Not your usual paint correction nor interior show&shine:--S.F Bay Area

[DetailedByPrecision]

An aunt recently came over to my house for a Christmas lunch party, and heard I do detailing work. She asked if anything could be done about some scrapes and damage on her cars front bumper. She texted some pics and I told her only option was to touch it up. Otherwise it will require a respray at the body shop. She dropped off the car, and I started inspecting and assessing the damage which was worse than what I imagined in my head.




Starting point for driver side







Zoomed in at the corner. Upon inspected I see some paint transfer.







Applied some paint thinner on a towel and took the paint transfer off.







Went to the dealer and grabbed a bottle of touch up. I applied 3 thin coats on this area to achieve the results.


-Tip: Use a brush with soft bristles. Preferably a small size brush as well like the one that comes with the touch up bottle. I don't like the brush that comes with the touch up bottle because I can't do fine lines without it getting blobby.

-Tip: Use thin coats, but don't be cheap.

-Tip: Use a hairdryer to blow each coat, but do it from 1 feet away on lowest setting with heat for a couple mins.







Now I start working on the bigger damaged area. Upon inspection, I did not need to polish or use thinner for this area. My main concern were the 3 big black gashes up top. Because silver is a lighter color, it takes more coats to hide the black from showing.







Turned out better than expected after I was done.



-Tip: If the area that requires touch up have a deep gash try to fill it up as much as possible to get a flat result overtime with each layer of touch up.

-Tip: Be patient on the finer marks or it will not come out good.







Before and After







Now for the other side which is easily 5 times as bad.....







Close up revealed some scuffs that can be polished off.







Taken care of.







After doing 5 coats with a lot of patience and not going crazy..... I am happy with the outcome, and so was my aunt.














Total time spent: 3 hr 30 mins









Cleaned up the headlights as well.









Driver side







Test spot turned out good in the center







Completed







Passenger side







Completed







Products used







Both completed











Process:

Wiped down headlights
Clayed with medium grade
Menz FG400 with Cyan pad @ speed 5
Menz 203 with white pad @ speed 4
Sealed with Blackfire crystal seal paint sealant

[haris300]

Looking good. That bumper was really beat up. Nice job.

[Mantilgh]

Nice. I thought the drivers side looked pretty rough until I got to the pic of the passenger side. Looked like someone tried to drive over her.

Any plans to blend or level once it has set?

[brettS4]

That's a case where you might consider getting a compressor and spray equipment. I could end up looking pretty good after a $300 investment and some time learning to paint.

And then get her some curb feelers.

[Mantilgh]

That's a case where you might consider getting a compressor and spray equipment. I could end up looking pretty good after a $300 investment and some time learning to paint.

And then get her some curb feelers.

Might want to put some feelers up on the bumpers too.

[Anthony Orosco]

Looks good considering how bad it was.

In my shop we would of either done a repaint or faster yet would be to wrap it in a silver vinyl.

Anthony

[Mantilgh]

Interesting about the colored wrap, I never thought about that Anthony. Would it be hard to color match or are there many to chose from?

[Anthony Orosco]

Interesting about the colored wrap, I never thought about that Anthony. Would it be hard to color match or are there many to chose from?

3M, Avery and others have tons of various colors and patterns. This particular bumper would just need a sanding of the rough areas, remove what can be removed from the bumper itself, like emblems and such. Prep the surface and then start wrapping it. Cut off excess and trim where needed.

[LRC3]

10x's better, good job!!

Personally I would have sprayed the bumper.

[zckid]

good turnaround my friend but if you used a filler for levelling the paint before applying the touch up paint, wetsand and buff, the result would have been better