The front bumper was stripped back to bare urethane with 80 grit sandpaper. I removed the bumper support from the cover. I removed the top supports, and sandblasted them. I cleaned up the metal support with a wire brush and some sandpaper, and used Eastwood Rust Converter to kill the rust, and then covered the support and top supports with a coat of epoxy primer.
Along the lower edge where the cover and bumper support bolt together, there was a small bulge and two tears on either side of one of the bolt holes.
I used my die grinder with a cut-off wheel to extend both of the tears down along the face a short distance. This allowed the flap to be elevated revealing the accumulation of rust that was causing the bulge along the front. I also widened the tear making it into a V-groove, so that I could have fresh clean urethane for the epoxy to bond to. I scraped the rusty metal under the flap, vacuumed it, and blew it out, to get it as clean as possible and then treated the metal with Rust Converter to kill the rust.
Once the Rust Converter had cured, I was ready to repair the urethane cover. I used the Bondo Bumper Repair kit, part number 00280, that had been recommended by others on the forum.
I purchased 2 tubes because I knew I had couple of good tears to repair. In the first tube, one side was really stiff at first, and I had to poke a wire into it to get it to dispense. Once I got that working, though, it was easy to mix. I used the small spreader they provide with the kit.
I mixed one batch and spread it on the metal core and bumper cover to adhere them together, as they were bonded during the manufacturing process and I wanted to replicate that. I clamped it down with several clamps, and a piece of angle iron to insure the front was flat and adhered uniformly. After the flap was "glued" down, I filled the V-grooved tears with the filler and leveled it out. I had to work fast and the working time is pretty short.
After it had set up, I sanded it down with 80 grit to level it out, revealing a few low spots.
A second coat of the bumper repair epoxy was applied to fill a few small void and help clean up and seal the back edge. It took all of both tubes for this repair.
Again, I blocked it down with some 80 grit to get the surface smooth.
There were still some very small imperfections, so I chose to fill them with SEM Bumper Bite glazing putty. A skim coat over the tear and a couple inches beyond was all it took. A little sanding with some 180 grit, and it looks ready to disappear.
I sanded the bumper cover with 180 grit sandpaper in preparation for priming, followed by a quick wipe with wax and grease remover. I used SEM Flexible Primer Surfacer, part number 39133, and gave it a couple medium wet coats. After an hour, I used guide coat and blocked it down with 220 grit sandpaper. There were some areas I couldn't get perfectly flat, especially along bottom, but that's the nature of a flexible beast. There were several areas where I burned through to the urethane, so I added a couple more coats of Flexible Primer Surfacer. Overall, it came out really good, and I am super pleased with how it turned out.
The support was painted satin black, as was the top support, and the exposed core inside the bumper cover.
Once it was dry, the top supports were fastened back to the support, and they were installed in the bumper cover. I torqued the 4 fasteners on the inside, but will wait until after paint to install the bolts along the bottom edge. Overall, I think it came out great, but I guess only time and a paint job will tell.
