Diving boards VS plastic bumpers aging differently?

[Mwishlist]

My wife's e30 is plastic bumpered, she was backed into by a guy in a parking lot and shattered the trim instantly. He barely touched her. Aesthetically plastic any day, but for daily driving / parking lot / dealing with shitty drivers all day the aluminum bumpers don't have to be replaced every time you touch them at least.

[nando]

it's easy. All the part weights are listed in the ETK.

[Stanley Rockafella]

Im so confused...which is lighter??

[nando]

yeah, I don't think so. the core is about 9 lbs, but the plastic shell is light is only 2.25. The trim isn't more than a couple pounds. The whole assembly doesn't weigh more than 15lbs, and the bumper shocks are smaller too.

if anything, they are roughly the same.

[djjerme]

nope.

Plastic bumpers with core and all the support are about 5+ pounds heavier than the aluminum db and it's shocks.

Now you can remove the honeycomb and save about 10-12 lbs, but then if you even get tapped, the plastic will shatter.

This has been beaten to death for years in the racing community..

[nando]

The are aluminum, but they sure as heck aren't lighter than plastic. it's not a huge difference but the plastics are slightly lighter.

[djjerme]

OK..

The diving board bumpers are ALUMINUM not Chrome. And they are LIGHTER than a comparable plastic bumpered car.

As for sturdiness - the Diving Boards take a bigger beating than plastic bumper cars.


Speak from experience..

[Stanley Rockafella]

speaking of alum bumpers

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=219612034

[J.Rizo]

I didn't think the price was that crazy for getting a complete kit pieced together with everything you needed. I also bought while they were 10% off last week. So, in essence, I paid a $500 premium to make sure everything I needed was included and got brand new items.

Sure, there was a time in my life where I would have absolutely waited for the best deal out there. I was the king of that. :)

Mr. Wolfe

haha yeah honestly its all depends on where you're at with your build.

because 500 isn't necessarily a huge amount of money, but for my e30 specifically that extra 500 would pay for a lot of little issues that need to be fixed. but yeah, I'm sure down the road I'd come to a point where I wouldn't mind that premium either.

[Mr. Wolfe]

no no no I'm all for euro bumpers, I just wouldn't buy them through ecs because of the price.

even if my car had perfect condition this and that, I just couldn't justify spending that much money on bumpers. if you're patient mint sets will pop up for 5-600 dollars and they're oem. thats just me personally though, everyones different.

I didn't think the price was that crazy for getting a complete kit pieced together with everything you needed. I also bought while they were 10% off last week. So, in essence, I paid a $500 premium to make sure everything I needed was included and got brand new items.

Sure, there was a time in my life where I would have absolutely waited for the best deal out there. I was the king of that. :)

Mr. Wolfe

[J.Rizo]

Totally worth it to clean up that atrocity of impact standards.

no no no I'm all for euro bumpers, I just wouldn't buy them through ecs because of the price.

even if my car had perfect condition this and that, I just couldn't justify spending that much money on bumpers. if you're patient mint sets will pop up for 5-600 dollars and they're oem. thats just me personally though, everyones different.

[nando]

yeah I'd heard before that spec racers preferred the metal bumpers because contact is inevitable and they hold up better.

[ForcedFirebird]

Yeah, closing speed wasn't high, but it's the fact that now I have to try to find plastic bumpers and they are getting expensive. He had a tank slapper next of me, went wide, but didn't quite skate by him. He ended up spinning me, and I almost ate the inside wall. We are traveling about 80mph where it happened.

We try not to play bumper cars, but the plastic bumpers disintegrate at the very thought of a bump draft. lol

My reason is functional, not aesthetic, but in reality I miss my old car with it's polished bumpers :(

[nando]

right, but the relative speed between cars wouldn't have been that high, correct? in that case the big bumpers would make more sense since you're way more likely to make contact, and as I said the plastic covers will crack. the inner core is made to absorb energy so it will break. I try not to play bumper cars on the street though. :p

[ForcedFirebird]

the silly thing is, diving boards are not stronger than plastic bumpers. the plastic bumpers on the E30 use the same composite inside structure they use today in modern cars. Both have bumper shocks. the only advantage is at low speed, the plastic bumper covers will crack, and the big ugly faded rubber trim will not. But in a real accident I'll take the plastic bumpers any day.

I would rather have metal, and the very reason I am converting my late model Spec car to metal. I had the pleasure of contact in turn 17 at Sebring. I was in a plastic bumper car and there was nothing left of my bumper, a hefty dent in the side of my car, and the metal bumper car didn't have a scratch on it.