prepping a bumper cover???

[EachIt]

Hey whats up guys? I just bought an 01 cobra bumper cover that's red. Now there are a few problems with this: 1) my car is black and 2) the bumper cover has a few minor blemishes (including a few scratches from transporting it)

sooooooo, the game plan is to prep it before I take it to the body shop so they can just spray it and put it on. So what do I need to do to prep it? Below is what I have gathered so far:


1) Cleaning: Im assuming the first thing is to clean it. Ive been doing some research and ive read a variety of cleaning solutions ranging from alcohol to 409 to Dawn dish soap. What should I clean it with?

2) Sanding: Im assuming the next step is to wetsand the whole bumper cover down to remove the red paint without further damaging/scratching the plastic. Im guessing that I dont want to go with a paper any more course than 1000??? What grit paper should I use to prep? Wet sand or dry sand paper?

3) Now that the bumper cover is sanded, I have to fill in those small scratches. I have heard nothing but bad stuff about bondo so Im assuming that im going to want to use some kind of plastic filler? Anyone have any suggestions?

4) Ive filled in the scratches, now I have to sand it down again. Wetsand with the same grit sand paper as above????

5) Done. I am going to have the body shop primer/paint the piece to ensure that its done properly and ensure a warrantied paint job.


let me know what you guys think.. thanks!

 

[KAILUAZ]

Let them prep it, they have all the right tools/knowledge to do it right,,, if your car is black the prep is more important than the paint! Just my $0.02

 

[DJsZincGT]

Let them prep it, they have all the right tools/knowledge to do it right,,, if your car is black the prep is more important than the paint! Just my $0.02

This would be my advice to you as well because (and I'm not being mean or anything when I say this) from what you wrote it's obvious that you haven't prepped something like this before. Most professional bodyshops will not back their paint if it's on top of someone elses prep work anyway, unless of course you know someone. However, if you are 100% dead set on prepping it yourself, this is how it's done:

1. Wet sand the entire bumper with 400 grit wet/dry paper. 1000 grit is too fine and may not offer enough bonding for the paint. The basecoat/clearcoats on the market today are plenty heavy enough to fill the scratches from the 400 grit paper. If you feel more confident with a finer grit paper, go back over the bumper with 600 wet/dry paper, but don't go any finer. Also I would not suggest sanding the red completely off the bumper. You will find that this will be very difficult and by sanding it over and over, you may put high and low spots in the bumper which will show up after it's painted black.

2. Bondo brand filler sux. It has a tendency to shrink over time and you will definately be able to see it under that black paint. I hate to use any type of filler on a urethane bumper, but I have successfully done it with absolutely zero problems. I scratch the surface very well with 80 grit paper and mud over it with Rage Gold. Once it sets up I sand it down smooth and cover it with a lacquer primper.

3. After the bodywork is complete, you will need to prime the areas you repaired. I generally use a lacquer primer as a filler primer because it is cheap and works very well to fill in the small imperfections. I then wet sand everything again with 600 grit (600 because the primer sands super easy and you don't want to sand it completely away). This step may need to be repeated a few times to completely remove the minor imperfections from the bumper.

4. Once you have it the way you want it, I would suggest spraying it with a urethane primer/sealer to make the entire bumper the same color. This is also important because a lot of shops out there will not spray basecoat/clearcoat directly on lacquer primer. This is because the paint manufacturers put that stipulation in the paint warranty.

5. After it sets up the recommended period of time, you can take it to the shop for paint. All they will need to do is wet sand the primer a little and spray it.

However, I would avoid the headache and just let the shop do it. They can do it all in a day and you will be sure to have a warranty. It's not the easiest thing to do and unless you have some experience with bodywork, I would not suggest doing it yourself on a black car.