So I have never done any kind of body work, but I would love to learn and I want to do as much as I can myself--if not everything myself. I bought a pair of SIR bumpers to work on. I need to get them smooth as they have quite a bit of scratches and then paint match them to my stock VSM civic. What supplies will I need? What is the process I should follow? What tools should I buy? etc. etc. Keep in mind I am in no rush to get this done and I would like them to turn out as good as I am physically capable of doing. Haha..here are some pictures:










This is the deepest scratch, I think this will need a little extra attention:




Also, is there any way of restoring the moldings without painting them? Or will I just have to buy new ones?

 

no help?

 

Good place to start is the thread at the top of the Paint & Body forum. That will get you through the basics. The more research you can do the better, and if you pick up a book that will help too for quick reference.

For the plastic trim, you can dye them black, which will hold up waaaay better than paint. But they look pretty scratched up, so you may just want to consider replacing them.

 

I will say, absolutely do not use bondo on the bumpers.


As far as most of those scratches go, it looks like most of them will sand out with some 320 then some primer over that.

 

Why no bondo? Yeah, I think most will come out other than that one deep scratch near the grill.
Yeah, I wasn't wanting to paint the moldings. I was just wondering if there was any way to make them look better.

 

Do the moldings on the bumpers come off? If so it may just be easier to replace them. If not then you can easily repair them. And as far as using filler on the bumper, go for it. We do it all the time at my shop, just be careful of which filler you are using. I use a filler made by evercoat called glaze coat, it is very flexible which is needed for bumpers and other plastic pieces, it is usually used for filling pin holes on regular fillers but it works great this way. Those bumpers would be a super easy repair. If you need any more help let me know!

 

Glazing putty works for filling very shallow scratches, just make sure it's a flexible glazing putty!

 

Yes! The putty I named flex's very well!