My 04-06 LS430 merged w/ a 98-00 LS400 bumper Project (heavily loaded w/ pix)
03-17-10, 11:29 PM
#29
DAY 02 of the project:
I finally found some time to continue on the project today after work. The first thing we did was test the flexibility of the bonding compound. I am happy to say that after twisting the bumper back and fourth, nothing happened, so it's very flexible and durable.
After taking off the masking tape from the front, the compound filled in the smaller bumper holes really nice:
You can see in this picture how much we need to extend the ends of the bumper:
The bumper looks like Frankenstein right now:
We then started figuring out where to cut and how to extend the ends of the bumper. What we planned on doing was cut the end that's on there now, cut a piece from the old LS400 bumper, and add it in between to extend it. Here's how we did it:
Masked off where we needed to cut:
Cutting the donor piece from the LS400 bumper:
We picked this specific area to cut from for the curvature that it had:
Taking the donor piece, we drilled holes on the bumper, donor piece, and the end piece that we cut off and started stitching them together w/ zip ties:
Here's what it looks like on the front side after being extended w/ the donor piece:
I finally found some time to continue on the project today after work. The first thing we did was test the flexibility of the bonding compound. I am happy to say that after twisting the bumper back and fourth, nothing happened, so it's very flexible and durable.
After taking off the masking tape from the front, the compound filled in the smaller bumper holes really nice:
You can see in this picture how much we need to extend the ends of the bumper:
The bumper looks like Frankenstein right now:
We then started figuring out where to cut and how to extend the ends of the bumper. What we planned on doing was cut the end that's on there now, cut a piece from the old LS400 bumper, and add it in between to extend it. Here's how we did it:
Masked off where we needed to cut:
Cutting the donor piece from the LS400 bumper:
We picked this specific area to cut from for the curvature that it had:
Taking the donor piece, we drilled holes on the bumper, donor piece, and the end piece that we cut off and started stitching them together w/ zip ties:
Here's what it looks like on the front side after being extended w/ the donor piece:
03-17-10, 11:30 PM
#30
Here's what it looks like extended. It ain't the prettiest thing, but it'll work:
Ninja, haha:
We then masked the front side to lay some of that compound down on it.
Me mixing up the compound:
While waiting for the side part to dry, we went to get some food, then we came back and started cutting off the zip ties showing on the front side:
It looks less like Frankenstein after that, but still ugly.
Not sure what to do w/ the groove in the middle, I kind of like it, I'll probably make some unique indention there just to say different from other LS430 front bumpers.
We laid more compound on the front side, and smooth it out as flat as we could. Once that dries up, we'll be ready to do the same thing to the sides and then start sanding it smooth:
So, after 2 days, we're still not near completing this project yet. I definitely have a high amount of respect for those that does their own conversions or shops that can do them. I can see why they charge so much money to get it done now. This project isn't too bad though, it's only time consuming because we have to wait on the curing of the compound. I'll update you guys later, definitely getting closer to the goal. It's rough trying to be different. *sigh*
