2003 GC Front Fascia Glue

I've made great progress on this rear dent which was at the LH top corner of the bumper fascia. A hit on the corner of the fascia apparently pushed the top of the corner down into a nice 1/2" deep dent and cracked the rounded edges of the corner.

I found a suggestion on the net to use boiling water in front and pressure with a stick of wood behind the dent which turns out to work amazingly well. The whole process of running hot water into the dent took maybe five minutes and a half gallon of water. After pushing out the dent from behind I ran cold water over it to fix it in place. It isn't perfect but will be when I clean it out, add epoxy filler and repaint.

The epoxy is in a NAPA Flex Bumper Repair Kit 765-1540 which I found on ebay for around $16. The nice thing about this kit is it is complete with spreader, mixing sticks, stainless mesh and each tube of epoxy/catalyst is 5oz rather than the less than 1/2 oz tubes found in other kits which are grossly overpriced.

If anyone is interested I'll post a couple of photos.

I've done quite a bit of metal body work patching over the years, even did a shrinking job on my Barracuda door once just to see if I could do it, but all the serious stuff goes to my local body guy.

This is my first experience with plastic even though I've used fiberglas many times to patch and back up metal work. However, this newer (to me) plastic is a whole different world and I'm learning - the front will be a much greater challenge. The thing that surprised me most was how well the plastic will return to its original shape with a bit of heat and some pushing with a wooden hammer handle! It takes a bit of patience and pushing in the right places but it works amazingly well. The finished job gives a real sense of accomplishment.

The flexibility of the NAPA epoxy is a real help, it is not brittle like the old bondo I have used although it may be a lot better now, I haven't done any other body work in years.

The appliance epoxy enamel goes on very thick and is exceptionally shiny, I don't even use primer with it. I spray the sanded bare spots very lightly, wait about half an hour and apply the final coat. Looks great and is very tough.

I finally have the stainless steel/epoxy mesh reinforcement pieces on the back of the badly cracked front lower fascia in place so it is back to its original shape. I had to use small pieces and do a little at a time because it was so distorted and impossible to clamp, I just held it until it set! It also took quite a bit more heating and pushing to get all the bulges out and restore the flat parts but that is finally finished.

My wife took it away for a week so I have to wait to cut the groove into the crack, fill it with epoxy and repaint, but that is the easy part.

I also discovered that the small lower black plastic air dam is missing, I wondered what all those holes were for? Probably destroyed when the fascia was damaged. The dam has a very strange shape back under the radiator, there is far more plastic there than showing in front which makes it appear to be highly engineered, possibly concerning air flow around the engine? I have the air dam on order but so far haven't been able to find the push-in plastic fasteners that hold it. Any ideas for a source?