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Can any of you guys tell me if my molded on front lip and rear will crack if i drive it in the winter? Is it better to buy a winter beater or not?

Thanks for the help.

 
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well it will eventually crack,

 
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will it crack regardless of weather?
i have the wings west G5 lip kit on.
if it does crack, is it easy to take them off?

 
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If your kit is moled it's pretty damn hard to remove it, but if it's just bolted it should be easy. No it won't crack regardless of weather. I'm not from the north so I don't know a lot about their winter conditions but I know here in Texas w/ the warm weather, we have no cracking due to weather.

 
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you cant mold urethane as far as i know only fiberglass and yes it will crack no matter what the weather

 
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You can mold polyurethane but it's a serious PITA as far as my body shop guy is concerned.

 
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You can mold urethane, my urethane kaminari kit and flares are molded to my car.

 
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dude, i live in Toronto. Lots of snow, so it will definitely crack?
think i'll just buy a new bumper or something

 
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That's what I'm doing this year.

Get this - the 2001-2003 Acura EL front bumper is $500 but the 2004 EL bumper is $490...

 
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does anyone know how much the avenger front bumper costs and the rear?

 
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will not crack, nuff said. As long as it is urethane you are good, heck even fiberglass you have a pretty good shot at nothing happening.

 
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Go for it, it looks a lot better than the 01-03 front bumper, especially since they included the fog lights I love my EL Can't wait 'til the weather gets nicer/warmer so I can put the 15" 15 spoke alloys on instead of the 14" steelies on there now...

 
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if i where you i would, not mold a urethane kit into your car.
especially if you live where there is alot of snow and stuff.
the urethane flexes in the heat and cold, so eventually it will defff. crack. my advice is either dont mold the kit or take your chances with a fiberglass kit,with the fiberglass there is less chance of stress cracks or flexing due to weather, but youll have to deal with crap kicking up from the roads possible cracking the fiberglass.


good luck

 
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so, shoould i worry about the moling cracking or not?

 
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Ok, you're 2 best options given the cold climate are a molded fiberglass kit or an unmolded urethane kit. You can do whichever you like, but if I were you, I would do an unmolded urethane kit.

 
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This may be relevant but from what I have read that if it is below 32 or colder urethane will harden due to the temperature making it very brittle in colder climates.I dont know if that is true but urethane may not be good for very cold areas.

 
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yet another mistake with my car.
i think i will just let the molding crack and buy the avenger bumper instead of fixing old lip/bumper.
should have listened to dad and left car all stock!

 
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i think urethane is fine, cuz i have uretahen and it gets well below 32 here in pa and it snows and its been fine. i putsome 3m auto tape underneath, then globbed on some epoxy and its stuck in place. by molding ur bumper/skirt/etc on ur car and its urethane, it will expand and cause it to crack because of the pressure. so molding isn't good unless its a show car and not a daily driver.

 
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so, wut should i do,?
if i leave as is, it will eventually crack(molding).
should i get the avenger bumper instead of paying money to remove molding.

Please help me.

 
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either move will require a visit to the body shop...

if it cracks id just remove it, and it carefully and paint it (or let a pro do it) and not bother with buying yet another bumper

Id be more worried with bottoming out, i quickly broke the left side mount doing jsut that, and now its 10x easier to do so on the left side its got too much play

 
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got caught driving under susp... had it towed... THAT was fun

i told them bring a flatbed, nope, and hte idiot insisted its fine, as he nearly completely ruins the front bumper (i was pleading to let me grab a drill and quickly remove it as im hearing CRACK CRACK CRACK dropping it)

 
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if your gonna mold your lip to your bumper dont bottom really hard cause if you do .... you'll need another lip and bumper since they're molded together its easier to crack. i'd just get a urethane lip and just screw it on really good to play it safe

 
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Ok, here is my experiences with milding stuff onto other stuff.

On the past two cars I have fixed up/moded I have always molded my side skirts on the car. I always had a full fiberglass kit so there wasnt much concern for the front, just had to be carefull.

My friend though on the other hand had a 02 Eclipse with the fiberglass shine widebody kit on it. We used this stuff called SEM bond to mold the whole kit to the car. The reason why we used this stuff is because its one of the strongest adhesives you can buy for milding/bonding virtually anything to a car. We demonstrated to some people after we were done with the whole car that you could literally grab ahold of the sideskirt, fender flare, front and back lip and rock the entire car by pulling and yanking on it with no give. Thats not all, he was forced off the road by a ******* domestic driver one night and ended up in a small ditch, regardless, he rubbed bad! But the kit didnt budge.

So, if you are still looking to do this to your car, go to an automotive paint supply store (ppg store) and ask for SEM bond adhesive. Tell them what your wanting to do and they will direct you in the right direction. Also, make sure your body shop will have the special gun to apply the 2 part adhesive. If not you will have to buy it, then sell it too the shop after your car is complete to recoupe some of the money, or give it too them for a small cut off the price of the work.

Hope that helps.

Paul

 
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^not really worth it.... it is known to crack later in life as with all body puddy which it basically is....

 
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WhiteCastle, are you refering to the stuff I was talking about, SEM bond, as body puddy? If so, your strongly mistaken. Its a 2 part flexable yet strong as hell apoxy. Not puddy. Puddy is bondo. In my oppinion.

 
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I have my front and rear molded and did not have a problem for 2summers and 2 winters. Until I slid into the curb due to ice and then cracked the rear body work. The bumper and kit are fine still in tact, only thing that cracked was the paint and the body work everything else around it was still intact, except the part that curbed. IMO it all depends on the bodyshop that is doing the work, quality work will last longer.

 
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Amen to that! You get what you pay for!

 
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yes worry about it, if it is molded it is not exactly the strongest thing. It will crack easily, has nothing to do with the cold or heat, it has to do with it being a body kit and scraping it, and it bending making it crack.