Thread: Faded rear bumper painting (black cars only)

CLICK THIS PIC FOR VIDEO:



That was just to show the technique I used with the spray paint can. Go fast and close and get it wet with overlapping passes. Spray all the way across and don't trigger on or off unless the can is moving. Keep the fuzzy edge small and the rest wet because it won't get any smoother as it dries. The coat I applied in this video was the second, there were three. All the same.

If you know how to do the rest, you're all set now and can stop reading to go fix the car.

I have painted lots of cars professionally and this is the simplest way I know to end unsightly sun damaged clearcoat on black 97-03 GPs. No clearcoat is applied in this repair, only one can of paint is needed. Only the bad area is repainted and you will need to buff this after it dries, for best appearance.

Here is a step by step picture story to help explain how I did this-

This is what I bought for the job. It had a messed up nozzle. I swapped with another similar spray can and it worked fine after that. Did a couple other areas too.



This was my bumper- I had already tried buffing, and on the right half, sanding with 1200 grit also. I got a shine on it but the white marks where the clear is almost gone still stand out. All I wanted was for it to be black and shiny there.







Hopefully yours isn't too far gone, mine was not. Sanding and priming would be needed if the paint layer is broken up badly. I chose to just bury it in black.

This is one "coat", dried. That nozzle messed me up so I quit and came back to it a week later. As you can see, its black but the roughness still shows.







I have cracks at this corner. Those won't hide completely. This is how it looked after a week, with no buffing.























Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

OK this part is after the video. Plus another coat, just the same way.





















I tried hand rubbing with polish but it wasn't getting me where I wanted to be-








So I went to the next more agressive method, which is how buffing works. Use the least agressive product necessary to achieve the desired finish.

This is after I used 3M super Duty rubbing compound on the whole area very lightly with a wool pad on a rotary buffer at lowest speed. Before that I used just a soft dry rag to wipe off loose overspray.









After that, I came back with some Meguiar's #82, no reason other than thats what I had. use whatever polish you like. This is after just some easy rubbing with an old T shirt and the polish. I tried to leave as much paint on as possible. The wool pad did load up with black, and I had to turn the rag frequently when polishing. Expect work, the hand rubbing isn't too easy but its what keeps the paint on the car.



















After washing-









Step back and enjoy a less annoying Grand Prix! You will need to keep it clean and polish it now and then, but I do not suggest waxing the area. Peace!

i did a full repaint of my front and back bumpers. its rather easy and you can clear it too. i did.

my back went from this.



to this.



front re painted. the flat spots were all white no paint left at all.





taking the bumper off is like 20 minutes of easy work. best way to paint it and do finish prep. for about 50 bucks you cant go wrong.

id also give this a shot if your car is blue or white or any color. duplicolor is pretty close.

I stuck some replies in bold inside your quote, Speedy-

Originally Posted by Speedy1973

see your lucky you did that before it got to the stage my rear bumper is at. In roughly the same place yours was fading. My clear coat has just gave up, and started flaking/peeling off

Yeah if you don't catch them in time, primer will be required.

You did a damn good job at that too looks really good (For what it is really, and all that is is a quick cover up)

Well, thanks. I was a little suprised at the workability of that particular spray paint, its pretty tough. You are absolutely right, what I showed is the fastest and most half-assed way one could possibly handle the paint issue that I have. But for a car salesman or insurance adjuster, now it "doesn't need paint". Ha. Sad but true.

My car heads to the body shop sometime soon to have the front clip resprayed. IF all turns out well, and as long as they dont bend me over and rape me when it comes time to pay. I'll likely have my rear bumper, trunklid, and spoiler all resprayed aswel. Might have an aftermarket spoiler by that time, and possibly shave tyhe keyhole again like i did on my old silver 01 GT.

I'm looking to rob the rails, decklid, spoiler off my 40th soon and paint those. With refinish paint of course. My front end is chip city but it hardly makes sense for me to redo that because with my commute it would be that way again in a week. Shaving the trunk lock, I might do on the 40th lid. But I do have the black lock cyl so there again, not worth the appearance improvement vs labor because I am due to be rearended any day. Almost got it twice the other day.

Anyhow, the bumper "fix" is holding up nice. It scratches and spots easier than the rest and isn't quite as shiny, but even other painters have a hard time finding the edge where I stopped the paint. I know some of those who watched the vid may have gasped at the no masking ... but you can't have a hard tape line, those don't blend in.

Scotty, you da man wit da can, bud. On the little faded strip I had, wasn't worth taking anything apart. But you and I know the professional way is to remove the cover and clear all of it. Some of the colors might match real well but not having used them all I can't recommend anything more than what I did. Heck my buddy with the Honda did a nasty little post-ice fix on his car and of all the silver cans we had, Ford Argent was closest. He blended out the silver real nice, it really does not stand out at all but for lack of gloss.

The license filler on my GTP was done with the same paint but with clearcoat. Light buffing after dry, no sanding. That was probably four years ago and an untrained eye still would probably never realize the difference between the refinish paint and the spray paint. A thinner rag would know right fast though! UV and chemical resistance of uncatalyzed paints just can't compete with refinish or OEM paint. The original paint on these cars is great quality, in my opinion. You can rub it with thinner all day and never hurt it. Looks great after a decade plus on the roof and sides.

Update:

A dump trucker wasn't holding his brake down good and bumped me at a stoplight a couple weeks ago. Fortunately, my rear bumper was "in good condition". Meaning not white and chalky on top. So I got paid over $600 to fix it and never had to see an adjuster, just sent pics. It pays to keep your vehicle's appearance maintained, for this reason. In a previous incident, one previously damaged door brought the insurance value of the car down by over $3,500. Something to think about.

If you look closely, you'll see two horizontal scratches up high. The dark one is on the spray paint and the lower is on the OE clear.

$600 lol f ing awesome.....i see some sand paper and a re coat of black spray paint coming up soon.

The trick is getting them to hit you ... Last couple years, my bad luck has been a legitimate source of income.