Paint removed but a couple more questions

Anything goes in the world of fiberglass and plastic



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PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 7:44 pm
This is a follow up to repainting the plastic bumper that is blistering on my 06 Explorer. OK so I looked into have the bumper soda blasted but this local guy who did it was going out of business and his son I talked to on the phone said he charged something like $120 a hour to do it. Well no wonder he was going out of business! His son said people were too cheap to pay $120 an hour for his work! I guess I'm one of them...

So I decided to try some NAPA paint remover in a spot where the black scuff plate covered up the paint. No damage to the plastic.

So I tried it on the corners and duct taped the area off but it bled through! AARRGGHH. So I'm going to have to strip the entire bumper. I hope this SEM paint matches the rest of the car.

I had to use a razor blade to scrape off the paint and then took a rag soaked in lacquer thinner to wipe off any remaining paint. Then some #0000 steel wool.

The razor blade left some scratches.

I found some Krylon clear plastic adhesive from Wal-Mart I was planning on using as primer but I think the scratches will show.

Once I spray the adhesive on the bumper can I use any ordinary sandable primer over top of that then wet sand it down before I lay on the base coat? Or do I need to use a flexible primer?

I've never painted a plastic bumper before, just metal.
Kingsport Tennessee

2003 Subaru Baja
2006 Ford Explorer
1998 Chevy Express 1500
1980 Fiat Spider turbo
1987 Yugo 1500 turbo
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1981 Trabant 601

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:09 pm
Yeah....$120 an hour seems to be about right for the going price around where I live. The fella that soda blasted my vette charged me $700 and did it in about 4 1/2 hrs but he had to travel 2 hours to get to my home. If you have the bumper off the vehicle there is no reason the guy couldn't have done it for about $100 in his shop....probably would have taken about 45 minutes or less. Finding someone to soda or media blast around where I live is few and far between. If I were a younger man I might have considered a career change. Since the car is a 2006 you might have some color fade to deal with. My vette bumpers are plastic also and I just used some 400 grit and sanded the heck out of any scratches....I mean it will not remove a gouge but you are already down to the bare plastic anyway. I learned that although high build primer is good it will not cover pretty deep scratches. I am new to this so take what I say with a grain of salt and follow what the moderators say.
Give a man a brush, and he will paint a Picasso.
Give a man a spray gun, and the wife better hide the car.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:45 pm
Okay, just a few comments.... first, I'd rather just replace most of these later model bumper covers but that's another subject.... Steel wool, no don't be using that around soft plastics like this, it can imbed itself and you can later be staring at thousands of tiny bleeding rust spots. We don't even use it anywhere near bare wood in restoration shops these days for the same reason. Razor blades.... those are cuts, and cuts need filler, something like USC's Body Icing or other semi-flexible filler would be easy to fill and sand with finer sandpapers. Never assume a high build is going to fill them in. Krylon Plastic Adhesive- No, that is definitely no kind of filler for this. Most of us use an adhesion promoter like Bulldog or other pro equivalent on bare plastic and THEN go into epoxy sealer/ primer etc.
Okay, it sounds like you are trying to mostly aerosol this cover....if so, don't get your hopes up on much of a match.... even factories don't do such a great match at times. If you just don't have the equipment consider doing some of the fill/prep work and having a local shop shoot it for you. Personally on a 2006 I'd have been looking at the Pick and Pulls for used cover in your color. There are parts out there on later models like this.....
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:30 am
DarrelK wrote:Okay, just a few comments.... first, I'd rather just replace most of these later model bumper covers but that's another subject.... Steel wool, no don't be using that around soft plastics like this, it can imbed itself and you can later be staring at thousands of tiny bleeding rust spots. We don't even use it anywhere near bare wood in restoration shops these days for the same reason. Razor blades.... those are cuts, and cuts need filler, something like USC's Body Icing or other semi-flexible filler would be easy to fill and sand with finer sandpapers. Never assume a high build is going to fill them in. Krylon Plastic Adhesive- No, that is definitely no kind of filler for this. Most of us use an adhesion promoter like Bulldog or other pro equivalent on bare plastic and THEN go into epoxy sealer/ primer etc.
Okay, it sounds like you are trying to mostly aerosol this cover....if so, don't get your hopes up on much of a match.... even factories don't do such a great match at times. If you just don't have the equipment consider doing some of the fill/prep work and having a local shop shoot it for you. Personally on a 2006 I'd have been looking at the Pick and Pulls for used cover in your color. There are parts out there on later models like this.....


Yes. I realize this is probably not going to look as good as if it was painted using a spray gun.

I know this isn't the best way to fix a bad paint job (oranage peel) but I've wetsanded two cars I've repainted:

Yugo using Dupont Centurion acryllic enamel:

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Valspar tractor paint, some panels were repainted with a paint roller, see if you can tell:

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I know Dupont Chromabase is the way to go but would you spend $2000 on paint on a $200 (Yugo) and a $300 (Fiat Brava)?

I actually found a used bumper cover on Ebay already painted Peublo Gold but they wanted $300 for it. Too bad I can find one locally and see if I can swap it out for a small fee.

It appears at least half of this Explorer was resprayed at one time or another and they really didn't do a good job at that. When I pulled the tail lights off to get to the upper bolts holding the bumper cover on, there was allot of overspray behind the tail lamps and there is over spray on the spare tire. I'm going to turn it around so any prospective buyers don't see it!

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I tried to sell this vehicle last year and people kept nitpicking it to death and nobody would even make me an offer. Either it was one of the 3rd row seats not going up (stripped plastic gear in the seat assembly) or 126k miles on an 8 year old vehicle. etc.

Hopefully will we have another bad winter like last year and that might be a good time to sell it. It's AWD and goes great in the snow but I already have a Subaru and my wife doesn't like to drive in the snow anyway.

Another thing is the running boards scrub when the rear doors open:

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This may be a sign of frame damage. I don't know know. Maybe that's what is turning people off.

I think if I place some shims under the rear bolts I can drop it down enough, then repaint these once sanded down.

So I'm not really concerned about the rear bumper all that much knowing I may have to sell this vehicle $2000 below book value to get rid of it. I'm sure the paint peeling off the corners is not going to help.

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Otherwise it's a nice vehicle, I just don't need it (got too many daily driver's as it is and the insurance companies are like the mafia).
Kingsport Tennessee

2003 Subaru Baja
2006 Ford Explorer
1998 Chevy Express 1500
1980 Fiat Spider turbo
1987 Yugo 1500 turbo
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1981 Trabant 601



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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:43 am
OK so I applied this Krylon plastic adhesive then primered the bumper and laid down a base coat. Surprising the base coat seemed to match. It was when I got to the clear coat that this happened:

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This was what I used:

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The paint didn't actually lift but gave it a leathery, alligator look and feel to it.

Unless it's not intended to be used over top of a base coat but just a plastic coating.

Otherwise the color matched:

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I grabbed a can of Krylon clear coat I had and it didn't lift the paint or cause the leathery appearance but looks rather dull. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'm thinking about wet sanding the affected area and see what it looks like. Luckily I caught it before spraying the entire bumper.

I'm thinking about just having NAPA mix up a can of acrylic enamel and sand it down and respray it with enamel and wetsand and buff it.

This is the first time I've ever used a base/clear coat paint. It didn't pan out too well..
Kingsport Tennessee

2003 Subaru Baja
2006 Ford Explorer
1998 Chevy Express 1500
1980 Fiat Spider turbo
1987 Yugo 1500 turbo
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1981 Trabant 601

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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:44 pm
You've got incompatible products there with the aerosols. Get the real automotive stuff as you said. Oh, and for future reference.... you did not have a problem with base/clear coat here. A base/clear system is an automotive paint system specifically engineered to lay down properly. You ended up putting together a color coat (probably an enamel) and clear coat (probably a lacquer) that were never designed to be used together.
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!

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