Best Approach For Diy Bumper Repair

[plissken]

Since I had my Aygo 2 years ago, the front and rearear bumpers have suffered from poor lacquer. The front is especially bad. There are no scrapes at all on it but the stones that have hit it have resulted in a large area pealing away leaving get a faded matt red in the centre by the Badge.

I was going to strip the whole front bumper down to start with. What is the best sanding requirement to get it ready for the primer?

The paint code is 3p0 red. I can get spay cans made up via eBay - are there recommendations on what and where to get it from? Do Toyota sell it?

Grateful for any suggestions.

[alan333]

It's not easy to get a good finish using spray cans, especially if you're not too familiar with them. And you need a good finish on both the paint and the lacquer. You'll get a far better job for maybe £100 - £150 from your local back street bodywork place.

But to answer your question, you need to completely flatten the surface using various grades of wet and dry sandpaper, gradually getting finer until you're using about 800 or 1000 grade. Use with water, and use a sanding block anywhere you can. You can buy paint cans from Toyota but they'll be expensive. It'll also add up buying from eBay etc by the time you get a few cans of different primer/colour/lacquer, plus the sandpaper, plus probably a tin of G3 or something to shine the overspray off at the end.

[plissken]

OK thanks. I did wonder. Would be handy if I could get another bumper but all the ones I have seen have patchest that need attention.

[eygo]

you will be spending around £35 - £40 to do it yourself if you have to buy everything to do the job

you will need plastic primer for the bumper not the normal primer for metal as the plastic primer

is flexible and it adheres better to the bumper.

[Parts-King]

Sublet it out to a small bodyshop or "chips away/smart repairer" as you can make a right hash using cans and lacquer if you are not familiar doing it