I have a Ford factory bumper cover for my mustang I would like to prep and repaint black.
It is currently red.
Not going for your typical high gloss automotive finish just yet. Just looking to do a satin or semi gloss black and get rid of the red.
Never done automotive painting but believe I have heard about something called a flex agent to add to the paint to allow flex with the bumper and not have it crack or flake.

Looking for cleaning/prep solutions
Primer
Paint and or additives

Nothing fancy just something for me to be able to lay down a smooth temporary black base coat.

I would think Eastwood should have the products and videos on how to do.

Prep is going to be your biggest priority. Wash the hell out of the bumper inside and out with a good soap like Dawn. Then use a good water based grease remover like krud litter straight out of the bottle and clean the hell out of it again. White scotch Brite pads work good. Then use a wax and grease remover to get any solvent based contamination off. Mineral spirits is perfectly acceptable for what you are doing or you can use an auto paint specific one. Use lint free blue towels to wipe off the wax and grease remover. Now your ready to sand. Follow the directions for the product data sheet after that. I seriously doubt you will need flex agent as modern urethanes flex enough. Usually only lacquers and early acrylic enamels required flex additives.

quote:

Originally posted by rocket72:
Prep is going to be your biggest priority. Wash the hell out of the bumper inside and out with a good soap like Dawn. Then use a good water based grease remover like krud litter straight out of the bottle and clean the hell out of it again. White scotch Brite pads work good. Then use a wax and grease remover to get any solvent based contamination off. Mineral spirits is perfectly acceptable for what you are doing or you can use an auto paint specific one. Use lint free blue towels to wipe off the wax and grease remover. Now your ready to sand. Follow the directions for the product data sheet after that. I seriously doubt you will need flex agent as modern urethanes flex enough. Usually only lacquers and early acrylic enamels required flex additives.

Good advise! I would add, use a spray on adhesion promoter before you paint. helps the paint stick better to the flexible plastic.

Look for primer and paint with elastrometric properties to bond to the material better and last longer.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
I would think Eastwood should have the products and videos on how to do.

Excellent suggestion. I have used their rust converter and prevention products in the past with excellent results.

I just did this to one of my car bumpers. I used wet and dry sandpaper, (light grit) and prepped the surface that way. I roughed up the clear coat mildly and I then washed the bumper with a dish-washing detergent and dried it. I did this a few times. I then taped off the area I wanted to paint and applied Rust-O-Leum Painter's touch Ultra cover paint and primer. I did it a few weeks ago and it has held up perfectly. I could spray a clear coat on it to give it more luster and a better/resistant finish but a little bit of wax keeps it looking great.

If it's really temporary, I would use plasti-dip

Make sure any primer you use is not lacquer based, as it will sometimes lift the feathered edges of where you sanded.

I ran into this on a replacement tailgate I got for my Mazda pickup. It had a couple of scratches, I sanded down and feathered. Each time I primed the bare metal, the eadges would lift.

Not until I switched to a higher grade primer sans lacquer did it stop, but lot of extra unecessary work.

Good luck with your project.

Also , avoid Duplicolor spray clearcoats sold in auto stores, it darkens really quick. I did not even use a clear coat on my tailgate. The only worthwhile clearcoat is the catalysted clear coats by automotive paint manufacturers.

Join up and ask all the questions on your mind.
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How about wrapping it or having it wrapped?

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:
If it's really temporary, I would use plasti-dip

I will likely be doing plastidip Shadow Black for the entire vehicle to tide me over a couple of years as I get the motor swap complete.
Then have the vehicle professionally painted back to Fords factory black from 1992. It was just called black back then no fancy name.

But I want the bumper to be a painted black base coat first because there are inside portions of the bumper cover that can be seen from the engine bay and don’t want them blazing red as the rest of the car is black.

Not a fan of the matte platinum colors but Shadow black does not look too bad for a temporary thing.
I should be able to do it for about $500.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
How about wrapping it or having it wrapped?

I don’t have the skill set to wrap it myself and having stuff wrapped is not cheap.
I can spray pretty decently just never done the automotive plastics just industrial metal stuff so I am not familiar with proper prep or materials.

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:
If it's really temporary, I would use plasti-dip

Actually not a bad idea.
I did my bumpers and grille on my truck several months ago and they still look good.
I have the stuff for my wheels but haven't got around to it yet.
Not hard to do but does need a little prep also get the stuff to seal it (their stuff).

Dipyourcar is a really good site and they have a lot of YouTube's out on it.