Strider74

I have a question regarding the front end bumper support. (this appears to be the right forum) I have searched the site quite a bit and I know that the bumper support is a metal bracket with a foam surround but it doesn’t quite answer my question.

I want to do something like this with my front end and what I want to know is can I take the bumper off, cut out the foam that is in the way and reassemble.

This is purely an appearance mod on my daily driver, I don’t need the room or the weight savings etc. I just want to know if this is possible.

Also, what are your opinions? Good idea? Bad idea? Should I leave the center of the bumper and just the cut out the sides? Any suggestion is appreciated.

(by the way whoevers car this pic is of it's awesome especially with the cut out grill insert you have but this pic better illustrates my question)

HAYSTACK

do you still have the oem grill on your car? if so yank it off and call it a day.

Taken4granted

I believe without the support the nose will begin to sag over time. I think Burkhart Chassis makes a bumper support thats for intercoolers, it eliminates the windshield washer reservoir, foam support, weight.

jRaskell

iTrader: (1)

That pic looks awesome because that is a front mount intercooler you're seeing in the opening. Without that, such a mod would frankly look like ***. It'll just be a big empty hole in the nose of the car.

crimson_bird

iTrader: (4)

exactly. appearance wise, cutting the front bumper up like that and removing the foam will not look good at all.

BBYZED

I'm thinking along those lines, but just cutting out the foam in the "holes" at the ends of the centre of the fascia. Then getting a stainless grill insert to keep large items from puncturing the rad.

Strider74

Thanks for all of the replies and I will definitely keep working on my design. But I still have few questions which are probably best answered if I explain what I am trying to do.

I know that if I just cut a hole it will leave the bottom lip just sort of hanging out there so here is what I was thinking. I have seen guys put small plastic inserts with a stainless grill insert on both sides of the opening. My plan is to fabricate a large insert that will fill the entire space with a stainless grill inset at the back, just before the radiator. (kind of like if I took a normal billet grill and pushed it back 6-8 inches)

I plan to just remove the bumper support and cut away the foam that is in the way and then reinstall the metal bumper support and what remains of the foam. But what I can’t tell from the pics I find is what else is in the way. For example if I just took a big knife stuck it in and cut out the front hole all the way back to the radiator and pulled that chunk out what would come with it? Just foam from the bumper support, parts of the metal bumper support, the bottom of the washer fluid reservoir etc…

I am just trying to get a sense of scale for this project. I can do the grill insert easily enough but I don’t know if this will require relocating everything in the front end our just cutting out some foam.

Thanks again everyone.

Strider74

I'm at work and so this is just a quick sketch and my car is black but this is the basic idea. Ideally it would be back far enough that you would not see the grill if your just standing next to the car and it would just look like a black opening.

Strider74

No other ideas? I can't be the only one to think about doing this. Well maybe I am a little nuts but still.