fixing a old bummer may take.

 

That's not motivating lol. Being as no one makes my front bumper I can't just buy a new one, sucks.

 

Don't forget to remove the license plate bracket before you put the bumper through any reshaping processes, or you could end-up going through it all over again, because it's almost a sure-thing that the bracket has caused warping in that area too.