VIS Battle Z rear bumper...please help!

VIS Battle Z rear bumper...please help!

I just got back from a professional bodyshop that told me my new VIS Battle Z rear bumper will not fit on my car even with extensive modification. Does anybody have any experience with this bumper? I worked on it myself for about an hour and could not get it to fit right either. Is there something I could be missing? Spending $350 to get a new bumper and have it shipped to me is not an option, so please let me know what I can do. Thanks!

OK...no replies...so has anyone had a problem installing any other type of fiberglass rear bumper? If so, how did you fix it?

What sort of problems are you having.. Pictures would be the absolute best way for us to help you out.

The bumper is just too wide. I bolted up one side of it and went to the other side and stared to bolt it up and the place where the bolt was on the other side just broke off. When I hold up the bumper to the car it just looks like it sticks out about an inch on one side and there is a 2 inch gap in between the bumper and the tail lights. I will take some pics tomorrow and post them up to see if it helps. Thanks for the reply.

they are not really a professional bodyshop then if they have a problem like that.

a professional bodyshop would not tell you that a 2 inch gap is a problem.

that is a crappy quality bodykit company too...2 inches IMO is outside of the tolerance

2 inches is a big gap... but any REAL body shop would be able to fix it and make it fit... just take it somewhere else... somewhere that knows what they're doing...

hey where did you get your kit from? i.e. what site? i wanna make sure i DON'T get mine from there.

If the bumper is too wide, can't a decent body shop split it down the center, and cut out that 2 inches, and join them back together with some epoxy and some fiberglass/sanding?

I have taken it to two shops, $800 was the cheapest estimate the other wanted $1200 without even trying to put it on. What do you think sounds reasonable? You live in Canada, do people have problems with the bondo cracking? Should I just get another kit/lip or still try to make this one work?

ya you wouldnt want too much bondo.

I have no bondo on my car almost. the conversion I did used all metal almost.

too much bondo will crack for sure doesnt matter where you are. unless you dont drive your car. hope that helps

Well here is the deal, I guess I could "make" it work with some major fiberglass work, some rivets, and a lot of bondo. As I live in MN and it gets to -10 degrees regularly in the winter, I am too worried about the bondo cracking to actually put in all the effort. If I have someone else do it, they want $800 to make it work and they have said it will probably crack before too long as well. So here is the deal, $800 for body work + $200 to paint it = $1000 to make a $130 bumper work. It just really sucks, the front bumper and sideskirts fit almost perfectly and I really like the way the rear bumper looks but I can't justify paying a grand for something that will have to be repaired in 3 months ya know. I would rather just find a rear bumper or lip that actually fits and just needs to be painted. Unless you guys think it would be worth it to have this put on for $1K, are there any rear bumpers out there that you guys know "do" actually fit well. Or should l just go with the rear lip that shyguy has? I am open to suggestions.

it not the kit thats screwing you bud, its the body shop.

have you ever tried to take it to another shop?

Thank you Vortex. Its not done yet. after this winter. something new will be added to my toy.

ya I use to have everything clean on my car. but as soon as it became the company show car. its different now lol

Well now just yesterday I was parked somewhere and whey I came back to my car, someone had hit my rear bumper. Now I NEED to get a new bumper put on. Travis, I tried calling you last night and left a message with my #. I will be around tonight if you want to give me a call back. Any ideas you can give me would be great, and if you can tell me how to do it, I can either try it myself or call around and ask some body shops if they do it that way and see how much they would charge. I dont want a lot of bondo on my car but I don't really know how else to do it. Thanks for your help guys.

let's try this again....where did you get this kit from? i was thinking of getting the same kit and i don't wanna have the same problem

I bought the bumper directly from VIS. Even though the bumper doesn't fit right on the left side, the rest of the kit is perfect and this is still one of the best quality kits I have ever seen. In NO WAY do I intend this to be a rip on VIS. If I thought the bumper was crap, I wouldn't waste my time asking about how to get it on. The quality of this product is impressive and, from how well the front bumper and sideskirts went on, I am pretty sure I just got a bad mold or something.

By the way Travis, thanks for all of your help on the phone the other day. I will begin doing what you told me to do in about 3 weeks once I get my seats and suspension put in. You were a big help and are a true asset to the Corolla community. Thanks again!

Just saw this thread and read through it. Any updates? Did you get it to fit?

No updates yet. Travis (Vortex-aka DA MAN!) told me how to get it on the car, now I just have to find some place to do it. I don't have a garage or any other place to work on my car, so I am waiting until my friend gets his house here in the next few weeks so I can at least have a place to do the work. Once I have a place to work on it, I will have to see what pans out. I am currently having some problems since a guy in a Pacifica decided to back into me (that makes two people who have hit me in the last 2 weeks when I have not been in the car). He messed up my stock rear bumper pretty bad and the paint on my rear quarter panel is starting to bubble from the impact. He also did a good job of jacking up my TRD rear lip on the driver's side (which I was going to sell). I got an estimate, and it was almost $1K. The guy who hit me didn't have any insurance, so now, if I want my car fixed, I have to pay the $500 deductible just to get my car back to where it was and then I will have to pay whatever to put the new bumper on. I am getting a little frustrated and am starting to think that I might just get the TOM's rear lip that is on Racing Solutions website and call it a day, especially since people seem to love hitting my car and I don't what do have to redo any of the work that was done to get the VIS bumper molded to the car. But the only problem I have with the TOMS lip is that this damn VIS bumper looks f**king sweet and with the tricks Travis shared with me, it would look SIIIICCCKKK!!! on the car. I have actually seen that TOM lip on a car in person, and it looks sweet too (Pete, you have it on your car don't you???), but this bumper would be original as I don't know anyone on here with it. Oh well blah blah blah...I will keep you all posted lol...By the way feel free to let me know if you guys think I should just do the TOM's lip and call it a day...way less work and it could be on the car in a week, but not as sweet and the Battle Z....