Painting my bumper for the MI meet

billcu

billcu

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Hope you don't mind Mike, but you're not the only one preparing your Mark for the meet.:D

The bumper on my red Mark always looked rough. I've been meaning to paint it for years now, and since I've got some extra paint from my rocker repair job,I thought this would be a good time to do it.

It turned out to be more of a project than I thought.

The bumper was repaired before I bought the car (notice the gray material on the driver's side of the bumper). The bumper was repainted and I had to sand all that off. Luckily most of the chips in the paint were on this second coat of paint.

Here's some before and during photos. I just put the first coat of primer on it. It's some kind of flexible primer.

I'll post more photos as the job progresses. The photo with the headlights removed almost looks photochopped but it's not.

bump1.jpg


bump2.jpg


bump3.jpg


bump4.jpg
 
Good point JP, but this is my winter car, and I'm afraid that the fasteners connected to the plastic bumper will crumble if I touch them.:)

It's not that difficult to work on it this way. The bumper is supported as it should be on the car and I don't have to worry about the bumper flexing too much when I reinstall it.
 
I'm not done yet Jamie. The primer shot is where I'm at now.

I like that photo too Jeremi. I'm going to try to get the same shot when the bumper is painted. Chances are, I won't be able to get the same effect though.:)
 
Looks great Bill :) Maybe we can have a paint the front bumper clinic in Jeremi's garage next to the PDR, and gear change clinic :)
 
I don't think I could do a Gen 2 bumper Mike, especially with a color like yours.

If my color doesn't match, it won't be that obvious. The way that the Gen 2 bumper meets the hood above the grille, it would have to be a perfect match.
 
hey bill you didnt shoot that with rattle can primer did you???
i hope not! if you did, your new paint will be flying off it this winter.
before you put paint on it, you should get a spray can of bulldog adhesion promoter from the local paint supply shop and spray it over the primer, then spray your paint, or, even better get bulldog in a pint and mix it in your base color and your clearcoat to the proper ratio. it will not only promote better adhesion, but it is also acts like a flex additive . its good stuff and it is perfectly clear, you can mix it in the paint when painting a whole car. when i re-did my 98's nose i mixed it in with the whole batch of black, not just what i used for the bumper. its cheap too, i suggest getting some you will be happy in the long run.
 
The people at the paint supply told me to use this Evercoat flexible primer. It's made for plastic bumpers. It is a rattle can, but it says it has excellent adhesion for automotive plastics. I've been sanding it and using some flexible spot putty made by the same company and it seems to be adhering good.

I asked them about Bulldog but they didn't know about it (probably just because they don't sell it though).

I need to go down there to get some more (it's not very expensive) and I'll ask again.

If you think I should just sand it off instead and get the bulldog, I could do that at this point without too much trouble. I'd hate to waste my paint.

By the way, they also told me that I didn't really need primer with this paint unless there was some repairs on the bumper.

They seem to be very knowledgable helpful people. They didn't want to sell me something that I didn't really need.

What do you think Jamie?
 
no leave the primer on, i just didnt know if it was that crap primer from autozone, its ok that it is from a rattle can as long as its the right stuff and it sounds like you got the right stuff. dont sand it off, bulldog can be sprayed concentrate right over primer, or it can be mixed in the base coat, you mix your base and reducer like you are supposed to, and you can dump the bulldog right into the mixture, you do not have to have a ratio with bulldog, you can put in as little or as much as you want, within reason, if you mix a quart of base with reducer, you wouldnt want to dump in a half gallon of bulldog lol, your base coat and reducer is almost alwasy 50:50, i part base, to 1 part reducer and then you can dump in like a 1/4 bulldog. it will allow the base coat to really stick to the primer. im suprised they dont have it where you went, its very common down here, you can even get the aerosol version at walmart! maybe try a napa they may carry it.
 
Thanks Jamie, I appreciate the input here.

If it's got a bolt or a wire on it, I can usually figure it out, but this painting stuff is new to me.:)
 
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We finally painted the bumper. We had some problems, it was too hot and we ran out of clear coat, so it looks a little orange peeled. No big deal, I'll wet sand it and put some more clear on it. I'm going to leave it alone for now. I might even wait until next year to touch it up, after all, this is my winter car.

All in all, I'm very happy with the rocker and bumper paint jobs, they are not perfect, but it looks a lot better than it used to. I've spent about 250 bucks for all the materials and a few cases of beer covered our labor.:)

I'd like to thank my friend Scott again for all the help. He's not happy with the results yet, but it wasn't his fault. The clear coat was just starting to smooth out when we ran out.

I still need to clean it up and install the chrome strips, I'll add one more finished photo (probably from the meet) here when I'm done.

Here's where it's at now:

bump5.jpg


bump6.jpg


bump7.jpg


bump8.jpg
 
gee bill, you cant ask for much better then that , for a winter car with those miles, looks excellent. nice job. keeping her looking good and running strong even for a winter car, most winter cars dont look a 1/4 as good as that!
 
Thanks guys.

I really hate doing this kind of work on cars.

Give me a wrench anyday.:)
 
What time does that fun start Jeremi?

What tools should I bring? My big wrenches? Drills, taps?

Sound level meter, oscilloscope?:D
 
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