My plan was always to have the ViS front and Mugen rear bumpers installed professionally. I mean, the parts have been sitting in my garage for over 10 years. Then lately it occurred to me. Who else is going to prep and carefully install them as well as I could? Sure, they are more skilled in their craft, but there's no body shop/ body-man in Calgary that knows these pieces better than I do -- after all, I've been studying them for close to 20 years.
With this in mind, I set about prepping the Mugen rear bumper first. Some of you may remember I'd mentioned a failed attempt to install one of my two bumpers back in this post from 2014.
Originally, I thought I had difficulty because of some slightly bent sheet metal but after some thought on it, and some closer inspection on the replica brackets I purchased, it seemed to me that my difficulty was likely due to me using the OEM brackets.
So I set upon my journey:
As I said, I had previously purchased replica rear bumper mounts from Sharpe Welding and Restoration. I have one of the original Mugen mounts and it matched up perfectly. I took to a local shop and had it powder coated for about $20.
After the powder-coating, I discovered, the threads in the one mounting hole had become hard to screw anything into, so I purchased a tap to clean the paint out of the threads to make them usable once again.
Next I examined both of my Mugen rear bumpers and chose the better of the two, condition-wise. The one I chose had some shoddy repair done to the left rear corner and needs some work in other areas, but luckily it's already NH526M and I don't need to cut one of the mounts out of the corner, like my other one.
Along with my purchase of the rear bumper side mounts, I had also purchased a rear beam from Sharpe and had it powder coated as well. As you may have predicted, I had the same issue with the threads for the screws holding it to the bumper.
I found a couple of foam disks on the top studs of the genuine Mugen beam from the other bumper I have. They were on the top studs, the ones that would slide into the trunk area. They were quite flattened from being sandwiched between the body of the previous car and the beam, so they almost looked rubber, but upon closer inspection, they were definitely foam.
I checked the Mugen instructions I have and I didn't see any mention of them. Thinking they might be OEM, I checked the parts catalog on the computer in my garage, and voila! there there were. I checked with my local dealer and they were still available, so I ordered some fresh ones for the installation. I really don't know if they were necessary but the way I look at it, I don't want any water or moisture getting into the spare tire well/hatch, so for the extra couple of bucks, they can't hurt to have them on.
Next up was a quick wash of the bumper, and I was ready to begin...
As you can see from the photo below, there was some additional work that needed to be done, so I used a spray bomb and touched up the faded paint areas as best I could until I can have the bumper painted professionally.
Started by removing the OEM bumper. I disconnected the license plate lights and unscrewed the bumper and beam from inside the trunk, under the body. and inside the wheel wells.
Once the bumper was removed, I removed the bumper sliders, and the clips that hold it to the body of the car, revealing the mounting holes for the new Mugen bumper mounts.
At this point the instructions were a little unclear, so I tried installing the mount from the back side of the wheel well. At first everything went swimmingly... The bumper mounted properly this time, no issues with the fitment as I'd had in the past, but when I tried to put the screw in the wheel well, the hole wouldn't line up with the hole in the bumper.
I ended up removing the bumper again and installing the mounts on the outside of the wheel well. Once again, the bumper mounted to the car perfectly but this time the hole in the bumper lined up perfectly with the threads on the mount.
So, as I said, the bumper still needs a lot of finishing work to clean it up, but finally I have one more piece installed so my car doesn't look so odd, what with Mugen sides and door caps with OEM bumpers and spoilers.
Also, I will need to sort out the license plate mounting for the Canadian license plate width. Another issue I have is that the wider exhaust tip for Tanabe comes dangerously close to rubbing on the bumper and the mounting screw for the beam. I will need to find an exhaust hanger that hangs about 5mm lower. Once that's sorted, then I will finish the final mounting. The bumper is currently held on finger tight with only minimal bolts for now.
Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.
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