Sanding and painting/re-texturing black bumpers?

[SalvadorP]

Has anyone sanded the bumpers of a 200/700/900? Will it smooth out the texture and lose the characteristic look?

My bumpers have clearly been painted in the past with bumper paint, and so I can't just apply any kind of restorer. I have to remove the paint that is flaking and repaint. A while back I found a stripper that is good for plastic, but it has been discontinued. So the only option is sanding.

I know the paint itself has texture, but I'm affraid of smoothing the bumpers way too much. Although I do need a bit of bondo on one corner, so that one bit would lose all texture anyway.

Does anyone have experience with this type of paint?


Here's a video of a guy using it. Detail of texture at 5:11. Do you think it would look good on a 940?

+ YouTube Video

[Forrest]

If you’re thinking of using a chemical stripper then it would be a good idea to confirm what plastic the bumper is made of (probably ABS) and check on a table such as this whether your chosen chemical is likely to damage the material.

https://www.curbellplastics.com/wp-c...ance-Chart.pdf

You will note if you look at that table that ABS is *not* resistant to most effective chemical paint removers. The safest ones to try first would be caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) or brake fluid (glycol).

[SalvadorP]

Originally Posted by Forrest

If you’re thinking of using a chemical stripper then it would be a good idea to confirm what plastic the bumper is made of (probably ABS) and check on a table such as this whether your chosen chemical is likely to damage the material.

https://www.curbellplastics.com/wp-c...ance-Chart.pdf

You will note if you look at that table that ABS is *not* resistant to most effective chemical paint removers. The safest ones to try first would be caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) or brake fluid (glycol).

You have to be one of the most resoursful guys on the old interwebs Forrest.
I don't know what plastic it is. How does one check this?

Anyway, I'm honestly more inclined to just sand it. Any opinion on whether or not sanding it is a good idea?

[Pete940]

From a video I watched yesterday, Pro XL plasticolor is highly rated, for once you've removed the paint. It acts like more of a dye than paint.

[SalvadorP]

Originally Posted by Pete940

From a video I watched yesterday, Pro XL plasticolor is highly rated, for once you've removed the paint. It acts like more of a dye than paint.

That's the thing, I have to go for paint, not a dye or dye like paint.
Because the bumper has already been painted in the past with a similar paint. It would be hard to remove all paint without sanding and if I do sand, I will lose thye texture, so I have to re-texturize with a proper paint.

I'll try to do it next month. I'll post pics of the result when I do it.