172 bumper restoration

[Gavin.]

Picked this up off rob91 yesterday and I have started having a go at refurnishing myself without sending it for a full respray. There was a crack on the left of the bumper and some of the lacquer had peeled off. I will probably make a balls up of it but I will have a go at anything.

Just filled the crack on the left and a few other bits, sanded down and gave it its first coat of primer and all the paint decided to lift in the 'curve' on the left. So i have taken out all the crap paint gave it a sand and filled it to get a smooth finish.

Hopefully fingers crossed I can get it all to blend in, i know it will never be 100% perfect but worth a go. I will add more pics as I go along.

 

[H182]

Fair play for having a go yourself. Good luck.

 

[Dweeb]

good to see people doing this imo!

 

[Knuckles]

Isn't it you that posted about your mates not understanding mods? I wonder what they said about this lol.

Good on you for taking it on yourself I'm currently fitting a front bumper, how did you go about fixing the crack and is it a good finish? ( I mean is it strong, unnoticeable etc lol)

 

[Gavin.]

Isn't it you that posted about your mates not understanding mods? I wonder what they said about this lol.

Good on you for taking it on yourself I'm currently fitting a front bumper, how did you go about fixing the crack and is it a good finish? ( I mean is it strong, unnoticeable etc lol)

Yes that was me, f**k them lol. It's my money after all. One of them said it looks no different that my current one, I think glasses are required.

First off it was only a small crack, about an inch long. Basically I fibreglass'd the rear of the crack to give it some strength and then used body filler to fill the gap and smooth it out. It seems fairly strong and it isn't noticeable at all now.

This was the original crack, the crack was right on the far left of the bumper where I have primed in the original picture:

 

[Gavin.]

A closer shot of where the crack was:

Now i keep finding flaws, there were two spots where the whole paint layer had bubbled. Took off the paint and filled, i am not doing any more now or it will never be finished

 

[Knuckles]

Yes that was me, f**k them lol. It's my money after all. One of them said it looks no different that my current one, I think glasses are required.

I HATE when people say that!!! That grill looks no different, that bumpers exactly the same... STFU!!

I've fille a crack in reverse. I.e filler on the front, when that dries I'll fibreglass the rear when it dries and I can remove the bumper... That'll be ok... Right?

 

[Gavin.]

I HATE when people say that!!! That grill looks no different, that bumpers exactly the same... STFU!!

I've fille a crack in reverse. I.e filler on the front, when that dries I'll fibreglass the rear when it dries and I can remove the bumper... That'll be ok... Right?

Yea that should be fine, fibre glass is strong enough to hold it

 

[Knuckles]

Sweet, backhand your mates if they can't see the difference once it's on

 

[Gavin.]

Lol sod the back hand I'll just hit them with the old bumper, see if they notice the differences when it's planted in their faces

Just realised, I should have put this in projects really. Mods, move as required.

 

[Gavin.]

Priming now done with a little bit of overspray. Now to try and get it to blend in :S

 

[H182]

not better to sand and spray as a whole?

 

[Gavin.]

I'm trying the easy option first, I have found a detailed guide on how to blend properly. Worth a go.

 

[SimonR.]

I can never get a shiny finish which is why im reluctant to do my bumper. Guide required gman

 

[Gavin.]

I can never get a shiny finish which is why im reluctant to do my bumper. Guide required gman

Here you go:

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?565722-Blending-in-paint&highlight=blending+paint

 

[kerry-w]

Idhave sprayed it as a whole myself, had to touch up a spot of rust on my car below the passenger door, sanded it all down, primed, painted and laquered and its ever so slightly raised above the original paintwork still not too noticeable though because of where it is, and its better than having rust :rasp:

 

[Gavin.]

This isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. Now I have sprayed it black I can see where I have not sanded down enough. Also as Kerry said above, there is a fair line where I have covered up the bits I didn't want to spray. Lets see how it looks when I get some lacquer on it tomorrow.

I can see me taking this to a body shop

 

[guysy]

I wouldnt have masked it off tbh,

Wet flat the whole bumper, primer it, wet flat then colour, then lacquer

Ive missed/not read, how are you going to spray it? via rattle can?

If it is rattle can i cant see you getting a good finish at all up close... you need a propper spray job in a very clean spray booth, ive tried doing large things via rattle can the finish is s**t and full of dust, alloys are fine but body parts nope, even now i have a compressor and spray gun its so hard for me to get a clean spray job with no particles getting in the paint!

Id take it to a bodyshop, maybe try yourself first

 

[Gavin.]

I have managed to get the paint colour to blend pretty well, but I cannot get the shine back into the lacquer. Any idea's?

 

[guysy]

Is that lacquered?

 

[Gavin.]

it is yes but it has dull and shiny spots :S

 

[guysy]

Tbh i think even after its been wet flatted and polished it will look patchy i couldn't see a good result outcome with rattle cans

You know how to wet sand and polish back up?

How many coats of lacquer did you do?

 

[Gavin.]

It had about 3 or 4 coats of lacquer.

I have been wet sanding all the way using 1200 grit (its the lowest i could get locally) through but I am wondering if I have done it enough. As far as the polishing goes, I think I know what i am doing :S

 

[Gavin.]

I'm starting to get it back! Wet sanded a bit more, AG Paint Restorer followed by AG Super Resin Polish and I am starting to get a shine and a dead arm

 

[guysy]

Hmmm 1200s fairly light grit, when im flatting coats i use 1500, and when im flatting to polish back up either 1500 or 2000

The lacquer would be too tacky atm to flat imo, needs a few days to cure before flatting and polishing imo..

If youve laid the colour on well, and the lacquer on without it clouding anywhere, after its cured you should have a good chance of flatting and polishing.

Still wont be perfect but good luck mate looking forward to the final result.

 

[guysy]

Hmmm 1200s fairly light grit, when im flatting coats i use 1500, and when im flatting to polish back up either 1500 or 2000

The lacquer would be too tacky atm to flat imo, needs a few days to cure before flatting and polishing imo..

If youve laid the colour on well, and the lacquer on without it clouding anywhere, after its cured you should have a good chance of flatting and polishing.

Still wont be perfect but good luck mate looking forward to the final result.

 

[Gavin.]

Cheers for the help mate, I have just wet flatted the whole thing again now, doh! I'm going to leave it now until tomorrow. If it is still that bad i am going to get it done professionally I think.

 

[mx1_champ]

2 major mistakes from the start... ir order for a layer of anything whetehr it be filler , Fglassz, primer , paint or whatever you need the surface to have a suitable key to it in order for teh new ''coat'' to stick. otherwise it wont bond.
for the filler you needed atleast p320 for it to stick at all and imo that is still to fine.. and you need the srrounding area to also be keyed eg... 50p sized dent.. sand atleast a cd sized patch around it.
2nd mistake
you primed right upto the masking tape line, this is not good as it leaves a trace even after sanded ''smooth'' it also leaves a solvent buildup which can still show through the base coat after flatting.

ideally, get some p320 an flat the full thing back to key it up, then ghet some uplo or similar high fll primer, gives 3-4 good coats of this.
flat back using p4-600 no need to go any finer.
from this point by the time you have bought enough paint and lacquer you may aswell just have it done properly< will be almost same prive a 100x better finish

 

[Kane.]

Needs lots of lacquer then a final rub down then a polish.

 

[Gavin.]

Slowly but surely its coming back using Meguiars Ultimate Compound, still a lot of work to do though

 

[Renshaw]

well done for giving it a go Gaz! looks for a rattle can job. I personally would've done the whole bumper rather than messing around with blending the thing.

you can rescue the project if you D/A the thing with one of those cheap Kestrel kits on i4D.co.uk then either keep or sell the bugger on.

 

[Goodj]

Not bad for a toilet job!

 

[KEVRSI]

you should have colour sanded the full bumper then give 3 lights coats of laquer with 15 mins between coats. leave to dry naturally for as long as you can to let the laquer set properly. Then give it a t-cut with colour match stuff.

 

[Gavin.]

Cheers guys, not perfect but it will do for me.

polishing bonnet + Drill + Meguiars = win

 

[Coby.]

Looks good from that photo.... Good on you for doing it yourself.

 

[Dweeb]

looks good man!

pics on car?

 

[Gavin.]

Cheers! Not on the car yet mate, I will get some up as soon as it is

 

[Renshaw]

anymore pics of this yet gaz?

 

[Gavin.]

I hit a minor setback Phil, I went through the lacquer yesterday lol.
So I now need to re-lacquer the thing again haha. I'm in London tomorrow and Friday so should get more done at the weekend

 

[Renshaw]

ah bummer haha! been looking into doing something like this with mine. been rocking the 'standard' scene faaaar too long i think

looking forward to seeing it on the car.