Making the bumpers black again...

[John Cody Forbes]

I'll be adding the results of this thread to the knowladge base, as I looked there and couldn't find anything. I also checked the archives because I distinctly remember this conversation happeneing a few months ago, but I couldn't find anything. I searched for "black bumper", "bumber black plastic", "restore bumper", "restoring bumpers", and "black plastic".

What I'm trying to accomplish is making the black bits of the bumpers on my Red 5k-t-q look decent. They weren't too bad until I made the mistake of using tire shine on them. With fresh tire shine they looked like a million bucks, but 2 weeks later they are now very gray and faded looking. The side panels on the doors are still looking good, but I'm betting whatever the end solution is for the bumpers can be applied to them also.

IIRC one answer is in the topic. Wasn't there a product called "Black Again" or something to that effect? Other ideas I had were shoe pollish (I immagine this would be a VERY temporary fix, not what I want), more tire shine (again temporary), and rattle canning it. Now when I say rattle canning I do not mean a half or even a three quarters assed job. I would use some residue free chemicals to remove as much foreign stuff (waxes, tire shine, bird doo, etc), then a grey primer (two coats for good luck), then scuff with a scotch-brite pad,  then 3-4 properly applied coats of a high quality semi-gloss or maybe flat black with a scuff in between each layer. I really think that unless there is a good product out there that painting is the best option.

The downsides to painting are the ammount of labor involved, the possibilities for things to go wrong (read "a fly/dog hair/baby lands on the final coat while its still wet"), and the fact that it would look good enough for me to get pissed that the red portions of the bumper now need to be painted...then the tailights wont look good enough for the spiify looking bumper...then the LF euro-light thats loosing it chrome wont be up to snuff...then the front grill will look faded....then the B-pilars will need paint.....then the rest of the car will need paint....then the rubber bits will need to be replaced to look good enough.....then the engine block will need paint, then the engine bay will need a 2 month long dissasembly and detail process.....and by the time I do all that years will have passed and the bumpers will be ready for paint again. *Sigh*. Kinda like that old story of the guy that paints the Golden Gate where he just paints it day in and day out year round since it takes him long enough to finish that its time to start over.

-Cody "Long Post" Forbes
http://www.5000tq.com
'86 5k noT noQ
'86 5k noT noQ - Parting Out
'87 5ktq
'87 5ktq - Fast. Really Fast.