bumper surrounds, to paint or not to...

[jimsill]

my budget e30 project is going to paint on Monday, its an early car with those lovely diving boards. So I was thinking about the idea of painting the rubber bumper surrounds the body color like the cabrio's came from the factory. Car is a bronzit coupe. Thoughts? (or even better, pics of this done?) if I don't paint the surrounds the body color, at the very least I would hit them with some SEM black satin.

[ELVA164]

my budget e30 project is going to paint on Monday, its an early car with those lovely diving boards. So I was thinking about the idea of painting the rubber bumper surrounds the body color like the cabrio's came from the factory. Car is a bronzit coupe. Thoughts? (or even better, pics of this done?) if I don't paint the surrounds the body color, at the very least I would hit them with some SEM black satin.

I can't comment on the body color, but if your surrounds have gotten all sparkly and rough the trim paint will not do very much. When I painted a lot of my trim I painted a test section on a parts car and nothing much happened.

[Luis325]

Id say do it.
I also painted the chrome bumper part same color.
Looks great.

[reelizmpro]

Diving board verts came with body colored bumper surrounds so I copied them...

[kungfooren]

I can't comment on the body color, but if your surrounds have gotten all sparkly and rough the trim paint will not do very much. When I painted a lot of my trim I painted a test section on a parts car and nothing much happened.

What kind of prep did you do beforehand? Paint/primer wouldn't stick?

[ParsedOut]

Not enough contrast when the surrounds are painted. Just my opinion.

[ELVA164]

What kind of prep did you do beforehand? Paint/primer wouldn't stick?

Not too much prep, just cleaning/drying/paint. The problem was the texture; you can't really sand the rubber smooth, and the paint only serves to dull the "sparkle" a little.

[dunebuggyjay]

Ive got a complete set of cabrio bumper surrounds if yours are too pitted up to paint. They are alpine white though. I think they look sweet painted body color. It hides the diving boards pretty well.

Jay

[ButtJuice]

I like the contrast by leaving it black.

[iSOregon]

you can save them even if theyre sparkley. you need to wetsand them a bunch with a semi coarse sandpaper and then go to a high grit. dont be too vigorous with the coarse grit or else scratches will show through. the important thing that will make the difference however is using a flexible primer after youve sanded. if you just sand and them paint them black it wont look good, just like everyone here is saying. you should wetsand the primer just a little bit and that is whatll make them smooth. once thats done you can paint them with whatever you want: SEM trim, some gloss black, color match etc.

i have done this for all the plastic surrounds on my 88 and it all came out perfect, and that was with everything starting out as corroded/sparkly and scratched. the primer is the key to covering this all up, filling in pits, and giving a smooth result.

im my opinion the only real factor in determining if you can save your pieces is if they are very warped/wavy. there isnt anything you can do for that unless you want to experiment with an oven/heatgun to try to bend it back

[Beau B]

Not enough contrast when the surrounds are painted. Just my opinion.

I agree.. mine look a little rough so I bought convertible surrounds since they are a different plastic but will be painting them black for contrast on my alpine e30

[BMWManiac]

I painted the trim on my E36....now, I wish I had the contrast on my Arctic silver....

I like the contrast of new trim on my alpine white e30

Mtech kit looks pretty nice though all one color