Pointers on repairing stock FC front air dam
 

After getting one of those hard to find stock front lip spoilers for my FC, I had the unfortunate experience this weekend of mangling it. Could have been a lot worse, country road I was on went from nice pavement to gravel with no signs or warnings. Damned MD DOT.... Anyway, here's the damage:

http://www.rotarycarclub.com/rotary_...1&d=1368062747

May be hard to see, but there's about a 3~4 inch crack along the top edge, and a bit of gouging from the gravel. If I can find a replacement it will cost about $350 or so, but that is unlikely since when I bought this one a year ago, Ray Crowe said there were only a couple left in the US. So that leaves a repair. Got a few estimates from local body shops, and we're talking at least $400 to fix this thing.

Has anyone done a successful DIY repair on these urethane parts that could recommend the appropriate fillers, adhesives and/or plastic welding products that I could use to repair & refinish this thing?

After removing it from the car, it looks like I can get the crack to close up nicely, and use an appropriate adhesive/epoxy on the back side to hold it together and give it the necessary strength to stay together. Then some sanding & filling/shaping and more sanding to get rid of the scrapes & gouges, and finally prime & paint it.

I have zero experience with those, but have done lots of repairs on motorcycle fairings. I use the epoxy for plastics, the one that comes in a double syringe, and basically follow the same process as when welding plastic.

You can sand the plastic epoxy fairly easy, your cost will be painting it.

Go down to the local supply store used by the body shops, not just the corner O'Reilly's. 3M makes a urethane bumper adhesive and filler. Personally I wouldn't trust any other brand of products for it, as the part has to be able to flex. It looks like a fairly straightforward repair and shouldn't be all that difficult. Lots of sanding and the paint matching can get a little tricky.

Again take a paint chip down to the supply store. Most have a color analyzer that can scan the chip and match up the color and provide you with the small amounts of primer, color, clear, and catalysts you will need. Use a good automotive paint, not cheap stuff, if you want professional results. The folks there can typically give you some pretty good advice.

It's $400 for a reason, the materials are expensive and there is a lot of time involved, but it's your time so that should help.

Since its a OEM part, he should be able to get the OEM black for S5 fc3s right of the books. I have had mixed results when scanning paint colors :(

Well I did a little research on the net and basically came to the same conclusion Gunny did. Ended up purchasing a 3M urethane bumper repair kit that has a 2 part epoxy adhesive/filler and backing mesh. The kit is specifically designed to work with flexible urethane body parts, and I had to buy it at local body & paint supply shop. Repaired the crack, and filled the deepest gouges on the surface myself, but I outsourced the rest of the job to a local body shop to take care of final surface finish smoothing, prep & paint work. Looks & works as good as new! Total cost including the 3M kit was about $250, which beats buying a new one from Mazda for about $415. BTW, when I called Ray Crowe to check on price/availability he said there was only ONE left in the US that is the same Brilliant Black paint.

Good deal. Glad you're happy with it. Try not to hit them thar rocks. They leave ow'ies. ;)