I recently had the misfortune of having someone smash my front bumper while it was parked on a parking lot (and of course fled the scene) and am in need of replacing it. Any opinions on the quality of some of the aftermarket bumpers would be appreciated. I am interested in the VIS Racing bumper but don't know how these parts stack up against OEM quality. Not that I expect it to be the same as OEM (in terms of quality) but if I decide to go with aftermarket, I just want to know that the quality is good enough!


This is the style bumper I am looking at.


Any opinions (pros/cons) from those who have installed other than OEM bumpers would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I think your best bet is a polyurethane bumper as opposed to a fiberglass bumper. Find a good installer and you should be set!

I considered upgrading mine a while ago, but decided against it. It's hard to make the car look right without replacing the front and rear bumper.

 

Hey vicj, i recently had a similar deal, tho was hit by a drunk. I called a bunch of high-end places around the Dallas area, and most of them are very weary of using aftermarket products. The price of the products is one thing, but to get them to look OEM is another. Nearly all of them said its a lot of work to get them to look "right", and by the time they're done, it would have cost the same to go OEM bcuz of the fit.

I will update my post once a decision has been made on my car. Depending on how bad yours looks now, you can scope out places for a while to see if you can get an OEM upgrade (ebay, c-list, etc.)...and i see you're in MD, so am unsure whether you'll be hibernating for the winter.

This insight is based on the last 30 days of experience only. I also got a couple prices from vendors on here for OEM options for front bumpers to compare.

 

If the aftermarket bumper is trademarked "Duraflex" you shouldn't have a problem. A friend of mine recently replaced the front bumper to his 997 with a Duraflex bumper. Good quality.

 

If you are going to do it go with a good one like Duraflex, Misha, or TechArt. Fit and finish is important, a well made one will fit right into place with no modifications, some mfg's claims don't live up to this.

 

look into a gt3 oem bumper

 

Fyi I had some problems with the duraflex GT2 replica bumper. Fit wasn't as good as some people are describing.

On top of that, my wheel liner doesn't fit properly so there's a pretty significant gap between the bumper and wheel liner

 

Like I said, it's all about fit and finish.. OEM would work well but some of the aftermarkets just don't fit well. I got a front lip and tail from an after market seller, and the tail was not as described and the turbo lip is really garbage, came all warped so I can't get anyone to install it because they don't want to be liable, and I can't blame them.

 

I would keep oem bumper as long as possible simply because I doubt it easy to match the quality ofcyour factory paint job.

 

For what its worth, im replacing my base OEM front bumper w an OEM Aero front and adding sideskirts. Everyone i know has told me that was the best decision i could have made...sticking w OEM. Obviously, its about twice the cost, but were driving P cars and i feel strongly that both i and my car deserve the best. Plus, my kids think its "the bomb"... Whatever the hell that means:-)

 

If it's damaged, it needs paint anyway.

 

We sell a variety of front bumpers for your car. Let me know if you are interested in any of them.

https://sites.google.com/site/precis...6-nb-c2-c4-gt3

 

It's difficult to match the paint on a polyurethane bumper exactly to the paint on the metal. As a result, most body shops will "panel paint" the bumper only without blending the color into the fenders. I had my rear bumper cover replaced and painted in this way, and it looks great without changing my factory paint on the metal.

 

Ruf body kit is pretty cool looking. Fit is perfect.

-td

 

Is ruf fiberglass or poly?