Pointers on repairing stock FC front air dam

[GySgtFrank]

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.

[knonfs]

Originally Posted by GySgtFrank

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

[Pete_89T2]

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.