when painting these urethane bumper covers..... what special treatment needs to done since it is flexable?? special adhesive promoters or additives??? i will be getting it done 'professionally', but i dont want to get ripped off or get it done wrong

I added something to mine but I dont remember what it was called, If they are a good shop they will use some kind of additive for bumper covers and stuff..Kevin

their supposed to use some sort of flex additive....i didnt and it shows after somebody backs into you

yea, its a flex agent. it gets added to whatever color you use. go to any body shop or auto body supply store and they should know what your looking for. if you do not use the flex agent on any flexable surfaces such as your bumpers the paint will crack very easily.

I am repainting my car with DuPont products. With their system, you only put the flex agent in the clear coat, not the color coat.

Yeah, sounded weird to me too.

I've found that with good urethane paints, the flex agent isn't necessary. With cheaper paints it is. My cars have urethane paint, and some douche bag I work with backed into my GTA and scraped up the bumper a little bit, but the paint didn't crack or spider web or anything.

Flex agent is a good idea to add, regardless of paint type. DuPont recommends it be added not only to the clearcoat, but the primer as well. It isn't used in the basecoat because unlike primer and clear, very little base is used...only enough to get good coverage. Some say flex agent isn't required if bumpercovers are going to be sprayed on the car (even without flex, they likely won't crack if bumped a year or so later), since a lot of the flexing of the part is done during installation. Personally, I always use it when painting flexible parts.

I don't know if this is something true for PPG only, but the supply place I went to said they didn't make a flex additive for primer, they have an actual flexible primer that you would use, they sell it by the quart. Again, this is PPG, this place didn't carry Dupont.

Mathius

Every paint system is different; do whatever the manufacturer recommends. If you don't have the technical guide for whatever system you are spraying, get it; its is invaluable. Don't rely on what the counterguy at the paint store says.

Sherwin Williams is the same way. They don't have an addative for the primer, but they do have a special primer made for the flexible urethane bumpers.

In all honesty though, I haven't seen a need for the flex addative in the urethane paints. After we painted my GTA, I took some of the masking paper to work with me, and a week later I could still bend it all over the place and the paint wouldn't crack. It really surprised me. I should see if I can find it and see how it is a year and a half later.

hehe. Just found it. It's still sitting in my cube at work.

I wish I had a video camera to show how much I had to bend it to crack the paint. I literally had the corner folded over so that the diameter of the bend was under 1/4" before it cracked. I just took another piece and folded it without cracking the paint.

I like this stuff.

If you scuff/sand the plastic piece prior to painting, be sure to use a sealer. If you do not, the finsihed product will have a rough/hazy surface. After scuffing but prior to sealing, the plastic will appear to have little "hairs" (very small) coming from it. If it is painted without sealer, the finsihs looks like crud, especially when it is mated up to smooth metal parts. The sealer will help eliminate that.

I used Glasurit paint/clear and no "flex" agent was required. If someone backs into you hard enough it's going to spider the paint, regardless.

Good luck with your new paint job, hope it turns out well!

S-D

Spies-hecker had this foam ball. the squishy type...well that was there demo...they painted the ball and you could not crack the paint. Granted on a car this would be something that would take forever to fully cure. So you use it in moderation...hecne th fact that over time or with a hard enough hit it will crack! I think that is how it works the paint is softer longer when you have that much flex agent in it... no evprt though, but i think I remember hearing this!