Painting your own bumper

[steppinthrax]

Anybody have any knowledge on this. I was looking online on people who painted their own bumper using auto primer (spray paint) then using the OEM paint in a spray can. Putting one coat on it. Wetsanding then putting another coat followed by wetsanding once more. Finally touching it off with a clear coat (again in a can). People have done this to correct gashes in their plastic bumper by taping it off and doing this....

[Venom_5]

i would like to know if anyone has done this for the gen3's as well cuz i have a few parts [grille, rear center panel] that i would want to paint black & clear coat if i could do it with a spray...

[DFBonnett]

I haven't done it on our Camry but I have on my Crapillac and my daughter's Mitsu. Bought it here... http://www.paintscratch.com . Read the FAQs on the site about which products you need to order and why. They are a bit pricey but the products performed well and the color match was dead on.
FWIW
YMMV

[steppinthrax]

I was just reading the only company I know that sells OEM paint in a paint can is DupliColor. I looked on their site and they have listed 6R1 for my car but they said it's not availible. They have all other toyota paint colors. You have to do a lot of work though. priming, wetsanding and sanding between coats and finally painting. It is supposed to match.

[SuperDuperCamry]

I have only done primer nothing else.

[CamBOT]

Duplicolour is a good brand of paint. I got it at "Canadian Tire" local automotive/hardware store.

You have to be carefull when you are painting to make sure that the paint does not clot. Do one coat at a time. As in, wait for the paint to dry before doing another coat. I made that mistake...hehe.

Sand it down, bondo if needed, prime it (the primer goes on nice and even; filling in the smaller gaps), spray then wait till it drys, spary again.

My camry is "new white 2" but when I was done painting it was a bit shiny than the rest of the car. So I used grit 1500 sand paper to sand the entire bumper then polishing compound. Now you cant tell where I painted.

Goodluck.

Cost: colour cans & primer 10 bucks CDN each. The primer is twice as big as the colour paints.

[CamBOT]

Some reference shots...

[steppinthrax]

Shit, So you did it. How close did it look to the original color. Was it the same or different. You primed first then you sanded and painted. How many coats of the base did you put. Did you put a clear coat. Duplicolor seems to make every color except my color 6R1 (woodland green pearl). They only make this in the 5 oz touch up bottle. I'm trying to contact them.......

[davemac2]

You can probably get a match to your paint custom ordered in a can easily enough. The problem is that unless the paint and primer you use is a durable 2 part polyurethane, it won't be hard enough to resist stone chips you are likely going to get on it being down so close to the road. If it is a plastic bumper, you also need to add a flex agent to prevent the paint from cracking if you want it to last. The clears you can buy in a can are nothing compared to a 2 part clear in terms of hardness. Just a heads up since it can be a lot of work to prep the original bumper for painting.

dave mc

[ghettosled]

body paints and bumper paints are normall two different types of paint. just as a warning, i believe most (if not all) spray paints dry rigid and dont have any elasticity properties. its great for painting body parts, but if the bumper flexes from when you happen to bump something, the paint will crack or chip off.

[Your Uncle Moe]

I did it 3 times. Works great. I know people have a lot of animosity towards the rattle cans but if you do it RIGHT, you can get some VERY good results. I dont recomend it on anything larger than a bumper though. Also MAKE SURE YOU SPRAY IT INDOORS or you will waste half the can in the air. A Bumper will take you at least 2 cans of color to get a good result. Dont be cheap and get 1 can and use Flexi-paint on the bumpers. 1 can of Clear coat is more than enough.