To Paint or Wrap

[Maritime-elf]

Everyone - I was reviewing thread archives, as I want to refinish both my front and rear fascia. It seems the preference is to remove them and have them painted, with the DMCH Paint codes. I did see the mention of having the fascia's wrapped in vinyl. I am curious has anyone wrapped their "bumpers" with vinyl? what were the results? For those of you who had the fascias painted, did it last, what did it cost? Did any of you replace the front fascia with the new fiberglass molded one, and have that painted as well?

insight would be really helpful.

[mr_maxime]

I'd liked to get mine wrapped at some point to match the stainless, but my concern would be the sharp curves on the fascia. I've seen a red chrome wrapped mustang and some of the seams were quite visible up close. I know non-chrome tends to stretch and conform better though.

[DMC-81]

I would recommend having a good/ reputable body shop paint the fascias. I used the correct DMC paint code and it turned out well. That was 5 years ago, and they held up well. I think it was around $500 per fascia. I also had the louvers and front air dam painted at the same time.

[David T]

Wraps do not last long, especially if kept outside. I would paint them, if possible on the car, but if the front has really bad "eyebrows" you would want to take it off and fix it.

[Maritime-elf]

Wraps do not last long, especially if kept outside. I would paint them, if possible on the car, but if the front has really bad "eyebrows" you would want to take it off and fix it.

David It seems painting is the preference. My car does have some slight brows, would it be better to try and fix them, or replace with the DMCH fiberglass front fascia mold?

[David T]

Definitely fix it. The best way is to take the fascia off and stick a full length aluminum extrusion in it and it will flatten it right out.

[mr_maxime]

I think fiberglass is the only way to fully eliminate the eyebrows.

I have an aluminum strip panel bonded to mine and there is still a bit of an eyebrow. This also removes any flex in the fascia which makes working on the headlights a bit harder. This might be more important with a fresh paint job if you don't want to damage it. Whether that's worth $1k plus shipping really depends on you though

3m panel bond will cost around $100 for the gun and the adhesive. You'll also want a heat gun, clamps and wood to hold it all together. So you might end up being $150-250 into repairing that fascia if you don't already have the tools. Not sure if other epoxy will hold up. It's useful for other parts of the car like gluing stainless fasteners to the spoilers to replace broken studs.

[dn010]

I used some good/thick painted steel strips and cheap two-part epoxy to fix my "eyebrows". The fascia is straight, epoxy has held up and everything is still in place. This was almost 20 years ago now. Cost me ~$10. Agreed that this makes any headlight work more difficult since there is no longer much flex.

[mr_maxime]

I used some good/thick painted steel strips and cheap two-part epoxy to fix my "eyebrows". The fascia is straight, epoxy has held up and everything is still in place. This was almost 20 years ago now. Cost me ~$10. Agreed that this makes any headlight work more difficult since there is no longer much flex.

I got the panel bond since someone suggested that to repair my car cracked rivnut holes. I'm surprised you had success with regular epoxy though, I used it on glasses I kept in the car and the heat made it soften up.