Bumper cover frustration

[68ragtop]

I know this has been touched on before, but I was hoping for some fresh perspective.

I have spent many hours wet sanding this urathane cover down to remove all existing paint. Now, I have a new problem. There are many small scrapes & imperfection in the plastic. So what do I do with them? I repaired one with a urathane filler. It was a ton of work to sand it back out & smooth again. I just don't know if I have the will to repeat this with every mark in the cover. So, Do I have other otptions?

I was thinking of using two coats of epoxy primer as a filler, & then resanding that to see what It looked like.

I am pretty bummed about the effort this might take to make these nice. There are two sections in the front, & two in the rear of the car, so this is just one of the four.

I have a looooong road ahead of me.

What would you do with it? I wish GM still made new ones, That's the way I used to do it. I did nothing at all, just replaced them.

[Phil V]

Bulldog bumper stripper down to BARE urethane (NO old paint at all), sand rough spots/gouges smooth (remove rough edges with 180 - 220 grit paper). Fill imperfections with flexible polyester spot putty. sand smooth. Apply adhesion promoter followed by spraying one coat of epoxy primer then a couple coats of 2K fill primer (with or without flexibleizer). Block sand smooth and you should be good to go.

[68ragtop]

Phil, is the epoxy coat then to seal the cover, or is it to promote adheasion for the 2K surfacer? I didn't realized I could use a surfacer on flexable bumpers covers

Carl

[68ragtop]

Update:

I made the repairs using a 2-part urathane repair/filler. I then sprayed on the single coat of epoxy, thinned as a sealant, followed by one coat of 2K surfacer, I applied second coats on area's were the repairs were finished, & followed with a light guide coat.

Now that I am sanding the covers back down, some other marks are showing up. Should I treat this like a regular body panel? Normally I would use a polyester filler for the small marks, & then one more coat of surfacer.

How much material, & what type is safe on these flexable parts? The car will really be garage kept, & hopefully never be in regular traffic, so the likely hood of a bumper impact is very small compared to a daily driver.

Thanks again, Carl

[Len]

Carl
For small gouges and other surface imperfections we use flexible polyester filler. You may not have a problem using rigid filler if the bumper isn't used much but even driving down the road causes flexing that could cause problems in the future.


http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/EV411.jpg
Flexible Filler Link (http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=E411&Category_Code=FM)

[68ragtop]

Thanks Len.

I am always uneasy painting flexable parts.

I remember back in 1988 I painted a 1986 Trans am that was an insurance salvage car. I was parked at a local hardware store, just getting out as an older lady backed up, right into the front nose. Literally all the paint just fell off the cover onto the parking lot. The only thing that stayed put was the first coat of primer over the factory paint. I didn't get to see how far it pushed in, because it popped back into place right away.

But, that was old technology, & I probably made some prep errors.

Now I am just gun shy:o


Worse thing about that deal was, I only painted the cover to match the rest of the car, it was a dark red metalic. Then I had to paint the cover again, & it ended up not matching perfect afterall. Go figure.:cool:

Carl