Black Infiniti I30 bumper repair & detail

R

Rickrack

New member
This car belongs to one of my best customers. I have been detailing this car ever since it was new. A couple months back, the owner scraped the corner of the bumper on a cement wall which severely chipped and spidered the paint. He asked me to do the best I could and repair the bumper good enough until the spring when he has the money to get it repainted by a body shop. I told him that I would do my best and that I am "just a detailer" so don't expect too much.



Here are some before pictures of the damage. I will post up some during/after pictures as well as my process in a bit.



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More pictures to follow......
 
Well to start, I masked of all areas that I didn't want to scuff while sanding such as the headlights, foglights, grill and the chrome strip that runs along the bumper. To sand down the bumper I used a DA sander which is what body shops use to sand down paint with. I sanded right down to the fiberglass in the area that was damaged and feathered it out as I got farther away from the damaged area so I didn't have to sand the entire bumper. After sanding down the area needed, I wetsanded over it with 1500 grit sandpaper to remove any sanding marks fromthe DA.



Here are the pictures after prepping it for the first coat of primer.



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Next I will post up pictures during the priming/painting/clearcoat process.
 
Rick this is looking amazing so far, hope all this comes out well!! I have yet to give a call to that shop yet but I will do and probably make a drive there tomorrow :2thumbs:
 
hadboosttroy said:
looking forward to the rest!!!!
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as am I!!



If you are only a detailer I must rename myself. I applaud your bravado. :hifive:



Look forward to seeeing the process in pictures.
 
Now that the bumper is all sanded down, it is ready for primer. Before priming I blew off all the dust with an air nozzle and wiped down the bumper with prep-sol to remove any silicone, wax, oils & dirt which will cause defects in the paint.



Here is a picture after 3 coats of primer.



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Here are pictures after 2 coats of paint, but before the clear coat.



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After the paint was laid down and dried overnight, I lightly sanded down the area I painted as well as the top piece of the bumper on the side which had no damage. The reason why I did this is so there would be no tape lines and I didn't have to paint the entire piece with paint, only clear.



Here is a picture after 2 coats of clear coat.



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After pictures are up next....
 
Here are a few pictures after I was done clearing, but before I compounded and polished out the painted areas.



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Here are the pictures of the finished product after compounding and polishing it out.

It was dark out when I took the pictures, but you get an idea of how it came out. There was some slight OP, but I didn't want to take a chance and try to wetsand it because it was so fresh and could've ruined the whole thing. Definitely didn't want that :scared:



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All in all it came out pretty good for an amateur.
 
Holy crap you have "skilz"!!!!! Did you spray bomb or use a gun? Froma what we can see in the pics so far it looks excellent!!!
 
and this was all done with a spray can?



Nice job of taping. Can only imagine that this is going to be turning into a miracle worker status coming out of a detail shop. i really like the way this is going :xyxthumbs



No matter what it looks like as far as OP the end result is just amazing to me. the owner should be ecstatic with what you have done :hifive:
 
Alright so where did you get the new fender? What a quick find!



This is absolutely amazing. Your........... I dont know im speachless!!

WOW WOW WOW :woohoo:
 
LightngSVT said:
Holy crap you have "skilz"!!!!! Did you spray bomb or use a gun? Froma what we can see in the pics so far it looks excellent!!!
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All this was done with spray bombs. I got Dupli-color sandable primer, Dupli-color acrylic lacquer paint and Dupli-color clear laquer. I got all the supplies at a local Auto Zone.



Basically after the first coat of primer I let it sit for 10 minutes before I added another coat. After 3 coats, I let it cure for a half hour and started the 1st coat of paint, which I used the same rule of thumb (let each coat dry for 10 minutes before adding another). I wanted to let the paint sit over night to cure because there was some sanding involved and I didn't want to jump the gun and chance ruining the paint. The next day I wetsanded the area I painted as well as the top piece of the bumper and cleared it to blend my tape line and so the texture of the paint would match. When I was done clearing I let it sit so it could cure while I detailed the rest of the car. After it dried I buffed the bumper with 3M microfinishing compound which smoothed out the paint considerably and reduced some of the orange peel. After compounding, I poilshed it with some Optimum Polish using a foam finishing pad. I didn't put any kind of wax or sealant over it because the paint has to cure for 30 days.



I wish I had more after pictures, but my battery died and I didn't have my charger handy so thats it.



What do you guys think?? Should I switch trades to a body man?? Just kidding, I think I'll stick to detailing for now.



Thanks for looking.



~Rick
 
When I was looking at the pics of the damage I definitely wasn't expecting to see such a process. I don't know of any detailer who would go that far, you're the first!

Working with black helps, but the color still matches 99.9% from what I can see.
 
Great job!

I did have one question tho, did u re-clear the whole bumper? if so what grit sand paper did u sand the rest of the bumper down with? 1000?

And this was done using a spray can? or a actual spray gun with compressor?

thanks
 
Man! Nice job buffing that out. lol Geez though, thats a lot of work and it turned out great! I dont think he will be taking it to a body shop now. ;)
 
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