I've never had any problems painting plastic bumpers........

Anything goes in the world of fiberglass and plastic



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 8:30 pm
This is something I wanted to hear your stories about.

I buy/sell cars in my retirement, so I've painted many, many cars over the years, and it usually the front bumpers that are in the worst shape so I've painted several of those over the years.

Now I know what some are going to say, since I paint the cars, and sell them how do I know the paint on the front bumpers last, or flake off.

Well, I've also painted the front bumpers on my daily drivers.

Here is a good example. I've owned a special limited make Nissan [only around 3k made] that had a specific bumper cover just for that model.

Over the years I've had to repair the bumper a few times since I just cannot find a used one nearby [no more new even sold, or anyone making them in the aftermarket since its a very limited run on these cars].

The paint on that bumper, even though Frankenstein'd together a few times has held up just fine over the past 7 years using only Nason single stage urethane, and Nason 2k primer [last time I painted it was seven years ago when my wife drove it off into a ditch]

So, is there a specific car maker that makes bumper covers that are problematic for repainting?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:47 pm
I tackled my first bumper covers back in the early 90s. I haven' really run into any "problem" bumpers per se but I have run into some bumpers that are not aging well. Some plastics are more prone to deterioration and what I call "poisoning" by contaminates. The old GM Enduraflex bumpers seem like they just start breaking up into hunks, then dusting up. I think epoxy primer is generally your best line of defense when it comes to sealing older plastics.
No one particular manufacturer sticks out to me as being that better or worse of a modern plastic bumper. maker.
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 9:44 am
Are you just scuffing the coatings that are already on the bumpers or are you taking them all down to Bare plastic and removing ALL coating on the Bumper covers?

I had some Problems with a mid 90s Chrysler Sebring cover I took down to bare Plastic back a few years ago. my Problem was wax mixed into the plastic itself, Sanding it just brought it out and smeared around by sanding. Once I got the Plastic really clean problem went away.

I did the same thing with some old Ford covers and never had a problem.
Also I used a Primer from Polyvance that worked really good on bare Plastic.
Hard to find the old stuff they used to make, now its all water born? I haven't tried the water born stuff yet.

Im still looking for a Good Filler for plastics PolyVance makes a great one but its very expensive.
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 9:41 pm
Dennis, if you want to take a little chance on something......
https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Chemical-Pla ... B0082LFHNY
That's USC's Pro-Flex. That is not to be confused with Evercoat's Poly Flex. I've used USC's Body Icing and the Pro-Flex on all types of plastics for 26 years now and haven't found anything that I like much better at any pricing. Stuff flows like heavy honey out of those pumptainer units and feathers out much better than regular body fillers. One of the things I like about it is it's heat stability. I've shot temp.s in the upper 160 degree range on my plastics at car shows and nothing moved or ghosted.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 6:46 pm
Doright wrote:Are you just scuffing the coatings that are already on the bumpers or are you taking them all down to Bare plastic and removing ALL coating on the Bumper covers?

I had some Problems with a mid 90s Chrysler Sebring cover I took down to bare Plastic back a few years ago. my Problem was wax mixed into the plastic itself, Sanding it just brought it out and smeared around by sanding. Once I got the Plastic really clean problem went away.

I did the same thing with some old Ford covers and never had a problem.
Also I used a Primer from Polyvance that worked really good on bare Plastic.
Hard to find the old stuff they used to make, now its all water born? I haven't tried the water born stuff yet.

Im still looking for a Good Filler for plastics PolyVance makes a great one but its very expensive.


You're right about that. I usually use the $50 two part bumper filler [ I can't remember the name, but it looks like two big tubes of JB Weld], and it will crack with even a slight flex.

I've tried to strengthen it with wire screen, and doing this does help, but only a little.

As fate would have it, I smacked the crap out of the front bumper today on my daily driver.

It really pissed me off, as my wife is one of those who just has to drive to a certain gas station that sells fuel for about 2 cents cheaper. Well, this station is always busy, and the stalls are very narrow.

As I was swinging in I smacked the concrete poles beside the building. Here is the rub, the poles are painted the same color as the building [well its not a building its a shelf with stuff for sale on the other side behind the poles].

So, the poles are sitting about two foot out from the shelves, so when you look all you see is the back wall of the shelves which are farther away than the poles. Its an optical illusion as you can't see the poles are actually closer than they appear [they only go half way up the wall, not all the way up, and again they are the same exact color].

I guess the good thing is that first, I can do all of the repairs, and paint myself, and second, I will never be goaded into going to that stupid gas station again. I asked my wife how much we saved in gas after buying a new bumper, lights, paint, etc.



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:52 pm
Oh, and I'll bet I'm going to have to use Chroma Base to match the color as its one of those strange metallic Toyota colors, that looks both grey, and plum color at the same time.



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 12:36 am
DarrelK wrote:Dennis, if you want to take a little chance on something......
https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Chemical-Pla ... B0082LFHNY
That's USC's Pro-Flex. That is not to be confused with Evercoat's Poly Flex. I've used USC's Body Icing and the Pro-Flex on all types of plastics for 26 years now and haven't found anything that I like much better at any pricing. Stuff flows like heavy honey out of those pumptainer units and feathers out much better than regular body fillers. One of the things I like about it is it's heat stability. I've shot temp.s in the upper 160 degree range on my plastics at car shows and nothing moved or ghosted.


I will have to try it
Wonder if it will work on the Old Pontiac Endura Bumpers? Thats my next big project.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 5:17 pm
I have indeed used it on those old Endura bumpers a few times in the past.
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