The paint on my rear bumper keeps getting large bubbles in it and I need someone with experience to provide insight on what might be going on. I had the car painted a few years ago and a couple years ago noticed the paint was separating / bubbling only on the rear bumper. Last summer I had the painter repaint the bumper and it looked good. Over the winter I’ve noticed a couple spots coming back. The rest of the car looks good but the bumper keeps having issues. I sent the pics below to my painter and he’s saying there must be something wrong with the bumper itself. Could that be true? I’m fine with finding a different bumper to paint and replace the one I have but don’t want to go through all that time and expense to end up with the same problem. Basically asking if this is a part problem or painter problem.
Hard to get good pics showing the bubbles due to reflections

 

Not the bumper itself. It's poor preparation..
Find another shop and make sure they take all the old paint off right down to the bare urethane.

 

All about prep & the proper paint to complete the painting. There is a course that painters took
years ago as to how to paint these vinyl bumpers

 

What shop is going to do that? They will argue the old paint scuffed down is the perfect substrate to paint over. Even here people are recommending that. Taking the paint down, clear, base, primer, to bare urethane is a lot of work which is $$$$ at a shop. They’d want you to get a new bumper before doing all that work.

 

All about surface preparation. Painting the rear bumper/fascia requires special paint & primer. Had the fascia repainted on a Chevy Cruise several years ago &
that is the info gave that he me. He actually had to take a course in painting these units.

 

I have a spare front bumper cover for both my 91 and my 94 TA.
My cars are not "garage queens;" I do drive them even though I have a Silverado Crew DD.
Anytime either cover gets too many chips, (Every road in Texas has some kind of work in progress,) or too much "bug juice, I remove the damaged one and install the "ready to go" spare.
My painter, who is a friend and owns a custom body and paint shop, takes all the paint off right down to the bare urethane, and only uses preps and primers made for urethane, and I think also uses an additive in the paint. He charges me $400 every time, which I consider reasonable...

If anyone is telling you it's the paint, they're full of ****. It's all in the prep.