How to Paint a New Plastic Car Bumper

Whether your car's plastic bumper has a few scratches or large areas of peeling paint, you can fix it at home for much less than you could if you took it in to a body shop. Doing it yourself isn't always best, especially if your bumper is cracked or broken, but for basic paint jobs you can save yourself a lot of trouble. Most auto shops carry the supplies you need, save for paintbrushes, which you can pick up at most craft stores.

Instructions

1

Wash the bumper thoroughly with soap and water. Make sure to get any grime off the bumper or you will risk gluing it there when you paint it.

2

Sand the area you want to paint with 300-grit sandpaper. Use a disc sander if you have one, as this will make the sanding process go much more quickly, especially if you are repainting the entire bumper. If you do it by hand, work in even, circular motions across the area to be painted. If you plan on painting only part of the bumper, sand five inches to either side of the damaged area. Run a finger over the sanded surface to make sure it feels smooth.

3

Wash the bumper again to clean it of residue. Use soap, water, and a rag.

4

Tape three layers of newspaper all around the sanded area, leaving another five inches of spare bumper around it. This is known as "masking" and it will keep you from painting parts of your car that you do not mean to. If you are painting the entire bumper, cover the front or back of your car--depending on which bumper you are painting, of course--with taped-down newspaper, exposing only the bumper.

5

Spray the sanded area with five coats of auto primer. Feather each coat around the edges of the sanded area. "Feathering" means that you spray lightly around the edges, creating a gradient that fades the further away from the sanded area you get. You can achieve this by pulling the spray can back from the bumper. Wait 10 minutes after each coat and sand the area lightly to get rid of any imperfections in the primer. Let the last coat dry for half an hour.

6

Don a respirator, gloves, and goggles. Connect the hose of your airbrush to a can of compressed air. Fill the cup or container on your airbrush with auto paint the same color as your car. Providing your car has a factory-made paint job, each car company sells paints specifically meant for your color model of car. You can pick a jar up at most auto shops.

7

Test your airbrush on a piece of newspaper. Squeeze the trigger. An even mist of paint should come out of the tip. Holding your airbrush a foot away from the primed area of your car, spray the area with paint. Feather around the edges.

8

Allow the auto paint to set for 10 minutes. In the meantime, flush your airbrush with water to clean out any remaining paint before it dries. Apply two to four more coats in the same manner. After the final coat, allow the paint to cure for two days.