Blackening Bumpers?

[Golf Houso]

I'm going to do the same for the rear lip on the rear bumper, just took it off intend to sand it back and paint it the same colour as the front lip and now the wheels hehehe. I'll post some pics up when I get it done in next few days, next monday probably

[The_Hawk]

I one of those little blow torches/soldering iron thingies the other day (because I could) and remembered someone saying it was possible to bring up bumpers using a carefully controlled torch.

So I picked a small out of the way spot and gvae it a little bash. Looks not too bad. The question is, what's the blow torch actually do? Does it destroy/damage the lip/bumper? Anyone every done it?

[Gigitt]

A blow torch / soldering iron will melt the bumper so you can then smooth it out. Paint the textured black bumper well is so um ugly! You need to smooth it out. Most people just sand the bumps back and prep then paint - much faster and probably better job in the end than using Blow torch etc.

[Golf Houso]

Not so sure about it being any slower to be honest, it takes a long time to sand those bloody things i've almost finished my rear trim. Yeah textured bumpers only look good with a very dark trim product finish, otherwise they look like sheit, I realy dislike the faded plastic look, and almost every mk3 suffers from it.

Have a go with the torch, then go over it with 80 grit, then 220/180 and then primer and paint. You'll have a fantastic look. I clearcoated my front trim the other day and polished that back again, looks alot better than just black paint I can tell you!

[Golf Houso]

Heres a pic of my rear... ummm valence whatever you want to call it, on my GL that I've sanded back and painted. Not quite as well as the front lip but I was incrediably stretched for time.

[aliasmk2]

Thats a really goood finish you got in the pic there

I have one question

Does the controlled blow torch rejuvinate the rough motled look/feel after sanding the bumper smooth ?

[Golf Houso]

Ummm... I have no idea sorry. I've seen a DIY of people going backwards from painted plastic bumpers, they use thick particle spray product. It was really weird, I just sanded mine as firstly I wouldn't trust myself with a blow torch and secondly I don't have one.

The texture on the bumpers is a consistient almost amoeba type pattern on a 45' angle. That would be very difficult to replicate, let alone with a blowtorch. I think you would use the torch just to even out the pattern by melting it, they probably just heated up the bumper in the factory and pressed the pattern in to create it in the first place. You could just paint it in matte black, the effect would be similar...

[Spyda]

Why not just prep it, primer it and spray with texture paint for trip.

Only thing is the primer has to be one for texture or something like that.

It'll look like new and will last long.

[Mrk_Mickey]

Aaron, what style of bumpers do you have on your '96? Which are smooth/texutred?

My '94 VR6 has obviously all textured, and the car is white so I'm contemplating painting them. It's either going to be satin black like Ray or gloss black like Branko's. Anyone got suggestions? I'm kinda too scared to change the bumpers to smooth right now though, lol

[The_Hawk]

My rear bumper is the right painted (non textured) bumper, the fron has been replaced at some stage with an earlier model textured job.

One day I will organise to have it painted properly. One day.