both my bumpers have lots of cracked paint on them and im going to painting the car at some point (acutally doing a 2 tone and keeping the original white on top and the bottem half a pontiac silver that comes on the grand prix) I have all rust taken care of and epoxy primered but i hit a road block at the bumpers, they are cracked to all hell! i know i cant just prime them and paint them because the cracks will carry through the new paint, is there a paint stripper i can use on them? or will it damage the plastic? or will i have to bust out the hand sander for many hours of work?

 

the safest thing to do is to use an orbital sander with 80 grit to remove the paint, then follow up with 180 grit...and then primer. The paint stirpper will certainly take off the paint, but it might also blister or swell the underlying rubber. The bumper might have been previously repainted without flex additive, or the factory paint might just have been pushed around alittle too much over the years.

 

get a stuff called low odor aircraft remover, i used it on my plastics and it works fine but dont get that crap on your hands you'll be burning like hell. also keep an eye on the plastics if you leave the stuff on for a long period of time cause it will start to eat the plastic but if you put it on leave it for a minute then take it off it will work fine.

 

just feather edge the chips out.....prime and go about your bussiness

 

send the bumper out to be media blasted, that would be the easiest solution.

 

ROFL.....sand blast a plastic bumper? that'll paint up nice

 

media blasting is not sand blasting. The method GM used (from my experience painting the cars at the dealer) was use aircraft stripper, the feather edging may work, but it also may not as the cracks are the paint loosing bond with the surface. Media blasting will work fine (you can strip a soda can with it and not damage the can) but is a bit expensive

 

we must have used different kinds of blasting media.....i did an aluminium intake with the black kind and it got all chewed up

 

There's all kinds of blasting media. Glass, Sand, Silicon Carbide (The black stuff), poly bead, aluminum oxide, walnut shell. Something for everything, from iron to aluminum to plastics. IIRC, silicon carbide is the harshest media you can blast with. No wonder it chunked up that intake.

 

bust out the sander, it is probably not the easiest way, but it is gaurunteed to work. dont be a lazy bum now.

 

I used SEM bumper strip on mine,worked out real nice.This stuff doesn't damage the plastic at all.Can be found at any automotive paint shop.You won't find it at walmart or discount auto parts.

 

can it be done or not, i am hearing all kinds of yes and no's I'm re-doing my rare 92' L98 Z-28 Heritage coupe and it has to look right, this is a one of less than 70 ever made, in 1992 they made 355 L98 Heitage z-28 coupes in 5 colors, do the math, more rare than a GNX

 

Doing it right is to chemically or mechanically strip the entire piece of old paint (as posted by others). Why apply high dollar paint over the top of an iffy foundation ? It may or may not come back to haunt you. Do it right the first time and don't worry about it tomorrow.

 

. Are you sure it is what you claim. The best way to verify this is by taking a picture of the vin number. So are you willing to post the vin number? If your not comfortable with exposing the vin, then take the picture, put it in the windows paint and blot out the other numbers except the number code that verifies it's model.

 

i had a media blaster do the rear bumper and he had his helper do indtead of him and ruined it, I'm so pissed, he even ruined the small rear corner ground effect, pitted the **** out of it, what a bitch

 

I smell a law suit, or they should buy you a new bumper and lower ground effect.

 

i wish, but its a small hole in the wall joint, i guess i got what I deserved for trying to do it right, or perfect, i just made it worse