Tips needed on painting front bumper

[Mark S]

I’ve had my black metal front bumper off and thought I may as well repaint it as the upper surface is slightly bleached and there are spots of rust in the lower regions.

I thought roughing it up and brush-painting with smooth black Hammerite might give an acceptable finish (or maybe not good enough). I’ve also seen recommended a spray paint called Rust-oleum. I guess spraying is the preferred method for automotive purposes.

Anyway, any tips/bitter experiences please?

[davidoft1]

2 pack satin black aerosol from a local paint shop is ideal

[cobblers]

Hammerite was never very good, and nowadays (since it was reformulated) it is an absolutely terrible product. Coverage, finish and longevity are all very poor.

You definitely want to be spraying something on to get a passably OE finish.

There are a lot of different types of Rustoleum paints for various applications. We use their line of paints called "Hard Hat" at work, it's industrial metal paint and we used ten cans a week, or more. It's very good, covers well even with one coat and is unaffected by oil and solvents once dry. Quite forgiving, you have to try hard to get runs. If they do a satin black version, that would work fairly well. One can will be enough to do a bumper.

As Davidoft says, a 2K satin black would be good. 2k paints set a lot harder than most normal aerosol paints so it will be more hardwearing. Don't use this stuff indoors though, the fumes are bad news.

Ordinary 1k / acrylic aerosol "satin black" is usually quite fragile, I would avoid it.

[Robsey]

I agree with the Rustoleum Hard-Hat range.

I used to use it many years ago when I was in manufacturing, spraying sand-box cast aluminium parts.
It was quite expensive back then...but worked very well.

I have used Rustoleum direct to metal spray paints from B&M quite recently. Again, quite good results, but much easier to get runs.

[Mark S]

Really helpful and informative, thanks, all. Will look into Rust-Oleum Hard Hat as first choice. In terms of preparing the old surface, is stripping/priming recommended or will it take on top of the existing paint?

[keynsham1]

I just rubbed mine down with some fine wet and dry paper, sprayed them with grey filler primer and top coated with satin black from the local car parts store. They look loke new but need redoing every few years to stay nice. Cheap to do though and a bit of fun!!
 

[Rik]

I rolled three coats of hammerite ultima on mine, as I had that lying about anyway. Am happy with the result, hasn't aged or damaged in the two years since I did it.