my 430 front bumper is in pretty bad shape. years of texas living and dealing with the steep driveways have just eaten away at the underside of the bumper on both sides. driver's source jerry rigged it back together again yesterday, but when it was up on the lift i saw just how scraped up it was. eventually it will need to be replaced, and i was contemplating replacing it with a scud front bumper. i imagine that it just bolts right on. but this is not my normal way - i like to keep things pretty much stock, and i dont like pretending i have something other than what it is. but.....the scud bumper looks so much better. torn. thoughts?
probably a good idea. driver's source says they have a slim skid plate. do you have one you recommend?
I have a set I bought on ebay last year. Didn't use because I found a local set that were thicker and free install. I can shoot you some pictures if you want them.
I bought a CS bumper for my 360 for the same reason and think it’s just a personal preference (recondition or recon/replace). Naturally a Scud bumper will give the car a fresher/aggressive that still maintains OE continuity and not look over the top/too kitted out. I have always thought skid plates were a little silly and a waste - instead of a scraped up bumper, you will now have scraped up metal plates that need to be swapped unless your driving pattern/habits change. Cosmetically not much of a difference seeing scratches on a plate or your bumper. Besides if you have any high speed freeway driving, you’re going to typically get some pitting/peppering/road rash that needs a refresh over time anyway so you will just need to refresh the bumper hood area anyway and fix the scrapes and make the bumper like new again.
I have skid plates (plastic) installed by the dealer. I don’t scrape often, but it’s nice to scrape the plates when I do instead of the bumper, so I like them. It may need to be replaced after a while, but better replacing the plates than the entire bumper.
If you hit something so bad/hard that the bumper needs to be replaced, I think you’re skid plates are done too. Even a cracked bumper is a simple fix.
Depends what you think justifies replacement. Personally, I'd rather not have lots of scratches/gouges in the bottom of my front bumper, even though it technically does not "need" to be replaced. As a specific example, I was driving down a road recently and didn't see a monster speed bump (the paint had worn off it) and had no opportunity to stop before plowing into it. I was really happy that the skid plates bore the brunt of that impact instead of the bumper. Would the bumper have cracked? I don't know, maybe. Regardless, I think it was a good thing the skid plates were there.
I think people tend to over complicate the difficulty/complexity and expense of simple auto body work. Scuffs, scraps, dents are no big deal and really inexpensive assuming you’re not a rube and think a Ferrari bumper is more special than a Chevrolet bumper and pay a “Ferrari tax” by paying 3-4 times more to have the same work done.
I think it's a great update - I keep saying that if I did get a 430 that would be the first mod I would do. But in discussion with the local techs the Scud bumper is not a "direct" fit because the brackets underneath are different. Some work is required, apparently. I think the Fchatter in the UK who has made his spider into a 16M look car showed all the stuff he did to make his fit.
Repair/paint the stock bumper and leave it IMO. If you ever sell the car won't have to make any excuses as to why you changed to a scud appearance. Many buyers want stock period.
Repairing the bumper and installing skid plates makes the most sense. The skid plates cannot be seen and flat out work. I repaired my scraped up bumper belly, installed the poly skid plates and end of problem. So what if they are scratched/scuffed? They are doing their job and cannot be seen anyway.
These are the plastic ones, "polymer plastic that has UV and corrosion resistance". Skid plates really depends on your situation. I have a high rate of skidding my bumper due to my unique driveway so it was a given to installed these post respray/repair. Again, I have these laying around if you want to give them a shot, no mounting hardware as I lost the baggy that was loosely taped on. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
When you scrape the bottom of your bumper, the black paint is scraped off and you can see the lighter primer or even the fiberglass underneath, and it looks really obvious. If you scratch the skid plates, the color is still black and it's not nearly as noticeable.
I'm not a fan of the stock 430 front bumper look but the scud one is fine. I like the Porsche world where simple mods don't create such a fuss