Hey guys quick question about JDM fronts. As far as I know, the fenders and hood are metal but does all bumpers come in plastic only? Someone backed into me today so I'm going to need a new bumper (mine got pushed in, cracked, dents popping out). Mine is plastic so I'm just curious if all JDM fronts are plastic or if they also come in metal.

 

only plastic

 

where have you ever seen any car bumper made of metal?

 

^ that lol.

Old muscle cars and earler MGB's maybe lol.

 

Hah I always thought it would be damn heavy but just wanted to double check that's all. Tried googling it and all the results were "all metal Jdm front" lol. But thanks guys!

 

Yes, they are metal. 94

 

*modern cars

 

That looks like a UKDM '76 Civic, first registered in north-west London (going by the registration info on the number plate). Note the prim little bumpers, so unlike the bulky rams the US Civics got.

I think exposed steel bumpers on passenger cars disappeared about, what, 1985? After that they receded and got covered with the plastic skins that everybody knows today, and which was damaged on the OP's car.

 

Earlier than 1985 in the US. I think 1976 might have been the intended change to "5 mph bumpers", though some manufacturers got away with not implementing until later.

However, this is overall correct. All bumpers are metal. The bumper cover is the plastic piece that many people (including the OP here) incorrectly call a bumper.

 

USDM version...


Bigger bumper. 94

 

Hah thanks guys for all of your inputs. I suppose we can come to a conclusion that all cars have bumpers but what I was referring to is actually the bumper cover. Either way thanks for pointing out my mistake of reference!

 

Yea. we kind of wondered off there.

To directly answer your question, stock front "clip" [Front Bumper Face] is made of ABS, it is also avalable, [aftermarket] in plastic, fiberglass and carbon fiber, for a price. [drool]

Your clip may be repairable, look for "bumper repair", we have a shop in our industrial mall, Flying Colors, that only repairs/paints "plastic" bumper covers and charge about 1/2 what body shops want just to paint them, they repair/paint them on or off the car, may be worth looking into. 94

 

The changeover began with the front bumper on 1973 model-year sedans and wagons.
All passenger-car bumpers were compliant with the 5mph standard by the 1974 model year.

At first, all of them were steel, sometimes simply the pre-'73 bumper stuck out on struts, or rubber pads sticking out past the pre-'73 beam.
Toyota was one of the first ones to put the steel beam under a padded rubber cover, for about 1979-1980.
Many other makes retained exposed steel beams, mounted on collapsible struts. FCM has posted a picture of this type of bumper on a post-'73 USDM Civic.
Many older models kept the exposed steel beam bumper until about 1985 or so, when their structures were revised and updated.

The Ford Crown Vic didn't have a fully-covered steel beam until the 1992 model year!

Right. And under the urethane plastic skin is usually a styrofoam pad, then the bumper,
which is now often simply called something like "beam".

 

Luckily my father works at a body shop and the owner is a childhood friend. You know what that means for me! Haha

This thread is just awesome. Automobile "bumper" history 101! Who needs to take a class when you have Honda Tech! Lol

 

You could always go with a bys jdm front bumper. But that's straight money that most of us don't have. There are some poly knock offs of the oem jdm front but they never fit right and with high temp weather I have seen bad poly melt and become distort. And i could imagine the with the smaller amount of support the jdm front end has it could be even worst.