I was at a public park watching the cars at the Woodward Dream Cruise Saturday. When I came back to my car, someone backed into it (front drivers side on the aero nose) and left, no note, nothing. Scrapped it pretty bad and put a crease in it, but I "think" it can again be fixed. Sad thing, I just had the aero nose fixed and re-painted less than a year ago due to hitting a deer. The guy at the paint shop told me if I ever needed to re-paint it, it would need to be stripped because the paint was getting too thick. Is there any safe chemical to strip the paint, that won't damage the polyurethane material?
I believe that the safest way to remove paint from a fascia or urethane part is to have it blasted away with walnut shell media. Fascia's do not take well to paint strippers but there might be one that may work.
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LKQ, a part restorer and aftermarket company, restores urathane and plastic bumpers by soda blasting, repairing with flexible repair material and primers them with waterbase primer. They tell you in painting it, to only lightly scuff the waterbase with scotchbrite or 400 sandpaper and be careful NOT to sand thru anywhere on the part.
On prepping your own bumper, use soda blasting or handsand it all off. I highly recommend NOT using any kind of chemical stripper. If there are any pinholes or invisible cracks, the chemical stays in it and plays havoc on any new paint. I sand all mine first with 80 on a DA on all the areas I can, and 80 by hand in places I cant DA. Then go back over it with 180, primer, sand with 180 again to get the 'fuzz' off reprime and sand with 320 and paint. No worry about anything oozing out and bubbling up the new paint. In my shop, I refuse any job someone brings on a plastic/fiberglass car thats had chemical stripper. I do it myself but ONLY on metal car bodies. When painting planes, you use stripper to remove the old paint because you CANNOT sand on the aluminum skin (weakens it). You tape off all plastic parts with aluminum foil and aluminum duct tape or remove them. If any stripper gets on a plastic part, It MUST be discarded/destroyed to pass FAA inspection and a replacement installed.
[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 08-18-2014).]
I always take them down with a DA( 80 grit, the 180), then urethane prime them., I've found that a "rotary barrel sander" works well in the grille and light pockets
I will also recommend Keystone. I won't repaint a cover unless it's been stripped and repaired by Keystone. It's as close to a new bumper cover as you are going to get......as long as it can be repaired.
Thanks for your help. I called the local number you listed and they gave me a MI number for Roseville/Wayne MI. Called there but didn't get very far. I was told they "only" refurbish their own parts and do not work on customers parts. So then I asked if they had a refurbished front bumper for a Fiero GT, she said they did NOT have one in the system. I then asked her if she knew of anyone in the area that did bumper refurbishing, her answer was no (not real friendly or helpful actually). Anyway, so I'm back where I started. I'd really like to have this bumper stripped and refurbished, and I should get the info before I call Hagerty (my insurance) so I can get an accurate quote. I don't want a local shop to just "add another layer" to the already thick paint buildup, just so it looks good enough to pull out of the paint shop driveway. The last repair I had done, I was not very happy with, so now that I'm going down that road again, I don't want to make the same mistake.
In all honesty, once I figure out where I can get the bumper refurbished, maybe it's time to get the whole car re-painted. It's not bad, but it has had work done here and there before I owned the car, and there are a few "different" shades of gold. So I'm thinking I'll take the insurance money for the front bumper and put it toward a paint job. I just want to be sure the bumper is in good shape before spending the money.
[This message has been edited by a_bartle (edited 08-19-2014).]
call them.. if they have one, in your area, ready to go, you might be better off that way, then ask if they'll give you anything for yours as a core.. a heat gun and some love will get the crease out.
when My front cover got damaged, the insurance just paid for a NEW COVER inc the shipping. for the price of "refurbishing", why not just get a New One ? If it was me, I'd buy Fiberglass.
Good point about "NEW", and I've wondered and done some research....
The Polyurethane ones the Fiero store sells and listed on eBay, I've heard do not have very good quality, and poor fit/finish. There is another style on eBay and it touts a material called "Vfiber Urethane", says it's Fiber-Reinforced-Plastic. Sounds good on paper, but I also wonder how the "fit and finish" would be? Anybody here try one? Then there is the fiberglass option. I've heard good things about fit and finish, but what I wonder is, are they more susceptible to stone chips since there is no "give" to the material what-so-ever? Anyone who's got one, I'd love to hear what your experience has been.
Links to the NEW options, what I've found anyway...
Our Signature VFiber™ Line of Products, includes imports to domestics, trucks to SUV’s, but also includes a luxury line of applications. VFiber™ uses a proprietary manufacturing technology only known to others as Pure-FRP (Pure Fiber-Reinforced-Plastic), Carbon Fiber, and Polyurethane. What makes our Pure-FRP, Carbon Fiber, and Polyurethane so unique is a trade secret and thus far no other company in the industry has yet to replicate or achieve the same technique. It is true that bonding other chemicals can increase flexibility, but for safety concerns, our engineers have decided not to jeopardize the safety of drivers with vehicles equipped with "floppy" Body Kits or parts with similar characteristics.
Well, I just called these guys who advertised the V-fiber product (the videos looked impressive), and the ad is very misleading (unless the customer service guy doesn't' know what he's talking about, which is very likely). He's telling me that the Fiero GT Aero bumper is NOT available in the v-fiber material, only the Urethane (if that's true, the eBay ad is wrong). Then he went on to say he would have to check with his "suppliers" on availability, so I'm guessing he's getting them from the same place the Fiero store and the other "Stores" on eBay....
I went to this place and had an aero nose refurbished (2006). Not cheap ($200) but the nose came back like new. The fixed cracks and broken pieces. I know it is not close by for you.
Thanks for the link, that is exactly what I'm looking for, but I was hopeful there was someplace local. With Detroit being the "Motor City", one would think these kind of services would be all over. I'll keep looking, maybe I've just not tripped onto one yet.
I just talked to my guy at Keystone (I buy tons of parts there). What he says is they pick up the bumper AT MY SHOP, repair it and bring it back when restored for $237.00. Apparently they only do this for shops since theyre mostly wholesale, not for off the street customers. He said they did not have one in stock.
Thanks for checking on that. I called them again this morning (used the number you gave me, rather than the one from MI) to see if they had any refurbished ones in stock (which he said they did not). Since I was told by the gal in Mi that they did NOT do refurb work, I didn't think to even go down that path (to inquire about getting mine repaired). Not sure where that leaves me. I'm sure mine is in good enough condition to have it done, it's just funny that I'm having such a hard time finding anyone that specializes in that kind of work (again, I live near the "Motor City" for crying out loud...).
Art
[This message has been edited by a_bartle (edited 08-20-2014).]
I drop off my covers at the local Keystone here in the Milwaukee area. I don't have a shop but I set up an account without any issues and they treat me like a repair shop. They know that I don't have a lot of these coming through but they are happy to do them for me.
I heard about a place called Micro Platers, which does re-conditioning work on polyurethane bumpers. Has anybody used them? If so, did they do good work?
I have not had any luck with Keystone since I'm not a dealer or a paint shop, the local places don't want to give me the time of day, so I'm pretty discouraged there.
I heard about a place called Micro Platers, which does re-conditioning work on polyurethane bumpers. Has anybody used them? If so, did they do good work?
I have not had any luck with Keystone since I'm not a dealer or a paint shop, the local places don't want to give me the time of day, so I'm pretty discouraged there.
Thanks for any help or assistance on this... Art
might be worth putting up a few bucks to get a local body shop to help you or just file up a DBA auto repair shop tax ID ???
Yeah, I knew about the new ones from the Fiero store, but I heard the quality was not very good....
I haven't seen one so I don't know. My understanding is that it just needs a bit of work and such before paint. Would you expect a "restored" bumper that was damaged from collision to be particularly better quality?
There's also a fiberglass reproduction available from fierofiberglass.com for about the same price, but I also don't know what the quality is. Maybe see if you can find one in a local yard that's in decent shape?
I just spoke to Micro Platers and sent them some photos of the front bumper to give them an idea of what to expect, and to give me an approx. cost to strip / repair. I'm thinking about getting the whole car painted (bad timing, but when is it good timing, lol) and I'm not sure where I'll be taking it. Would like to find someone in the area that would "work with me" and allow me to do as much of the overall prep as I can to cut some costs. If I figure out who I'm using, then perhaps they can contact Keystone and get a price so I can compare that to Micro Platers. It's just too bad Keystone won't deal with me directly, or even talk to me for that matter.
[This message has been edited by a_bartle (edited 09-17-2014).]
Originally posted by a_bartle: Would like to find someone in the area that would "work with me" and allow me to do as much of the overall prep as I can to cut some costs.
Well, there's not much they can do if you drive it in stripped down to the body and with a coat of primer on it. They can either charge you less, or not. If they don't want to charge less, and it's a place that actually does prep work, then don't bother with them. They might still need to do some prep, but as long as you do it well enough it should be minimal, and any quality shop should end up charging you less, simply due to less labor.
LKQ, a part restorer and aftermarket company, restores urathane and plastic bumpers by soda blasting, repairing with flexible repair material and primers them with waterbase primer. They tell you in painting it, to only lightly scuff the waterbase with scotchbrite or 400 sandpaper and be careful NOT to sand thru anywhere on the part.
On prepping your own bumper, use soda blasting or handsand it all off. I highly recommend NOT using any kind of chemical stripper. If there are any pinholes or invisible cracks, the chemical stays in it and plays havoc on any new paint. I sand all mine first with 80 on a DA on all the areas I can, and 80 by hand in places I cant DA. Then go back over it with 180, primer, sand with 180 again to get the 'fuzz' off reprime and sand with 320 and paint. No worry about anything oozing out and bubbling up the new paint. In my shop, I refuse any job someone brings on a plastic/fiberglass car thats had chemical stripper. I do it myself but ONLY on metal car bodies. When painting planes, you use stripper to remove the old paint because you CANNOT sand on the aluminum skin (weakens it). You tape off all plastic parts with aluminum foil and aluminum duct tape or remove them. If any stripper gets on a plastic part, It MUST be discarded/destroyed to pass FAA inspection and a replacement installed.
LKQ, They have a plant in Greenville, MI that does that.
I just called LKQ (again) hoping to get a different answer than before. I was told again that they will not do work for the end user (consumer), that they only deal with repair shops. I did look on their website, and their process for reconditioning looks really good (Thermal Reforming: High temperature soak tanks chemically, clean the bumpers, and return them to their original molded shapes.). Guess I have no choice other than decide who I'm going to have the paint work done and see if they can get a price from LKQ/Keystone.
I did get a reply back from Micro Platers. I was told they would strip/recondition the bumper for $300. However, here is what he put in his reply email:
Your particular bumper is something we call a "stripper" meaning we will have to strip a lot of the paint off by hand rather than sandblasting. This happens due to multiple layers of paint and age. Regardless, we can perform this service and get your bumper back to paintable condition.
The part that throws up a red flag for me is when he mentioned "sandblasting". I've been told "not" to have a urethane bumper sand blasted, only soda blasting if necessary. And it sounds like they would be hand sanding it anyway due to the extra layers of paint. The high temperature soak tank process LKQ talks about seems like it would be a better way to strip it down to bare urethane.
Have you talked to body shops and offer them cash for their time? I know that is not ideal, but maybe offering them $100 for their time??? You may get more interest if you have the part and cash in hand (yeah.... a bribe).
OR.........................You could just get one of those bras for the front. LOL
Since winter is coming soon to the Michigan area, why not just do it yourself and keep your car off of the icy, salted roads. I would hate to see it damaged more by the salt or a careless driver on a slick road.
EDIT* Another thought!!! Is there a community college near you that teaches automotive body work? If so explain to the instructor exactly what needs to be done, and not done. If they can accommodate you, it usually only requires the cost of materials.
At $300 you can easily get another front end unless yours is custom.
[This message has been edited by hcforde (edited 09-19-2014).]
