Will paint last on my aluminum diving board bumpers? Suggestions?

[clydesdale]

I have an 87 325is. I have tucked the bumpers and reconditioned the black trim. But I want more. I have thought about painting the bumpers black. Will it last or just chip too easy? Thanks

[nefarious7907]

It wont chip if you dont hit it, My shadowline looked perfect but I was lazy and didnt close one of my popouts and I closed it from the outside and I hit my trim with my watch and scraped it bad.

[cthulu703]

If you roughen up the chrome, make sure it is free of dirt and oil, it should stick fine.

[xLibelle]

it will chip unless you use SEM

[clydesdale]

What is so special about sem paint and where do you get it? Semi-gloss or satin? I also saw someone mentioned duplicolor self-etch primer and duplicolor satin trim paint. Any thoughts on that? Thanks

[nefarious7907]

Everyone has seen eurospeeds car with painted tucked d boards and his looks extremely clean. SEM paint can be bought at O Reilly Auto parts.

[AndrewBird]

If you roughen up the chrome, make sure it is free of dirt and oil, it should stick fine.

The bumpers of US diving boards are aluminum, not chrome. Only Euro bumpers are chrome plated.

it will chip unless you use SEM

Not true. SEM is just a paint brand, any paint brand will due. SEM just happens to be one of the better, higher quality brands. What you need is a good primer to keep it from chipping. Either use a thin base of etching primer with normal primer over, or do what Eurospeed did and use epoxy primer. Either way will end up with great results.

Eurospeed's bumpers look great, I've seen them in person. He used catalyzing epoxy primer with satin SEM trim paint over it. Here is a link to what he did:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=68568&highlight=bumper

This also might interest you:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=73000

[Jand3rson]

Yes, my bumpers are the shit, but they'll be gone soon. To you guys that are thinking of painting them like I did, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH how important the prep work is. You have to clean them properly, sand them properly, and don't half-ass anything. Do it right, or you'll be doing it again. Whatever method you use to paint the aluminum, just be sure that you sand the shit out of them with a VERY coarse grit sandpaper, I used 600.

Thanks for the bump on the FS thread Andy, but they're already sold. I just need to get them to work and shipped out.

[clydesdale]

when you guys paint these,do you mask them off or do your remove all the bumper trim? I tried it with the center bumper trim in place and then just masking them, but it missed a couple of spots that I had to go back and get. I kind of wanted to paint them while on the car. Is that possible, or am I asking for trouble. I only did the rear bumper. I painted them and then tucked them in. What are your thoughts? Or do I have to remove the center bumper trim? And if so, how do you remove the center trim? Thanks

[nefarious7907]

it doesnt take a 10 minutes to remove the bumpers from the car