Refinishing bumpers
Refinishing bumpers My '96 Z-28 is approaching 13 years of age, and the bumpers are showing a lot of "spiderwebbing" in the paint. I'd like to strip them and repaint them.
I know that stripping plastic bumpers can be tricky. Has anyone tried "soda balsting" with good results? If so did you do them with a portable unit at home, or did you take them to a professional stripper?
Thanks in advance....
I know that stripping plastic bumpers can be tricky. Has anyone tried "soda balsting" with good results? If so did you do them with a portable unit at home, or did you take them to a professional stripper?
Thanks in advance....
You have to be careful if your going to blast bumpers. Your best although not the easiest solution is to sand all of the existing paint off then use a good flexible 2k primer. Make sure you prep the plastic properly.
Although there are a lot of relatively large, flat areas on the bumpers that could be easily sanded, there are also a number of crevices and "tight" areas, and I'm concerned about getting all the paint off. That's why I was thinking some sort of media removal methods.
Not sure what the best way to strip it would be but when painting my car (sanding out some paint chips) after you get through the clear it doesn't take much to get to the surface on our bumpers. And as far as prep if you can find a product called Bulldog, the make a great abrassive cleaner for bare plastic bumpers called "Bulldog clean and scuff" or something like that. Basically use it and a scotch brite pad to wash the bumper and it scuffs it good and spray either just the bulldog itself or a 3:1 mix of bulldog and primer whichever then follow up with base and clear
I JUST did that to my front bumper and I don't recommend using a stripper...the factory paint is very resilient to so much stuff and when the stripper leaves little bits behind, using more stripper will make the plastic kinda bubble. The bubbling will go down but not completely. What I wish I would have done is used a Dual Action sander to remove most of the paint from the reachable surfaces and hand sanded the hard to reach ares just enough to smooth em out to apply over the existing finish. I say that because now I'm working on the ENTIRE bumper to smooth out all these little ripples that were formed by either the stripper or sanding in places I shouldn't have been power sanding...I'm mostly hand-sanding the whole damn thing now when I should have applied paint a long time ago. Swat
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They make a stripper for plastics, but I think it's the same as the normal gel stuff and they say to take it off fast. Stuff sux. It warped a bumper of mine once, used well within the instructions. And the fumes are just agonizing, and not in a good way. And sanding it too much can leave low spots. I'd go over the plastics with wet/dry 300 and prime it. Then I mix the plastic paint with 1/3 of the hardener so it can breathe.
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Problem is, from what I've heard, there isn't a stripper that's completely safe for plastic. I have a friend who used to own a body shop, and we were just talking about this a couple of days ago. He understands my desire to get the old finish off, but said the two times he tried "safe" strippers, it really messed with the bumper.
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From: chicago
here in the chicago land area, there are a few shop that repair and strip bumpers and it comes back to you in primer, keystone is one of them, using a sand blasting type of material along with that high of air pressure will do more damage then good
if the bumper is damaged/rock chips, or just old, you could just d.a. the bumper, with 180 then 240 then primer, or if its damaged badly then it needs to be repaired, or if the paint spider webbed, d.a. with 120/180 then 240
but no need to blast plastic there are other effective ways out there to repair plastic
if the bumper is damaged/rock chips, or just old, you could just d.a. the bumper, with 180 then 240 then primer, or if its damaged badly then it needs to be repaired, or if the paint spider webbed, d.a. with 120/180 then 240
but no need to blast plastic there are other effective ways out there to repair plastic
My bumpers aren't damaged, just a case where the paint is old and spiderwebbed. Call me stubborn, but I'm an old timer, and don't have a lot of faith in a quick "scuff and paint". I'd really like to get ALL of the old finish off and get a "brand new car" look.
There's got to be some way to do it.....
There's got to be some way to do it.....
SEM makes a urethane bumper stripper it works but its expensive and in an aerosol can so the mist floats. If you use stripper you need to wash the parts off with water really well. Make sure there isn't any stripper residue left on the part or its going to cause you problems. I would just bite the bullet and sand the old paint off, you can fold the paper into smaller pieces to get into the smaller body lines. Good luck.
You don't need to strip the paint, just sand out and featheredge and reshoot. The Camaro bumper is nowhere near as complex as many other bumpers I work with every day. By complex I mean "crevices" and whatnot. Just sand it.
Marc3.4V6 is right. My Trans Am bumper is a BIATCH to work on! LOL The Camaro bumper shouldn't be as bad. Take it from my present at-home experience with doing what you're doing, just sand what you can with a DA sander to the bare plastic, then hand sand the hard-to-get areas by hand just enough to smooth it and scuff it nicely. That stripper will only 'kinda' work and what's left is a pain in the butt to deal with. I just don't want you to get to where I'm at now, wishing I hadn't done this or that and stuck with a bumper sitting on the garage floor taking up space and time and elbow grease! lol Swat
i would just get a new bumper while you can still get them. i just bought 2 for my 94 because i need a new one but i bought a second because production is stopping on them very soon. if you get a new bumper just keepthe old one as a spare.
if they are rough and cracked I start with 80 and DA it down to the raw plastic and then work my way up to about 180 with hand sanding and DA'ing then start priming. I have had them media blasted, kinda depends on the bumper whether or not thats worth it but it does take off the paint..
if they are rough and cracked I start with 80 and DA it down to the raw plastic and then work my way up to about 180 with hand sanding and DA'ing then start priming. I have had them media blasted, kinda depends on the bumper whether or not thats worth it but it does take off the paint..
Chris,
When you say "media blasted", what type of "media" do you mean...Plastic, soda, black beauty, walnut shell?
Its alot of very tedius work. I just had my car painted and I sanded the front and rear bumper covers myself and it was a PITA.
Honestly I would just buy new bumper cover. You would be suprised how cheap they are. Under 100 bucks already primed. Just scuff them with scotchbrite pad or something and wipe them down goos with some surface prep solvent.
Honestly I would just buy new bumper cover. You would be suprised how cheap they are. Under 100 bucks already primed. Just scuff them with scotchbrite pad or something and wipe them down goos with some surface prep solvent.
Its alot of very tedius work. I just had my car painted and I sanded the front and rear bumper covers myself and it was a PITA.
Honestly I would just buy new bumper cover. You would be suprised how cheap they are. Under 100 bucks already primed. Just scuff them with scotchbrite pad or something and wipe them down goos with some surface prep solvent.
Honestly I would just buy new bumper cover. You would be suprised how cheap they are. Under 100 bucks already primed. Just scuff them with scotchbrite pad or something and wipe them down goos with some surface prep solvent.
I agree with the PITA part. Yes, I just retired, and have some extra time on my hands, but I've got to believe that hand sanding would take HOURS. Yeah, I have time, but patience???
I didn't think bumper covers were that inexpensive...I'll have to look into that.
EDIT....I just looked up new bumper covers at GMParts direct.com...They're $225 and $200 respectively, front and rear. BUT, if anyone knows where to get them for $100, pease speak up.
Last edited by leadfoot4; Jun 16, 2008 at 08:35 AM.