I got my car painted by a POS shop that overcharged and are now refusing to fix their mistakes. So anyways, I want to prep my front and rear bumpers, and also my spoiler, so I can just take it to get sprayed. Does anyone know the specifics of the best way to prep a car for paint? It would be helpful if I could get some pointers.
Basically the paint on the front bumper is cracking (bumper is made of fibreglass) and the rear bumper has bubbling. The spoiler also has paint cracking.
The rest of the car seems fine though, so far.
Ask the shop if they sprayed sealer on the car before they painted it. Automtoive paints dont like fibreglass so you need to seal thae part before it is painted to prevent orange peal and bumbling. To prep it you should sand the parts down with some 180 or 220 grit sandpaper. In the case of the cracking if its only in the paint you may have to strip all the paint of the part depending on how bad the crack is. Also check to make sure if they used bondo to fill the imperfections. If the bondo is cracked yur gunna need to sand that out to cause its only gunna get worse.It wouldnt hurt to go over the parts quickly with a scothbrite pad before sealer. Once alll thats stuff is fixed up you can go ahead and have the parts sealed. After it has been sealed the shop should take care of the rest of the prep that is needed for paint. But if not pm me and i’ll let ya know what comes next. Is your spoiler made of aluminum or some other kind of metal. If so your goin to need a special primer known as acid etch or acid wash primer. And a flexable paint. I just finished painting a fibreglass spoiler for a buddy that had brushed aluminum mounting brackets. When fibreglass an metal meet yur usually better off to not paint the metal. Fibreglass and metals have different expansion and contraction rates and that results in your paint cracking.hope that helps ya out. You should seek taken some more agressive measures against the shop that screwed it up. Most shops give you a guarantee for at least 30 days. Thats just bullsh*t that they wont fix it. Any bodyman should have know wut to do when painting fibreglass even a first year apprentice should know that. Pm me what shop it was so i can avoid them.
strip paint, sand imperfection areas with 100 grit and bondo those areas then down grit the entire thing from 220-400grit. When you are using pollybase you will need to have the finished product to 400 grit. If you are using single stage you will only need it to 220 grit. And yes you can use a sealer but you can also just use an apixie primer over the entire tthing and then when done finish with your 400! Thats how I do engine bays. I use the primer as the sealer to make the final coat consistant!
Yeah I think they rushed the front bumper and didn’t bondo it or seal it, so that’s why it’s cracking. The rear bumper is stock with a lip, the lip is fine but the bumper is bubbling, the spoiler is fibreglass I believe, so you guys think I should sand all the paint off of all 3 parts? Do you guys suggest using an orbital sander?
I’ve been looking into taking them to small claims court.
do NOT use an orbital sander on anything fiberglass or plastic, It will wreak it and you will see bad things when you paint it! I dont think because there isnt a sealer on the bumper is the reason the paint is chipping off. Its just that the area wasnt prepped properly with the right sand scratch. Id saj just get the paint off in theareas that its pealing and then sand it down and feather it out then primer and sealer if you want :all depends on what color the car is if you are matching paint" and then paint and clear.