Rick Page

I wanted to match the contour of the front bumper with the 2 X 4 rectangular steel tubing.

Bending the tubing took a 12 ton press. When I got it set properly I welded a couple of pieces of plate steel for mounts.

I set the bumper in exactly the right position and then clamped the primered steel in place with bondo smeared all over the front. I let the bondo set up and pulled off the clamps and the steel just fell off the fiberglass.

Never bondo over primer, it is only as strong as the bond of the primer to the steel. I spent a good bit of time chiseling the bondo off the fiberglass then ground off the primer on the front side of the steel.

The bondo really stuck to the steel when the primer was ground off and I ground a little off the fiberglass to make sure there wasn't any wax on the surface interfering with the bond.

When I get back to the bumper I'll glass the steel onto the bumper. When everything is set up exactly right there is a large crack over the wheel well. There is a bunch of work to be done to get the body blended into the bumper properly.