Anyone tried painting thier Factory Plastic Bumper with Herculiner? I'm trying to search and either get no hits or about 700 with the phrases paint, herculiner, bumper, plastic...and any combo thereof...........

In the middle of a OEM Subby make and wondering if I should try: but dont wanna waste a heck of a lot of herculiner if it aint gonna stay stuck on..........

 

you can do it . its all in the prep work

 

I'm not a nOoB to painting...but still kinda new to herculiner AND painting plastics.....

Anything wrong with just painting it? Or should I hit it with acetone or alcohol? I'd afraid either of those by themselves on the plastic would do more harm than good.....

 

I'm know you could, but that is too much work and money to blow on the factory plastic bumper... And why herculine it? if you hit it, it won't rust... if you didn't know the rear is all plastic...

 

As I said in my first post-- I'm making a stubby ((front)): the ends are far from beautiful so I'm looking to cover the bumper in something....soething that aint gonna scatch right off. Rustoleum and Kylon dont take abuse like herculiner does...........

As far as the back goes: I dunno if you've looked-- but there IS metal under that plastic.....but much like the front- the rear's metal does not run the entire distance............................

 

don't use actone on the plastic bumpers. I would use the alcohol insted after you prep sand it to scuff up alittle. alcohol is fine to use. you could take your chances with just painting it straight, but if it were me I would feel I was cuttng corners doing so. go the extra step and do it right, that way you don't have to do it twice later. Its all in the prep work, goodluck. John

 

Well............. we'll see how she holds up in time. Only had acetone to wash her down with before 3 coats of herculiner. Keeping m' fingers crossed.

 

That looks pretty good. Did you just fold the plastic on the ends of the bumper around? If so how did you "glue" them?

 

My rear bumper was totally plastic with four little metal clips that bolt to the frame. If I had my camera I would take a picture for you.

Now if you have never taken off the rear and only looked under it, what you might mistake was a metal part of the bumper is actualy a crossmember of the frame.

 

I did the "plastic welding" method-- at first trying a min- torch but managed to get it toooooooo hot and she sunk in..... had to wait to coll a bit and then popped it back up. So then I tried the Soldering gun method-- it worked like a charm (or so I thought). After trying to file down the excess nubs I had 2 outta the 4 welds start showing light cracking--- so I did it aigain-- only luch deeper: then flipped it over and got/did about 3 "tack welds" (but deep) on the backside for the top and about 2 for each side on the backside for the bottom.

NOTHING hard to do: just mind numbingly slow process: had mine up on saw-horses.....and got a chair