New to this post and a new owner of a 91 RS that has a horrible second paint job and am restoring it for my son. My first question is, are the bumpers made of urethane? The second question is, how do I strip the paint without damaging them. I'm thinking of paint stripper. Is there a special kind of stripper for urethane/rubber bumpers? The second coat of paint is peeling off and needs to be completely removed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Knowledge is power!

 

Yes the bumpers of urethane. I'm not sure about of any special paint stripper to take the paint of urethane. But i Thinks some one else had a thread on this matter, you could see what he use to strip the paint off his bumper.

 

You can find some answers here at this link. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...lly-strip.html

 

80 grit on a palm sander.

I tried the stripper route a few months ago when I was prepping for my new paint. It works kind of spotty and even where it takes most of the paint off you're still going to have to sand it smooth. Oh, and it takes alot of stripper, and a long time.

Basically, here are your options:

1. $40-50 worth of stripper + several hours of scraping/waiting for the chemical to lift the paint + getting burned by the stripper + having to pic up all the paint shavings all over the ground

Or

2. 80 grit sand paper on a DA sander + 30-45 minutes and it's done.

 

I would startoff with 150......just to see where your at. If you start with 80....it may not be necessary to cut that much....and you could damage the urethane...

 

I'm afraid that 80 grit on a D.A. will damage the bumper. The bumper is soft just like the paint. Not like metal that's forgiving if you sand to far. I'm not saying that this method won't work, it's just that I'm kind of **** about perfection and I don't want to see ANY uneven surfaces under the new paint.

 

Trust me, I'm VERY **** myself about my paint

Here is what it looked like trying to strip 2 coats of paint with the stripper:



I spent about 2 hours on the fender with a scraper just to get the white off and the red was still there. I gave up scraping the bumper because I was starting to gouge it.

I sanded all the paint down on the bumper to the factory primer with 80 grit and then went over it again with 220 to smooth it out.

Here is the same car after the new paint:

 

I just stripped one with 80 grit and a DA...works great....took about 2 hours to remove 3 layers of paint and primer and get it back down to bare plastic.

 

i just preped mine for paint,mine had 2 paint jobs on it.i took 80 grit paper and a scotch brite and hand sanded both coats of.about ten hours work not fun.then i put three coats of fexable sandable primer on it.wet sand with 400 and your ready for paint.i didnt use stripper it might attack to rubber......but maybe someone els here has tried it....

 

Ditto on the 80 grit. I do it but then I will coat it with 2k and block it from there.

 

Thanks for all the replies! Very helpful.
Ken

 

They make a stripped for bumpers and urethane pieces, but it sucks..
80 grit is a bit extreme, those scratches don't come out.. Look at my drivers door, it's a good example..

My experience in bodywork has shown me that a little more work with some 180 or 220 is worth it.. Then use some flexible primer on top.. Smooths it right out.

 

at work i stay away from 80 grit on bumpers. i use 120 then go back over it with 180.doesnt chew the bumpers up too much. usally if you are using good primer it will be flexible,you dont need any special primer.also the sherwin williams has a bumper stripper witch is ok,not great. and tomorrow i will probally be stripping my bumpers on my 91 z i just picked up

 

Good advice.

 

SEM bumper stripper worked pretty good for me. Ran out of it and tried a different brand which hardly touched the paint.