IceShark

I did the rear bumperette delete, welded up the old holes, and painted with some acid etch primer and top coated with the Plasti-kote acrylic lacquer spray paint in the rattle can.

Things looks pretty good, color match is right on for black but some minor orange peal and a couple dust flecks. Plan is to let things dry and color sand (why is it called color sand? You are just taking down with fine wet and dry and buffing out).

Anyway, Plasti-kote says on the can to wait 7 days to buff. No way it will ever be hard enough in 7 days. I've seen articles that say to wait for a month and even one that said 90 days before applying wax if you didn't have a hardener that you added to the paint. Another problem is the plastic end caps go over the bumper and they will for sure dent the paint if it is not pretty hard.

I don't want to wait another 90 days without a rear bumper. Is there an easy way to short cut this drying time short of putting it in an oven - which would have to be a monster oven to take a bumper that is over 4 feet long.

Lead Foot 944

Put a heat lamp to it, let the paint get nice and warm for about two hours, then let it cool, wetsand with some 2000 grit to break it open to breath, let it sit overnight, then you can buff away....Use 3M Rubbing Compund III and no Wax...Wax will seal the paint off, where it will no longer breath properly to cure....Wait at least 30 days before waxing....

Damian

Lead Foot 944

AND no SILIcone Products..........

Damian

mochman

lead foot is right on, just don't get it so hot that it blisters the paint and def break the surface once it's down baking to let the solvents escape.

mochman

lead foot is right on, just don't get it so hot that it blisters the paint and def break the surface once it's down baking to let the solvents escape.

Red 944

I've never been a fan of the lamp, do when I have a lot to do though, but if you've got time and you've already painted it - sand it out, buff it (you can wait overnight as LeadFoot said), and glaze it .. just don't use wax. Suppose I'm just repeating what LeadFoot said.

Yabo

i want to see a picture of it after the bumperette delete, i want to knwo if its worth it

IceShark

Ok, I'll get the heat lamps out and play them up and down the bumper for a day and then cut the surface with 1000 grit. And let it sit for another week before going up on the grit and rubbing compound. And see how that works.

Devon, it will look pretty sweet without the bumperetts which will never help you in a crash unless you back up square into a flat wall. It really cleans up the rear end and reduces that "*** in the air" look. I full flush welded up the holes, no bondo on them. A bit of labor though. It will be under $100 for material by the time I'm done.

mochman

I did the same thing on mine then I couldn't deal with the way the extensions looked. Then I went to a one piece and the hell that causes with mounting. Then I fabbed up a custom impact bar for underneath it in case of a rear hit. Anyway I always thought the bumperettes looked like an afterthought so It will def. look good Iceshark.

mochman

I did the same thing on mine then I couldn't deal with the way the extensions looked. Then I went to a one piece and the hell that causes with mounting. Then I fabbed up a custom impact bar for underneath it in case of a rear hit. Anyway I always thought the bumperettes looked like an afterthought so It will def. look good Iceshark.

mochman

WTF is with the double posts that's twice today?

Mike S

Iceshark....I don't have the link anymore but I found a site that talked about wet sanding/color sanding and I beleive they recommended doing it within the first 2 weeks of paint cure. The main reason was that after 30 days or so the paint becomes especially hard and sanding ends up being really labor intensive. Wish I could find that link.

Maybe a quick phone call to a good body shop for a recommendation?

EDIT:

Site below seems to contradict that. One week dry time...but the harder the paint the better.

http://carmodeler.net/archives/tutorials/rubbing.htm

Danno

Hair dryer on high works in a pinch... Smaller parts I toss in the oven to cure quickly.

Color sand - Technically wet-sand, I think they call that because the color of the paint you're sanding comes off on the sand-paper. And all over your hands...

hoffman912

ive done the same thing with the oven.. but be careful

a) fumes can get bad when cooking them in the oven, so have some air sources.

b) dont cook above 130 as it may get too hot, and blister. (dont ask what happened when i tried to cure paint really quickly on my headlight buckets this weekend... 300 degrees and i had to start over from bare metal)

IceShark

Mike, yeah, it depends on how hard is hard as far as the wet sanding ease. And the type of paint you used is going to make a difference in how hard it gets in a given amount of time. The urathanes get hard pretty darn quick. If the paint is too soft the paper tends to roll/peal the paint off, clog the grains and not turn out too smooth. If paint is "hard" the grit cuts off the paint high spots nice and clean.

I've done the oven cure before and agree that somewhere around 130 or 140* F is about as high as you want to go to be safe and not lift the new paint up in bubbles. Oven is a no go in this case anyway unless I found a bakery or pizza oven that could take a 50" long bumper. Heat lamp approach gets started this evening.