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Mark

DIY: Repainting Chrome Bumpers

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I decided to repaint my chrome bumpers, because the muppet who originally painted them did so by simply painting lacquer over the nice polished chrome. Which meant after 5 minutes they looked like this:

post-2031-1254637922.jpg

So, over the past couple of weekends I've repainted them myself with aerosol cans.

Process was:

1) Sand old paint off with 80 grit

2) Keep sanding old paint off with 80 grit

3) Sand

4) Bandage up hands torn up from sanding / drink a beer

5) Sand a bit more

6) Remove all sanding dust and other crap with wax and grease remover

7) Spray with etch primer

8) Leave to dry then wet sand with 800 grit

9) Remove sanding dust again with wax and grease remover

10) Spray with custom tinted topcoat (Diamond Schwartz)

11) Wet sand / wax and grease remover

12) Spray with 4 coats of clearcoat.

13) Leave to dry for 24 hours (time for more beers) and polish with rubbing compound.

Turns out like this (haven't polished yet in this pic):

post-2031-1254638388.jpg

Looks pretty good, although I threw my toys when I slightly chipped the finish mounting the rear bumper on the car!!! <_<  

Also, I replaced the front bumper entirely as it had the cancer:

post-2031-1254638570.jpg

Why did BMW decide metal bumpers were a good idea?

The rear wasn't so bad, so I wirebrushed all the rust off, used rust converter and then protected with fish oil.

Finishing touch; the pointless round bung thing in the ACS rear apron. Not sure what it's for (world's tiniest tow hook access perhaps), but the paint had flaked off so I repainted it. Second pic shows what a good match the paint is.

post-2031-1254638837.jpg

post-2031-1254638889.jpg

Here's a shitty teaser. Proper photoshoot / calendar entry to come once we get a fine day down here.

post-2031-1254639111.jpg

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Car looks good fully blacked out. Nice.

But Im still keeping my original chrome. :)

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Nice job Mark.

No-one has regretted putting in a little time and effort into the preparation before painting, its looks pretty decent on the photos.

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