I bought an accolade Ken Style front bumper for my 02 Lancer OZ. I took the old bumper off tonight and fit the new one on. Fits like a glove. First big question. There is styrofoam and two metal pieces on either side of the front bumper. I need to use all of those pieces right? Also, is there an easy way to drill the holes? I'm assuming that since there are no holes marked on the accolade bumper that they did that because not all bumpers are created equal. One more question. The area behind my bumper is ugly. What's an easy way to cover it all up? I've seen that metal grill stuff on ebay...but how does that attach to the bumper? Is there something else I can do to cover up that area? Maybe some big fog lamps or something?
Please help a guy out. This is fun, but I don't want to mess it up and I'm too bull-headed to pay someone to do something this easy.

 

spray paint everything behind the bumper black, it will ook a whole lot better. Also just set the bumper on and drill the holes to make it the easiest.

 

defenitely spray paint everything behind the bumper black, looks sooo much better

 

When I was fitting my bumper for my old Eclipse, what I did was before I painted it, set the bumper on the car exactly where you want it to fit and use a sharpe to go around and mark where the holes go. After you are done, double check them all again by removing the bumper and putting it back where it goes. Then if they are still lined up and correct, drill them out and do a test fit. If the holes are still off by a little bit, you might be able to make the hole just a little bit bigger and use a washer when you secure it onto the car.

Also make sure you attach the inner wheel well guards to the bumper using those little pop screws. Make holes for those. You don't want to be getting water and mud in your engine compartment. If the bumper is too wide and doesn't fit properly for the guards to go on, just make a mount that attaches to the bottom corner of the bumper so it doesn't fly around all over the place when you drive. There is nothing like a body kit that doesn't stay attached. It makes them crack all up and the paint flake off after a while.

If those wheel well guards don't fit, you can get some black outdoor type carpet (the hard tight weave kind) or maybe even black astro-turf and line the parts of the wheel well that have the gaps. I've seen many people do that if the fitment wasn't exact. Just punch holes in the carpet and your wheel well guards and secure it in place with either pop screws or a method of your choice.

As for the holes in the body kit, I would use grill mesh and paint it black. That will limit the view thru the bumper to the ugly components behind. Cut the grill mesh too big for the opening, then bend the edges over the rear of the opening, using bondo/body filler to secure it in place. That stuff holds it in place pretty much permanently. (do this after you paint it of course) While you are at it, you might even want to install some fog lights. Go with the small rectangular ones, they match the lancer since it is a little boxy.

Hope I could help you out.. let me know if those are some good ideas and if they worked out for ya.