All modern "bumpers" (really the complete fascia) are energy absorbing
thermoplastics:
http://www.plastics-car.com/Todays-Automobiles/Auto-Body-Exterior/Bumpers-Fa
scia-Systems.html

It's the mold tooling that is prohibitively expensive, and these are all
painted to match the car.  As I mentioned earlier, my son ripped the rear
fascia off his Passat parallel parking and it was $2000 to replace.

At this point I'd settle for a plastic replacement for the curved metal
bumpers on the early Vanagons and use the stock plastic end caps.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Don Hanson
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 8:49 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Another bumper built update

Doesn't "bumper" imply the ability to bump?   Fiberglass would crack and
bust if you bumped into anything...or if some one bumped into you....like
they do parking in the cities....