[Steve91T]

Hey guys! I'm getting to the point where I need to paint my car. I have a black 97 SS and swapped the doors, deck lid, fenders and hood from a red 99 SS. I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos and it doesn't seem too difficult. My question isn't about details, but basically, how'd it go? Once you were done, did it end up being much harder than expected? I have a 2 car garage that I'll be doing the work in. Another question, is painting a mostly plastic car more difficult?

Any advice would be great!

[NOT A TA]

NOT A TA,

What do you suggest for spider cracks in bumper covers? I seem to remember them sucking in primer and then the basecoat unevenly when my dad and I painted the car in high school over a decade ago. Should I use a special primer that will flex better?

I've got my car all torn apart for paint, but haven't really gotten rolling on the body work yet. Your comments about metallic paints match what I feared with panels not matching. I was planning on going back with the factory flame metallic red which has a lot of pearl in it. Sounds like I should plan on reassembling the front of the car rather than painting the fenders/hood/bumpers off the car.

I'm having a coffee waiting for primer to dry on a hood and figured I'd check in on this.

Strip the whole bumper cover unless the cracks are concentrated in a small area that got bumped. The paint is at least 16 years old if the original paint's still on it.

If I want to save an older bumper cover for an enthusiast car, I soda blast or use SEM Urethane bumper stripper on the whole piece depending on what kind and how much paint there is on them.

For an appliance repair on a newer DD type car with concentrated area cracks I might just DA the area where the cracks are. Use a heat gun and compressed air to cool working it straight if warped.

For a lot of cars you can get a new bumper cover because they're cheap for appliances compared to repairing or stripping. If you're in this project to learn then strip the better one of the covers you have. If you just want the car done I'd look at pricing on new covers. It'll take about $40.00 in materials if you strip with chemicals or soda and a few hours of your time. Sometimes a new cover is only like a hundred bucks.

If you're going to paint it a metallic then you'll want to do the cut in's on the door jambs, under hood, etc. then assemble the car then paint the outside. The spray technique has an effect on how the metallic lays so by painting across door gaps etc it'll be more uniform looking. If the pieces are painted off the car the angle of the gun, distance from piece, and other variables aren't the same which causes the mismatch look even though the actual color is the same. Examine cars in traffic this week and you'll notice it on lots of cars.

Keep in mind that bumper covers often look different than the rest of the car. Not sure what causes it but you'll see it even on brand new cars on the dealers lot. You can strip a fender and a cover, use the same primer, same sealer, same paint and paint at the same time and still get a slight difference. I think it may have something to do with the rate of evaporation during curing or temperature change of the plastic vs metal as the thinner evaporates. Again look at cars in traffic and you won't believe how many bumper covers don't match the cars perfectly even when new.

No need for flex agent in most automotive paints now. I used to use it back when we used Acrylic Enamels but the good quality modern Urethanes are very flexible for quite a while. If you paint over old paint it will crack much easier because the old paint underneath cracks. Hence the mention of stripping enthusiast cars above vs DD appliances that'll probably be in the junkyard within 10 years. As Gene noted you don't want thick layers of primer or paint on flexible parts and if you need to smooth scrapes etc. use a special filler for flexible parts not regular filler. There are adhesion promoters for working with plastics I use quite often also.

Painting your car black will be much easier and quicker than changing color. I have one of the worst types of colorblindness people have. That is probably why I notice the shade and metallic differences so well. I do see red though! Have 5 red, 1 white, 1 black, 1 yellow for vehicles.