My story: I got My car painted about a year and a half ago. My paint guy is a really old guy who doesn't follow ALL the painting rules, but usually does a really thick shiny job at a good price. My paint looked good, but on the front nose I got these little bubbles in the paint that grew and grew.. so I got him to sand it down and re-paint it. So, a few months later, they popped up again...so, I got him to do it again. Well, now a bunch more of them have popped up and are very large, now.
My question: How could I strip this nose down to the plastic and start over fresh? Is there a product that would work like regular paint stripper, yet not harm the plastic? Does anyone know what causes these bubbles? My idiot guy doesn't seem to know why it happens (or doesn't want to tell me) I don't want him to just sand it and paint it again, because it's SO thick, already.. There are some cirlcular cracks on the lower spoiler/air dam part, to (where it always scrapes) and I know those are going to keep coming through if He just paints it again and again.. I'm starting to think that it's impossible to have a perfect front end on a third gen. Thanks in advance for any info... Brant

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Everything I know I learned by messing it up at least once.

 

Bubbles? Seems the surface wasn't prepared.. maybe some grease was under there- either that, or the paint was "bad" somehow. A neighbor's friend had that happen... some insanely expensive paint job ($6k) bubbled on the hood, the paint shop blamed the paint, the paint manufacturer blamed the shop. The manufacturer finally paid for some new paint, the shop shot it again, and the same bubbles popped up. So his friend had a fit and took the car outta the shop, and the car's still sitting with bubbles.

I think there are some urethane-safe paint strippers out there, but..

If you want the best "real" way, you'd need a dual-action (DA) sander and an air compressor. You might be able to use a random orbital buffer and some sandpaper, too.

When I did -all- my car's bodywork, I had been stripping the car (where it needed it) to bare metal with a powerdrill and sanding disc. I used very light pressure and 150 grit paper to strip my bumpers down. I got many small ridges where the sandpaper cut into the bumper- yes, I knew that would happen, and I was able to minimize it, but they're still there.

After that, the Pep Boys near me had some "Flexible bumper adhesion promoter" (step 1) and some "flexible bumper primer" (step 2), which I used. I prepped the primer as usual (320 grit scuffing), and left the rest to Maaco.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards

 

I also used a DA on my front and rear bumpers, but with 180 grit. If you are careful with a DA you wont get any "scars" in the bumper. Some areas need to be done by hand. I used martin senour paint: urethane primer; sanded with #320; MSU urethane 4 coats; sanded with #1200 then buffed with urethane compound and then "Finesse" polish.
It looks perfect, much better than the factory ever did and the urethane paint has very similar material properties to the urethane bumpers so it is very durable. BTW i didnt use any flex agent, IMHO it isnt necessary when using urethane paint.
I didnt use stripper because i was afraid the bumper material might absorb a small amount and lead to a paint failure down the road.