[NOT A TA]

I modified a bumper I'd bought long ago for my 70 bird and recently sold my original (which was in nice condition) on Ebay. A long time friend and customer won the auction and wanted the bumper painted to match his car as close as possible, knowing it wouldn't match the faded 30 YO lacquer on the car exactly. He plans on a full repaint in a couple years and had been looking to replace his bumper due to core rust issues lifting the Endura rubber.

He figured as long as he was getting the bumper painted he'd also have me do the sandblasted (from driving) wheel flares and front spoiler. And as long as I was doing those I might as well fix a mirror that got caught on a cable while taking the car off the lift in his garage and trim down a spoiler end since his car had one early short style end cap and one later longer style end cap. He's in a different state so he pulled all the parts, boxed them up, and shipped them down to me in FL. Also makes a great excuse to come down to South FL mid winter to pick them up! Ya know, so nothing gets damaged in shipping! AHAHAHA

All of the parts were stripped of all old paints and primers using a DA and hand sanding. I've used various blasting medias and strippers over the years and have settled on mechanical as my current preferred method.

Anyway, figured you guys might find it interesting so here's the pics.

Bumper I sold being stripped. It was in nice condition but had the typical shrinkage issues.



All of the flares had broken tips, cracked (or missing) mounting tabs, and other issues that needed attention so the plastic was repaired. Welting looked original and had been left in place during previous repaints so it had to go.





Internal flare structures were re glued where necessary. A hot stapler was used to strengthen cracks and broken/missing pieces along and then repaired/recreated with 3M soft and hard plastic repair materials.













Since the bumper had the typical shrinkage issues it got some 3M flexible repair materials used in various places. The most of the upper surfaces got a coat and then were carved out block sanding. Once the rubber was ready it received a couple rounds of priming and blocking using PPG epoxy primer. Pic below shows rubber repair, you've all seen sanded primer so no point in pics of that.



So on to paint! A color match camera at the local paint store was used to get a code before I started stripping paint. We used the top of the spoiler end cap to try for a paint that would be a middle of the road match. Since the car was painted about 30 years ago and lives in the south the hood, roof, and trunk are much more faded than say the lower doors, rockers, and splash pans. The top of the end cap is not vertical or horizontal so hopefully it's in between the extremes.

PPG Omni single stage paint was used. I would have preferred a higher quality single stage but the color formulation wasn't available and I didn't want to use a BC/CC since the rest of the car is single stage and so it would look kinda "funny".

Once paint was shot and allowed to dry a few days I color sanded it lightly with 2000 grit and buffed it by hand. While allowing time for the paint to harden I shot some of the gray replacement welting. It's not great as many of you know and the packaging damages it prior to purchase. I buy rolls and wind it up on coffee cans to allow it to slowly relax but even after as long as a year I have to watch for the wrinkled spots and try to cut them out as I'm cutting the lengths for the flares. Since this car isn't an original Lucy blue color due to fading I couldn't use the new welting one of the members here has been working on even if it was available now. Maybe when the car gets a full repaint in a couple years.

I let the welting dry a couple days and then installed before the paint really hardened up. Modern Urethanes are much more flexible than the old enamels and lacquers which is a help. I used some wire to recreate the original staples but reversed them so the folded tabs are to the inside. Not correct I know but I'm sure the owner doesn't care and looks cleaner. Then I let the pieces all sit since the owner wasn't picking them up for a few weeks. This allowed time for paint to fully cure before I installed a nose bird sourced from S&S.

[cdoggy81]

John,
As usual, looks dang good buddy!
Question though, no flex agent for the nose paint?
I agree today's urethanes are much more flexible (for all these plastic cars I guess LoL) than the old stuff but you think it will still be ok? Does it help bc it is single vs bc/cc? Would you add it if going bc/cc?

[Judge273]

Color and workmanship is awesome.

Hope the rest of car looks that good...

[johnta1]

Nice work!

I think the plastic stitching is interesting.
Have/had lots of broken/cracked spoilers and pieces.

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by cdoggy81

John,
As usual, looks dang good buddy!
Question though, no flex agent for the nose paint?
I agree today's urethanes are much more flexible (for all these plastic cars I guess LoL) than the old stuff but you think it will still be ok? Does it help bc it is single vs bc/cc? Would you add it if going bc/cc?

Hey! I kept telling my self to send you an email since you stopped by thinking you might want to take a look at these in person before they got picked up if you got over this way.

We used to use the flex agent to keep the paint on flexible pieces from hardening as quickly to allow some time before reassembly of flexible pieces with the lacquers and enamels but it's not necessary any more with the good quality single stage or BC/CC urethane paints. All the flex agent really did was slow the curing process, the paint still got hard. I still have some PPG DX 369 flex agent but only use it in enamel on rare occasions. The modern urethane doesn't get "brittle" like the older paints and flexes for a long time without cracking (years). It's been a couple weeks since these pieces were painted and I can twist and bend the welting cutoffs as seen in pic below (taken while writing this) without any cracking or lifting when the piece is returned to it's natural state. Proper very careful prep before paint is essential.

Piece in pic was bent this much and returned to straight several times before this pic was taken.

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by Judge273

Color and workmanship is awesome.

Hope the rest of car looks that good...

Thank You! In person the color looks lighter than in the pics taken with phone camera. The rest of the car is faded/checked old Lucy blue lacquer so no unfortunately it doesn't look as good. Whole car will be redone in a couple years. This was done to fix the most unattractive parts of the car in the meantime.

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by johnta1

Nice work!

I think the plastic stitching is interesting.
Have/had lots of broken/cracked spoilers and pieces.

I started using the hot stapler on bumper covers on modern cars and then started using it for various repairs on the old cars including the interior plastics etc. I work on all kinds of parts for cars where no reproductions are available so even though it takes some labor hours the parts have to be repaired.

Here's an example. 71 Impala door panels that had been cracked and epoxy repair attempted, sheet rock screwed in place at some point, painted with some kind of peeling spray can garbage, and gouged etc. for 40+ years. Panels were media blasted, repaired, textured like original, and painted. Bottom pic is custom speaker panels I made for same car. Not my personal style but I'll do anything customer wants to best of my ability. Yes, I even made the Impala logo.

[johnta1]

Excellent work!

[Pepi]

Very impressive work!!

[cdoggy81]

Haha, I was just down there last week too & was like " I should call John & see what he is currently up to"...... LoL, goes both ways right I'll be back down in a week or so & will stop by. I have some new news too.
Thanks for the info on the paint as well.

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by cdoggy81

Haha, I was just down there last week too & was like " I should call John & see what he is currently up to"...... LoL, goes both ways right I'll be back down in a week or so & will stop by. I have some new news too.
Thanks for the info on the paint as well.

Excellent! I'll send ya an email.

Unfortunately you won't get to see the parts since a very happy guy picked them up today. Paul's wanted to get a new bumper and the other pieces painted for at least 20 years! Over the past several decades some of you guys may have seen his car in CT, GA, or at a couple of the S.T.A.R.S. shows in FL.

[NOT A TA]

Owners wife sent me a pic she took when he finally had time to install the parts. Color match looks pretty good in the pic considering I used modern Urethane to match 30 YO faded Lacquer and couldn't blend since I didn't have the car.

[unruhjonny]

cool!
I had no idea that you can (often?) get away without adding flex agent these days!

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

cool!
I had no idea that you can (often?) get away without adding flex agent these days!

Oh ya, no flex agent needed in most modern Urethanes. Notice in pic below of a bumper cover off a several year old modern car that there's no paint cracks surrounding most of the area that got hit pretty hard even though paint is a few years old. Only the area that was extremely deformed on impact has any little tiny cracks you can't even see in the pic. The lines in the pic that follow the contours are reflections of drawers on tool boxes. Covers like this have to be twisted bent and man handled more than you'd expect in a lot of cases when installing lights, sensors, grills, etc. and then re-installing them on the vehicle after repairs. No problems with paint cracking if proper materials and procedures are used refinishing the bumper covers.

[Greg Reid]

I'm really interested in the hot staple idea...Are you just heating the staples and pushing (backwards) them into the plastic...or what? What's causing the melt line to be zig-zagged?
Great work! I'm all about fixing original stuff when possible as opposed to buying offshore repops.

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I'm really interested in the hot staple idea...Are you just heating the staples and pushing (backwards) them into the plastic...or what? What's causing the melt line to be zig-zagged?
Great work! I'm all about fixing original stuff when possible as opposed to buying offshore repops.

I'm guessing it's a commonplace repair for current rubber/plastic parts...
It does though appear to be a fantastic way of reviving life into parts which might otherwise (previously) be considered NFG.

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I'm really interested in the hot staple idea...Are you just heating the staples and pushing (backwards) them into the plastic...or what? What's causing the melt line to be zig-zagged?
Great work! I'm all about fixing original stuff when possible as opposed to buying offshore repops.

This is the hot stapler I use. There's different thickness (wire size) and shapes of the staples available. (staple on transformer in pic and one in handle) The staple acts like a piece of resistance wire like a toaster. You insert a staple in the handle, press it against plastic piece, click button to allow electricity to heat staple, and then staple sinks into the plastic. Release button, let plastic cool a split second and remove the tool. The machine allows different temperatures to suit different materials and staple thickness. Some of the new Urethane bumper covers are very thin and nitrogen welding works better but the hot staples work well on the thicker older bumper covers and most of the plastics, Endura, and similar materials used on the 2nd gen F bodies.

[Greg Reid]

Thanks for the info!

[72projectbird]

Originally Posted by NOT A TA

Oh ya, no flex agent needed in most modern Urethanes. Notice in pic below of a bumper cover off a several year old modern car that there's no paint cracks surrounding most of the area that got hit pretty hard even though paint is a few years old. Only the area that was extremely deformed on impact has any little tiny cracks you can't even see in the pic. The lines in the pic that follow the contours are reflections of drawers on tool boxes. Covers like this have to be twisted bent and man handled more than you'd expect in a lot of cases when installing lights, sensors, grills, etc. and then re-installing them on the vehicle after repairs. No problems with paint cracking if proper materials and procedures are used refinishing the bumper covers.

Good to know! I plan on painting my 81 T/A soon, and was wondering about the bumper covers.

My 71 was painted a few years ago, and the nose has a bunch of little cracks along the edges where it meets the fenders. I don't know what they used for paint, but I do know its single stage. After I paint the 81, I'll be tackling the 71.