Making the bumpers black again...

[Al S]

Cody, Yes Black Again is still available. it is made by
http://store.northamericanoil.com/product_info.php?products_id=41. Google it
and you will see who carries it. I had to have someone on the mainland buy
it and mail it to me.

Al Streicher
'90  Audi  80
Mililani, Hawaii

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of John Cody Forbes
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 6:21 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Making the bumpers black again...


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 h

-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.
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