1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Just re-did the bumpers on my 1987 convertible. There were no holes but over the years various objects had dented the rubber casing. We removed the bumpers and side skirts from the car (4 nuts on rear but undo the little bolts that hold the side pieces on, 2 allen bolts on the front but undo the top 3 bolts that hold the grill to the upper cross-member and the little bolts on the side skirts). Then we removed all the guts of the bumpers so all we had were the shells. Using a propane soldering torch held a good distance away from the inside of the bumper shell we warmed (be careful there is a fine point between being soft enough to reshape and runny) the worst dents/dimples and pressed the out with a rounded end of a piece of wood. This reduced the amount of flexible epoxy and hardener required to get a completely smooth final surface. For your hole, you need to ensure any of the flexible filler will stay. You might want to pop rivet a piece of aluminum screening to the back of the hole making sure the pop rivet heads end up below the final surface of the finished bumper. Sand the cured filler with 120 grit progressing up through 150 to 220 to 400 over the whole surface of the bumper. Wipe the surface with a dewax/degreaser followed by a tack cloth and DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THE "TO BE PAINTED AREA WITH YOUR FINGERS - IF YOU DO, OVER TIME THE PAINT WILL LIFT DUE TO THE OILS FROM YOUR BODY!. Use a flexible paint primer on the filled sections sanding between each coat with the 400 grit unit it feels smooth to your fingers (remember to do the dewax/degrease & tack cloth wipe prior to every paint application. Finally, you can use a standard flexible bumper paint to paint the bumpers and the side skirts or you can try to get the 'exact' match (do a search for sem + paint) as there are posts with paint code numbers on this board. Our car looks fantastic with the everyday $C14.00 per can black paint. It matches the black side molding but yes, it is different from the original. BTW the cost for a can of degreaser, a spray can of flexible primer, 3 spray cans of flexible bumper paint, and the tack cloth was just under $C100. We sanded and sprayed all 6 pieces so everything would match. We also bought a new rear bumper trim piece and cut it into 4 the pieces necessary to replace the ratty discoloured original trim on the front bumper (the new stuff is held by double sided tape not the clips of the original - neat). Have fun and it is worth it!
posted by 129.42.20...
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