Advice from those who painted or bedlined your bumpers
 

I have a Smittybuilt Atlas front bumper that's taken some stone chips which allowed the road salt to do its thing.

the bumper has the hammered look, which I really like. The finish is semi gloss NOT gloss which I do not prefer.

On the fence....bedline or give the hammered paints a shot?

Rattel can or roll / brush on?

Duplicolor, Rustoluem?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

If you like the texture then go with the bedliner. I was able to get a finer texture out of a bedliner spray can. I think for just a bumper you'd be coming out ahead with cans of bedliner vs buying a kit or buying the spray kit (Upol). Obviously use self-etching primer under where you're painting and just spray it nicely.

On the finish- the bedliner tends to be more of a matte finish. You can add clear coat on top of it to give it a different finish. The other thing that I've done is prime, bedline, then hit it with your favorite black spray paint. I'm adding a gloss clear coat to all spray jobs from here out though because it does give the paint a little more protection from fading so quickly. I'm using a wheel refinish clear coat on my bumpers and rails. Selecting a matte or satin clear should help you achieve the look you're going for.

Thanks for the advice, never thought of painting on top of the bed liner....cool trick. You helped steer me away of roll on going to stick with the rattle cans for sure.

cheers

I do like the hammered look, it's what the bumper came with.

Agreed on the chips from wheeling....almost as bad as the stone chips from my daily drive one the highway. Then mix in some good old liquid salt brine.

Check the JCR Offroad site. They had one of the best DIY paint videos I've seen. Don't know if it's still up.

Start with a good wash with Simple Green. Be sure to rinse well and allow to dry.

3 light coats of primer. Grey Black Grey. Alternating the contrasting colors makes it easier to see if you missed any spots.

Start applying the finish coat. I also use some bedliner followed by a finish coat. Spray using light coats with drying time between the coats. Make sure to the grey primer coat is completely covered.

I bedlined my Barricade Trail Force bumper about 4 months ago and it's been holding up great through rocky dusty trails all while maintaining that dark black in spite of the SoCal sun. I used the Rustoleum spray can Bed Liner that I bought at Walmart for $6 and it was a pretty easy project. My recommendation would be to remove whatever you want to bedline and do several light coats where you spray in one direction. The hardest part for me was not getting to heavy handed and causing the spray to pool or run in one place but after a couple practice runs it got easy and I'm pleased with the results.

Oh, forgot to mention that I spent a good 30 minutes being OCD with the cleaning and drying of the bumper. I think that was a key part in really getting the spray to hold up.

Prep, prep, prep, then spray
 

That is interesting. I don't think I've ever heard that.