I have a used front bumper and lip that I need to get repainted before I put them on my car and I was wondering what the best way to strip the old paint off was besides sanding? I'm going to have a shop paint the bumper and lip for me, but after reading another member's post where the shop just painted over the existing paint, I figure I would strip the old paint off myself which would save me a few bucks in prepping costs.

I've used Aircraft stripper before to take the old finish off when painting wheels but I'm not sure what the best method to take paint off body pieces such as bumpers. lips, etc that are made of polyurethane/abs plastic. Thanks in advance.

 

any local body finishing supplier will carry a bumper stripper. it's like aircraft stripper in use, only more "gentle" to plastics. we used it to strip my SiR spoiler


Modified by DOHCDX at 1:36 PM 4/9/2003

 

sandblast it off.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Soup **** &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sandblast it off.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yep

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Soup **** &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sandblast it off.</TD></TR></TABLE>

What exactly is sandblasting? Is that something I can do myself or do shops do this during prepping?

 

What color is the bumper and what color is it going to be painted?

You may not need to strip off the bumper depending on the color. Also, regardless whether you strip off the paint or not, they are going to have to prep it to ensure it's nice and smooth.

Forget saving the extra bucks, if you're not sure with what you're doing, let them do the extra bucks. It'll save you money in the long run; If you prep your own bumper and you don't like the way it turned out, you'll pay twice as much, because you'll end up having to paint it again.

 

The bumper and lip are both white right now and I wanna get them repainted silver for my car. I don't mind paying more to have the prep work and painting done properly but after reading this post:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=461013

I'm going to ask the shop to make sure the old paint is taken off before repainting but just to make sure I don't discover the same thing that happened to SilverB18C1 down the line, I wanted to make sure the old paint was off.

 

I read the thread and I see your point...

I would just explicitly ask the Body Shop what their process is to paint the bumper. Feel free to ask them any questions. You're paying them, so they should be able to tell you with no problem...

 

You will make it harder on the body shop if you strip the bumper.Unless the paint is flaking off.If its OEM paint leave it on .Adhesion of oem paint is great and hard to duplicate.Simply sand the bumper w/600 wet or dry and any scratches fill w/spot putty.prime and reasand w/600 wet or dry paper and its ready to paint.Its real easy to mess up the bumper w/harsh chemicals.

 

oh yaeh...I own a body shop called .....COLOR PROS...