Painted the bumpers and cladding, No more grey nasty shiiii... WAHOO !!!

[MidnightRebel07]

I've been wanting to do this for about five years now and just kept saying I'll get around to it, well enough was enough.

I took the cladding and rear bumper off two nights ago to have them ready for prep first thing in the morning. I took Simple Green and a Scotch-Brite Steel wool type scrubby to it and scrubbed the hell out of them. You have to rinse the simple green off until you don't see anymore suds, this will take a couple minutes depending on how much you sprayed on.

I used Krylon Fusion Satin Black paint (for plastic), did roughly 4-6 coats on the rear bumper cover and cladding. let dry for the rest of the day and reinstalled back on the truck with black zipties along the bottom edge of the cladding (two per hole) better then the worn out plastic clips that were in there.

This morning I started prepping the front bumper cover, masked it off, covered the foglights with pieces of thin coardboard boxes and then covered the front clip with plastic to protect from over spray.

I did around 4 or 5 coats on the front bumper cover.

before...after.... :wavey:

This is how I masked off the front bumper...

:wavey:

 

[BamaB2]

Very nice

Been thinking about doing that on my son's silver Sport. He wants to go with black wheels also. Looks great on black, wonder how it would look on silver.

Please post a report on the durability against bugs and such.

 

[ncranchero]

Actually I think I like the gray better .....................







Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaha ! Just kiddin Jerry!

It sure looks bad azzzzzzzz now!

 

[LONO100]

now your ride looks official! good work. i used the same materials, and so far the only paint thats chipped off was on the very bottom of the front bumper where i bottomed out on a rock on a 4 wheel trail. you shoulve done this before the this months totm contest, im sure your ride would be right up there with the others. nice job.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

The grey did make it stand out more but it had the plastic molding discoloration stripes throughout it, they were also stained pretty bad and scratched up pretty bad from offroading so I fixed that.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Thanks ya'll.

 

[Pjibs]

Here comes the Trac in Blaaaack. *men in black spoof* haha

 

[dgonz]

Looks sexy man *bows down*

 

[Trac726]

 

[Clusterpup]

They grey did make it stand out more but it had the plastic molding discoloration stripes throughout it, they were also stained pretty bad and scratched up pretty bad form offroading so I fixed that.

Looks good man, I want to do the same thing at some point. I'm in the same boat with the scratches and stuff, my front bumper actually has holes in it from off roading. I may end up changing my front bumper to a metal one.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Eventually I plan on fabricating a steel rear bumper like this one and fabbing a swing out tire carrier to it.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=311088&page=2

Clusterpup, your yellow Trac would look great with black cladding and bumpers.

 

[interscope8]

Looks great! I did the same thing to mine earlier this year, I used Rustoleum Plastic paint and its flaking bad so I'm gunna try again with Krylon Fusion.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Did you scuff up the surface first? I also layed down a thin coat of flat black primer first even though the Krylon Fusion paint can says it's not needed.

 

[Clusterpup]

A tire carrier like that woud be nice. Having a spare under my truck while I go wheeling just doesnt work for me and putting it on the roof makes the truck just too high. I already can't fit in some garages.

 

[interscope8]

@Rebel I sanded it all nice first, and primed my sides. After painting those i didnt prime cuz the primer didnt make it look as nice as the unprimed areas... I also only did 2 coats...

I was low on paint This time around I'll be better prepared and not have crappy rustoleum paint.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

That's why I took off the Yakima rack and selling it for $350 with the lights, tire hold down J-hook, mounting brackets and wind jammer.

My spare is too big to fit under the bed and I also have dual exhuast so there's no room under there now anyway. I'm tired of having to carry it around in the bed because it takes up most of the bed so I plan on fabbing up my own rear bumper/ swing out tire carrier like the one pictured.

 

[torqlox]

Excellent looking project and congrats on the end result. I currently use Krylon Fusion to keep my grill black (Originally chrome) and it chips naturally from being on the leading edge of the vehicle. I have to try out this project though! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Blake A]

Hey Rebel how did you take off the back bumper? Mine is riveted on the corners. Is that stock?

 

[MidnightRebel07]

There's:

two screws on each side of the ends by the back tires

a plastic cover that pops out of the bumper tow ball hole

the pastic step pads just pop up and out from the top of the bumper cover

the rivets I just took my grinder to and ground them down, you really only need to grind it down until it's falt and pop the bumper cover down and over them, you'll wanna grind the completely off once the cover is off so you can just either use zipties or nuts/ bolts.

"Don't grind all the way off with cover on because you'll melt the plastic and will mess it up."

 

[Blake A]

Ahh okay then. Ill see if i can get that done this weekend. I ordered a jug of Herculiner from Ace this afternoon and ill document my work when it comes in on tuesday.