I am going to paint my front bumper but I want to be sure before I go and get all the materials and start sanding and painting away. The way I am planning on doing it is: 1. sanding the entire bumper so all the old paint is off and the bumper is smooth, 2. priming the bumper, 3. repainting it flat black. I am sure this is not exactly how to do it but I have never painted before so can anyone tell me what I need to get and the steps on how to paint my front bumper and the hood flat black. Thanks

 

I am in the process of doing that now... I am going to use SEM bumper stripper

Make sure you add the flex additive when you paint! I (would) use 400 and then a lighter grit after

 

What are you using to sand the bumper and hood smooth? If you are not using a professional d/a sander, and are using say a 1/4 sheet palm sander then use 80 grit, followed by 150, followed by 220, prime, then wet sand with 400. Honestly, when painting flat black the bodywork does not have to be as spot on as the dull paint will hide quite a bit. You dont need to get all the paint off, just blend any chipped spots so it is smooth

 

So your saying I should just sand the rough spots so they are smooth then paint over all the old paint?

 

absolutely. You need to sand the entire rough spots until smooth (you will see multiple layers of paint blending, it looks like the rings of a tree trunk). Then completely sand the entire bumper/hood with 220, then 400. Unless you are doing a show job, stripping all the paint is not required. some may disagree with this, but i have restored many cars with up to 3 coats of paint on them and they have come out great, and i am pretty picky about it. Whereas you are painting flat black, the degree of difficulty drops quite a bit. I would spot prime all the areas that you "smoothed" and use a block to feather edge them out.

 

Yea he did a good job at explaining the process... I went down to the orginal baked finish, I redid my truck almost two years ago, the hood was painted over the gm primer... I don't think I got that old defected paint off, so it chipped, just make sure there isn't a heavy layer of primer, or it could flake

 

thanks guys. I cant wait to try this out. Hopefully it will look good.