Hey guys,

Been a while since I've been on but after analmost 2 year long wait I finally got my replacement bumper.

In Jan 2011 my brother took my car out while I was out of the country where it was hit and run. Damage wasn't too bad but thebumper needed to be replaced so I decided to spring for an authentic one thistime to see the difference.

The Shine bumper I had was literally the second one they produced and I bought it right when they started making the amusereplica. It fit for the most part without too much twisting or bending and no obscenely huge gaps. Still, being the way I am I found pretty much every imperfection lol.



First thing I noticed was that none of the holes were cut yet. While this might have been an exception, (since I've been back to shine and most of the bumpers are drilled), it was annoying as it was the most expensive replica at the time. The second thing was that all the seams were not sanded. I'm not sure this is normal either but pretty annoying.




Other than these two things, the bumper fit pretty well in terms of size. Some bumpers I've seen end up being short causing the ends of the bumper to not line up with the fenders etc.

The main problem areas with replicas still persisted though. The connection from the bumper to the fender by the hood was not molded well. Additionally, there were gaps present in the areas around the headlight.





















The authentic bumper by comparison is much sturdier. Where the shine bumper was flexible, almost wobbly; the authentic bumper feels like a rock.(though this makes me unsure how it would hold up in a minor bump). The key areas around the mounting point, and the whole bumper in general are much, much thicker in material. The weight of the authentic is probably double that of shine. The holes are all cut, holes grinded, and the bumper comes with brackets for your plates, and mesh ( which I probably won't use ).













The fitment around the headlight is much better, comparable to OEM almost. (I had a small problem fitting the bracket into the bumper, but adremel and 2 mins of cleaning up the cuts made it fit perfect)












The bumper is not even screwed down in these pictures. Fitment is superb.

When people say the quality of an authentic far surpasses that of a replica, I’d have to wholeheartedly agree. The fit and finish of an authentic can’t be compared to a replica. Having said that, a good replica can always be fitted and look about 95% as good as the authentic. My shine bumper looked pretty darn good after it was fitted with only minor differences between that and the authentic.

Would I do it again? I’m not sure to be honest. The time (emphasis on the time!) and money involved in getting an authentic is certainly something to think about, though it is important to support the original makers whenever it is in your means. I personally have no regrets about this bumper, having enjoyed the bumper as much as I did, I’m glad to be able to give support to the original makers of this awesome product.

Thanks for reading!
-Nam

Quick update, the bumper I think was made for an AP1. The holes on the bottom that attach to the fender liner doesn't line up for one of the bolts. A little annoying since it rattles a bit there against the bumper.

Another quick update : The wind deflectors on the shine bumper are actually better than the ones on the authentic bumper. Both sides of my bumper have developed a hairline crack along the top of the deflector where it meets the bumper. I had noticed before they were painted that the whole pointed area as all just resin. There's no fiberglass for the whole upper part. The shine one had fiberglass run much closer to the top so it's not as prone to cracking there.

Looks like the fiberglass wasn't laid all the way into the mold in those corners and they just used resin to fill that area.

[attachment=31851:2012-12-20 22.31.32.png] I had a hard time getting a clear shot of it since I just remembered and took a picture with my phone. You can see the crack developing on the left side of the circled area. That whole upper area is about 1/4 in thick in resin and builds that whole point. Seems like a bump into something would easily finish the crack.

And license plate bracket doesn't fit or I dont know how to fit it lol (not that I would have used it.)
Anyways those are my small and only complaints on the bumper. Otherwise I love it

 

Question: do you think the problem is that you got one of the first ones of the line? Do you know if they've changed the manufacturing at all? I might someday go for a shine ASM front because i'll most likely end up tearing it off...

 

thank you for that comparison!

 

I have a replica bumper too and I have the exact same problems as you when it came to the Shine bumper. I had to drill my own holes and there were gaps between the fender and around the headlights as well. Not severe, but still enough to bug me. As of right now, it seems like my gaps got bigger. Did you get yours to line up better for the replica? If you did, can you please share some info?

 

I've been to their warehouse a few times and it seems somewhat inconsistent whether or not they have the holes and grind the seams. I've seen it a few times where they cut the holes and grind the seams but my personal experience was that they didn't. Either way the Shine replica is still the best replica IMO. The old E-motorsports one fit even worst from what I've seen and I haven't seen any extreme dimension replicas but I'm not surprised from all the horror stories I've heard.

I did actually. The body shop that fitted the bumper got it to look great. In fact, it looked better than an authentic one I saw that was poorly fitted. Having said that, even after the body work, some things are harder to fix. The waviness in the fiberglass is hard to get rid of since its flexible. The edges are more square after the body shop but it still doesn't look quite as nice. I guess the important part of having a nice replica is having a body shop you can trust to do the work. They can get it to look pretty darn good if they're competent.

I don't have any pictures of the car with the bumper fitted but I have a few from after the accident so you get an idea of what the bumper fit like.
From this you can see how the body shop remolded parts around the headlight and where it meets the fender so that it fits better. (i'm talking about the side that isn't messed up lol) If it looks off its b/c the accident pushed off the alignment a bit.



Once the body work is done it looks pretty much like any other fitted piece. Only time its obviously a replica is when the bumper is off the car and you see the connection points are thin or not formed correctly.
Other than that, I've had quite a few people ask about if it was authentic and only having seen the authentic can I tell you the visual differences. It's hard for a body shop to match the square edges all around the bumper and the waviness. Most people wouldn't notice this though

 

nice thread. what is the avg cost to get a replica fitted? i never see the numbers.

 

We see this all the time. The Replica parts just don't fit the way the real ones do. You really do get what you pay for.

 

I hear mixed stories all the time. Not saying authentic isn't good or anything. But I've heard some cases where the replicas actually fit better than authentic, which is hard to believe. From my own personal experience though, reps do require work for it to fit nicely, well mine anyways

 

Thanks for the comparison

 

nice write up! i can't wait to get an authentic someday