lower cowl to bumper

[gonzomania]

Has this happened to anyone else? Detailing the cruiser today and I noticed that the top of the lower cowl (front) is attached to the bottom of the front bumper. Mine is just about broken off. i guess it's from hitting the driveway apron when I back out. It is still attached but not by much. Like to know of a fix for this Thanks

[quicksilverdon]

Haven't seen anybody else post that problem. I'm a big epoxy fan - if you can get at the back and smear epoxy on it, I'm sure it'll hold.

[zzzhuh]

quote:Originally posted by gonzomania

i guess it's from hitting the driveway apron when I back out.

What's a driveway apron? ...and how could you fix that so you don't hit it anymore?


I know I've scraped it a bunch of times on curbes parking nose in, but I haven't noticed any other substancial damage.

[gonzomania]

A driveway apron is that (sometimes) steep splayed concrete approach from the street to your drive way. It's between the sidewalk and the street. My house pitches towards the street and the nose of the cruiser sometimes drags.

[Grouch]

A new one isn't much but whatever you do don't remove it. What it does it pushes air into the engine compartment as your driving. Several people have removed it and had overheating problems

[PTGT Redman]

It's odd you would have that much damage.
Can you get a pic of the area(s) you are talking about?
I've hit my car's nose pretty hard and all I've done is scuff the underside of the chin. No actual tears.

[MichaelDay]

I suspect the difference is gonza is dragging BACKING OUT. The front lower fascia was designed to flex (with scrapes and gouges when you drag going forward. The rear edge is not sloped the correct direction to like dragging when the rear of the fascia hits the ground first.

In a single width driveway it can be hard to enter and exit at a angle great enough to keep from dragging the front of a Cruiser without having to jump the curb with the rear tire.

I can feel your pain Gonza. The epoxy might do the trick but you will need to look for a longer term solution to that driveway. It would be a pain in the you know what, but you might see if you carry a couple of boards and lay them in the lowest spot at the entrance to the drive before backing out to see if that helps. Otherwise, you need something VERY HEAVY to put at the very rear of your Cruiser to lower the rear and thereby raise the front somewhat (assuming that the doesn't cause the rear to drag).

[KingKole02]

I would just rip that **** off. Mine got stuck and if it hadn't have been for that thing I wouldn't have 1500 worth of damage done to the front.

[2sb]

Might consider installing some metal strips (at least four) from the bottom of the lower cowl to some metal like the radiator support. This way, when it drags, it won't be flexing at the bumper.

[SRG]

I had gotton a rock hit on one of the air scoops below the bumper...I thought... When it started peeling the paint, I knew something was wrong.

The Chrysler dealer refused to repaint the lower bumper assembly. Why? "It didn't come with the car, it's been replaced." How did he know that? "There is no primer under the paint!" To make it worse, it was damaged and cracked again!!

I had bought the car brand new with 6 miles on the odometer. I KNEW it had never been repaired as long as I owned it. How do I prove that I DIDN'T do repair work on my car?

The only thing I could figure is that the under-bumper area was damaged during transport to the dealer, probably being loaded on and off trailers. Of course, the dealer I bought the car from had no record of any damages to the car. (Who fixed the car then?)

The second dealer resolved the issue by calling the area Chrysler rep and got the okay to replace and repaint a new front fascia, with Chrysler paying.

It makes me think that PTers who lower their cars are just plain crazy...you're just asking for more problems.

We avoid anymore scraping problems by remembering that the car is very short, and that you don't have to pull all the way up to the concrete parking stops. Of course we don't have a driveway problem either.

SRG