B&A painted front bumper trim and valance

Well, finally, it's was nice enough today to shoot some paint on my ugly front end trim. The valance came off pretty easy, but I had to TUG and TUG and TUG to get the upper trim off! Whatever the case, here's the paint formula I used:

Washed and dried all pieces in the shower (because of their size) with soap and water.

4 coats of Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter.
4 coats of Duplicolor Flexible bumper black paint
2 coats of Duplicolor Clear Coat.

This works VERY well if you have just a little patience. By the looks of it, it should hold up very well. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't make these things look good with just rattle can paint, because you can.

TIP: I picked up a little accessory at Autozone called the "Krylon Can Gun." Basically it's a gun attactment that fits over the top of spray paint cans and you can trigger shoot everything. A steal at only $4.

Below is a before shot:

 

[Hartman]

And here's the after. Let me know what you think.

 

[ok89]

I think it looks excellent. I really like that better than the greyish color it was to begin with.

 

[BT4auBURN]

looks good....need another pic from a different angle though. What would it take to paint the "chrome" part of the bumper? I think that is what I am going to do.

 

[Hartman]

I'll have more pics soon. Painting the chrome would be a different story. I'm not sure that would be a do-it-yourself project, but you could try. Painting the chrome would require etching primer, and you might have to scuff up the chrome a bit.

YetiX did it, but I haven't seen him around in a few months, but he did say that the paint was starting to flake off already.

 

[Hartman]

Here's another angle:

 

[BT4auBURN]

Well that sucks. I may just try to get a black limited bumper from a 99-01 instead. are you going to paint the trim on the rear bumper.

 

[Hartman]

Yeah the back is next, but I'm having a tough time with the trim because it tucks underneath the body and I can't get it out. I don't want to take the bumper off, it will take Hercules to get those bumper bolts out. I may end up cutting the top part off, or just masking everything and painting the trim while it's on the truck.

 

[alphabets13]

i just put a 2001 front bumper on my 96 so that takes care of the front grey crap. i'm gonna do exactly what you did hart, to my rear bumper. that looks awesome, i mean a real big difference. the hard part will be getting the trim off.

 

[BT4auBURN]

where did you get your bumper alphabets13?

 

[RoadEnforcer]

looks good hartman, nice work... show us pics when you do the back

 

[alphabets13]

BT4auBURN, ebay. i think the guy said he had sold a few before so maybe he has more of these bumpers. i'll look up his email and post it here when i find it.

 

[BT4auBURN]

cool I appreciate it. Do you have any pics of your ride?

 

[alphabets13]

yeah, let me get that guys name for ya first and i'll get pics up for ya to see soon.

 

[alphabets13]

it's vestaauto@aol.com. maybe he has one or can get one.

 

[BT4auBURN]

cool thanks alot

 

[Stephen S]

Hartman, it looks great! Nice work!

 

[Hartman]

Ok I have an update on this. I work at a carwash, so I decided to test the durability of the paint on the trim with a high pressure bug sprayer. To my dismay, the sprayer was able to blow the paint right off in some areas. I then went home and repainted. I used the same steps as I said above, except I used 5 coats of clear coat to serve as a protection layer. Now I can put the nozzle of the sprayer right against the paint and it is as durable as ever.

Revisions:

4 coats of adhesion promoter
4 coats of flexible bumper black
4-5 coats of clearcoat

 

[Hartman]

The rear

I painted the rear trim last week, thought I'd share the results with this as well. It took twice as long to do the back, but man is it worth it. Both front and rear trim pieces are holding the paint very well, mostly due to the fact that I used 4-5 coats of clear as a protection layer.

 

[BT4auBURN]

Looks cool! Did you mask everything off or did you find out how to get the plastic off of the bumper? How many cans of that paint did you buy? Maybe one of these days I will have the time and tools to do the same.