I used a soldering iron to melt a piece of aluminum drywall patch into the bumper, and then melted scrap plastic (the same type as the bumper) onto the mesh. I sanded, drilled holes, and reattached. Close-up of each patch:
I need to remove the Gorilla Tape, take off the bumper again, sand down the patches, hit them with an adhesion promoter, primer, and body-matched paint, as well as fill in the scratches, sand, and apply adhesion promoter, primer, and paint.
One issue is that I cut the aluminum mesh by the tire a little too big, so I need to carefully trim that before I can hide it.
My
1,300 watt plastic welder from Harbor Freight stopped blowing hot so I used a
25-watt wood burner, which did not seem to provide enough heat and the first tip fell out while I was using it. I realized that I had a
40-watt LED soldering iron that I do not remember buying. This
80-watt plastic welder may have worked better than anything that I used, but Harbor Freight closed before I got there Saturday night, and did not open early enough Monday morning. That plastic welder also comes with steel mesh, which would at least be stronger than the
aluminum patch that I used. The bumper is polypropylene and so is this
cheap plastic folder that I bought.
This seems to work great, just make sure that you trim the mesh a little smaller than the patch that you need so that the edges are not exposed.