BLACK part of bumpers/ fascia -question???

[ttwo]

I am having the front and rear fascia repainted. I am using the 2011 Jeep color at noted in the forums.

The back portion on the rear looks great but the front is dull and faded etc. Is the black simply the color of the plastic or is it painted black?
Can I simply polish the plastic to improve the color or will it be better to paint the black portion ???

[dn010]

I have gotten away with polishing up the black portions since I've had my car but it is time for me to refresh them completely. Here is the thread I started with info on what black to use:

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?17...-fixing-fascia

I have not yet completed the work, life and other projects have taken priority but soon I will tackle this.

[Chris 16409]

I really like 303 aerospace protectant. Use a sponge and apply it to all the exterior black trim pieces. It's great.

https://www.amazon.com/303-Protectan...71520048&psc=1

[ttwo]

i have used 303 but since i am getting the fascia painted anyway would it be better to sand/polish the bumper or paint it?

[dn010]

would it be better to sand/polish the bumper or paint it?

Tough decision you'll have to make. We can't see what you're working with nor are we getting the bill for the work. I will say that if you don't like it, change it.

[ttwo]

gotcha. The back looks very nice but the front is just worn appearing. I supposed i'll just have it painted. I just wanted to make sure that there was no problem in painting the bumper from others experience.

[dn010]

You may want to consider doing both it you do one so they’re not mismatched after it’s all done.

[Hill Valley PD]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the black portions or the bumpers are not painted, but rather are the exposed urethane. They can be polished up, or you can paint them. They did not come painted from the factory.

[Michael]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the black portions or the bumpers are not painted, but rather are the exposed urethane. They can be polished up, or you can paint them. They did not come painted from the factory.

Correct. The black portion can be wetsanded and polished if they are really aged but they will never look as clean and uniform as a properly applied paint job. The downside of paint is the part of the car that was designed to be resistant to rubs and chips is now susceptible.

[Rich]

Correct. The black portion can be wetsanded and polished if they are really aged but they will never look as clean and uniform as a properly applied paint job. The downside of paint is the part of the car that was designed to be resistant to rubs and chips is now susceptible.

+1

Since we don't know how far gone the front is it's hard to say if paint is the only choice for you.

You could go in stages. Start with polishing w/o wetsanding, then if you need to go deeper to get to 'black' then wetsanding+polishing may work to get down to black urethane again. Paint would be the last choice since it's hard to go back to bare urethane after that. Also the question of how to match it to the rear unless you paint them both.

Back to the non-paint method - we got our front and rear black sections to look like new by taking it to a body shop where they worked over both ends with liquid polish and an orbital buffer - no sanding. They knew what they were doing - they'd restored fascias on '80s 911s the same way. Still looks new 8 years later.