Bumper/facia paint question
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 442
Likes: 23
From: Seattle Washington
Bumper/facia paint question
My 85 is white with bronze bottom. The front and rear bumper/facias are weathered. I took the car to a couple of body shops to get a quote to paint. They both said they would need to remove the facias to do this job. I think a good shooter could do a good job with the parts intact. I'm not trying to be cheap, just don't want someone messing with the integrity of original. What do you think?
Race Director
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 10,691
Likes: 71
From: Phoenix Arizona
They should be able to paint them on the car. With a car that old, I don't like removing the bumpers if I can help it, because often they have shrunk or distorted, and it can be a bitch to realign, not to mention (depending upon where the car is from) corrsion on the fasteners, necessitating replacement. Having said that, the prescribed method is removal. There is no reason a competant body man can't mask it properly.
Drifting
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,254
Likes: 7
Racer
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 342
Likes: 0
From: Dallas Texas
You might get a good job on the front one without taking it oof the car since the joint between the front facia and the hood is not a "seam". There is a 1/4 inch gap between them. The rear deck mates right up to the rear facia, this is where the problem is. If you tape it off, you will not like the results. The rear facia should be properly prepared and painted, meaning sand the facia, around the edges and an inch underneath. Then paint the surface and AROUND the edge onto the underneath. If you don't do this, you stand a real good chance that the paint will eventually peal off at this edge. Plus you can paint the light openings allot better with the facia off, and lights removed. So Unless you are not too particular about your car. take 'em off! It not that hard. 
Racer
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 293
Likes: 4
A lot of production shops are cutting corners these days so you have to becareful where you go..
My 16yr old paint dosen't have one tape line.
Last edited by TTOP350; Mar 25, 2012 at 06:41 PM.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 442
Likes: 23
From: Seattle Washington
You might get a good job on the front one without taking it oof the car since the joint between the front facia and the hood is not a "seam". There is a 1/4 inch gap between them. The rear deck mates right up to the rear facia, this is where the problem is. If you tape it off, you will not like the results. The rear facia should be properly prepared and painted, meaning sand the facia, around the edges and an inch underneath. Then paint the surface and AROUND the edge onto the underneath. If you don't do this, you stand a real good chance that the paint will eventually peal off at this edge. Plus you can paint the light openings allot better with the facia off, and lights removed. So Unless you are not too particular about your car. take 'em off! It not that hard.
JW
Pro
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 694
Likes: 54
From: Sandwich Illinois
Bumper/Fascia paint question
Last year on my way to Elkhart Lake, Wisc. for the Corvette Tribute, I scraped the underside of the front fascia on a tire stop. It was undetectable from the top view, but was pretty ugly when viewed from below. I brought it to my body/paint guy for an estimate. When he looked at it he immediately suggested that we take it off for the repair/repaint. He said, "the only way to fix this correctly is to remove it from the car". So we removed it and discovered that it had been repaired once before, but is was painted on the car then. You could see ALL the taped seams and the overspray where the previous owner had done a lousy job. After the repair/repaint with the fascia off the car it looked just like a factory paint job. There was no tape seams, and no over spray any where. The paint was shiney and uniform from top to bottom and front to back. I was very pleased, and you cannot detect that it was ever repaired.
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Drifting
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,254
Likes: 7
Last year on my way to Elkhart Lake, Wisc. for the Corvette Tribute, I scraped the underside of the front fascia on a tire stop. It was undetectable from the top view, but was pretty ugly when viewed from below. I brought it to my body/paint guy for an estimate. When he looked at it he immediately suggested that we take it off for the repair/repaint. He said, "the only way to fix this correctly is to remove it from the car". So we removed it and discovered that it had been repaired once before, but is was painted on the car then. You could see ALL the taped seams and the overspray where the previous owner had done a lousy job. After the repair/repaint with the fascia off the car it looked just like a factory paint job. There was no tape seams, and no over spray any where. The paint was shiney and uniform from top to bottom and front to back. I was very pleased, and you cannot detect that it was ever repaired.
Racer
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 319
Likes: 0
From: Daytona Beach Florida
If a good painter does it there will be no noticeable tape line..I just had my car painted two weeks ago( except bumpers)and never removed the bumpers... Car looks great...
My experience with those bumpers from before is sometimes you really open up a can of worms trying to get them off...
My experience with those bumpers from before is sometimes you really open up a can of worms trying to get them off...
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,057
Likes: 5
From: Bay Shore, NY
Perhaps post before and after pics?
I would agree with not having to remove the front for paint as it is easily masked off. I would remove the side marker lights and the spoiler, but mask the rub strip and naturally the surrounding areas. For the rear, while it can be painted on the car, I think removing it would give the best results. My 85 was repainted with both front and rear still on the car by the PO. They did a decent job on the front until you looked underneath and saw all the overspray. In the rear, they did a crappy job of masking off the tail lights. If the rear was off, the lights could of been removed for a better looking result.
When it came to repaint the nose and hood last summer after an incident, my paint guy removed both the nose and the hood and painted them off the car returning the factory look.
I would agree with not having to remove the front for paint as it is easily masked off. I would remove the side marker lights and the spoiler, but mask the rub strip and naturally the surrounding areas. For the rear, while it can be painted on the car, I think removing it would give the best results. My 85 was repainted with both front and rear still on the car by the PO. They did a decent job on the front until you looked underneath and saw all the overspray. In the rear, they did a crappy job of masking off the tail lights. If the rear was off, the lights could of been removed for a better looking result.
When it came to repaint the nose and hood last summer after an incident, my paint guy removed both the nose and the hood and painted them off the car returning the factory look.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 15,344
Likes: 4,009
From: Texas
Given the age of the paint and what a PIA it is to match metallics like bronze, a decent shop will want to blend the paint onto the doors and the upper rear quarters (in the case of the white). If they don't, you'll have a definite color mismatch, even on the white.
Basically for a professional looking touchup, you need to consider respraying nearly the entire bottom half of the car (to alleviate the bronze match concerns) and blend over the top of the hood, the rear of the doors, and the rear quarters to ensure the white matches.
Basically for a professional looking touchup, you need to consider respraying nearly the entire bottom half of the car (to alleviate the bronze match concerns) and blend over the top of the hood, the rear of the doors, and the rear quarters to ensure the white matches.
