Rear bumper painting walkthrough

I wasn't sure if this existed, so I figured I would do a walk through, since I recently painted my rear bumper.

Supplies:

1 can Plastidip or your favorite flavor of rubberized spray coating in a can.
(Optional) 1 can Color of your choice for the top coat
(Optional) 1 can clear coat
1 (maybe 2) flat head screw drivers - I found two of differing widths worked well.
1 Phillip's Screw Driver
10 mm socket and ratchet (yes seriously)
1 Needle Nose
Microfiber towel
Painters tape
Newspaper
Choice curse words - for when you break the plastic screw clips, or touch the paint job with tape



PRO-TIP:

If the nozzle on one of the cans is clogged due to user error (not spraying the can upside down to clear it, oops), you can "fix" it if you pop the top off to get it to the bare tube. Then pull the plastic sprayer off another working can. Just make sure to spray a little out of the nozzle before using it to clear any paint out. And then clear the nozzle by holding it upside down and spraying when finished and return the sprayer to its rightful can.

Here the clear coat nozzle was clogged, so I fixed it by using the sprayer from the Rustoleum Soft Iron can. I also like the way that the trigger type sprayer lays down paint anyways - it has a wider spray width and goes on more evenly. So it was a win-win.





1. Clean bumper and wait to dry

Wash the bumper with soap and water. Rinse. Let dry completely. It might be best to wait several hours, or even a whole day. Water likes to hide under the black plastic at the top of the bumper. Usually, a few dry streak marks are left on the bumper from where it accumulated and dripped down the bumper. Use microfiber cloth to wipe away any streaks, spots, or other debris. PRO-TIP - remove the license plate during this step to clean behind it. Replace if you have to drive somewhere while it's drying.

2. Remove license plate

If you haven't already, use the flat head screw driver to remove the rear license plate.

And now you have two options:

You can tape and mask off all of the plastic at the top, near the hitch, and the license plate light housings and skip to step 8.

OR

You can spend a few minutes and remove some of them and not have to mask them.

I chose the latter, and will be detailing that process:

3. Remove and disconnect license plate light housing

Use the Phillip's to remove the one screw holding the license plate light housing. Then remove the housing from the bumper by moving it in a forward direction - towards where the license plate would be, then pulling the rear up and out. There's a plastic tab that has to clear the bumper in order for it to come out.





With the housing out, pinch the tab I'm pointing at to disconnect it. I used needle nose because it's stubborn and had a bunch of dirt in there. Plus the wire is really short, making it a bit hard to work with. You can then tuck the header and wire into the bumper. Repeat for the other side.







4. Remove plastic hitch hardware cover

There are two plastic covers that need to be removed in order to get to the plastic clips.

On the right:



On the left:



There is a clip and a tab on each cover. Use a flat head to pry the cover up. The location of the screwdriver is the orientation of the clip, so if you pry from this side, you may have better luck.



Tab on the left, clip on the bottom right.



Next, pry up the clip. It's a center pin clip, so work the flat head around the head. You should hear a pop when you've gotten it up high enough, or "unlocked". Be careful not to break it, it is plastic after all. Then pry up the lower "washer" to get it out.





Use 10 mm socket to remove two bolts underneath the bumper.

One here on the left:



The other here on the right:



Pull the bottom down and around the bumper, then make sure the two plastic tabs come out of their home at the top (near where the license plate would be). Be careful not to lose the two plastic round bolt covers. They are clipped in, but not very securely.



Then ogle at all the dirt, sand, and leaves that have been riding around with you all this time.





6. Clean or wipe off the loose dirt and debris from the bumper.

You can wash the bumper again with all of your new found dirt. Or you can employ the lazy man's way and just wipe off the loose stuff with the towel. All of the dirt you uncovered will be covered up by the plastic when you reassemble everything. Or if you're really crazy, you can just paint over everything anyways. And then cover it back up.

7. (OPTIONAL) Remove the top plastic pieces - Incomplete

This is incomplete because I abandoned the idea of removing the top plastic after I determined the effort wasn't worth it. Though, undoing the 3 screw clips did make it easy to put the masking underneath the plastic in the center section.

There are 3 clips that have a Phillip's head going through the middle of them. The concept is simple, loosen the screw, then you should be able to pop out the clip. These are plastic, and very fragile. The first I was able to get out in one piece. The second I sheared the head off, because it would spin, but wouldn't loosen. I then tore the washer part off when I tried to pry it out with a flat head. And the third...



Sheared and pried and still clipped in.



... the third, I found you are able give the screws a reach around . PRO-TIP: If you reach over the top of the bumper, you can put your finger on the end of the screw and give it a little push as you unscrew it. I was able to get the screw to loosen this way, but then couldn't get it pried out after words.



Eventually the clip popped through the plastic thru hole while I was trying to get the bugger out. I decided that was good enough and left it in it's home.



Happy screw clip thing on the left. Sad, decapitated screw thing on the right. It's not a huge detriment if you break some of these. The screws that hold the license plate will in turn, also hold the plastic of this center section to the bumper. Plus, the 3 screw clips are hidden behind the license plate, so it will be our little secret.



To finish removing the top plastic, it appears that you have to undo 6 plastic snaps per side (12 total). Three along the front, 3 along the back. If you get under the truck and look, you can see the snaps protruding through the bumper. Some of them are easy to see, some were harder. After attempting to undo the snaps, I ran out of patience, and decided to not remove the top plastic. Plus it was hot. If you have a second person helping, it may be possible for one person to lay underneath the truck and unsnap them with a flat head while the other pulls from the top.

8. Mask any plastic and other "items".

Use painter's tape and newspaper to mask the remaining plastic (if any) and the paint, tail lights, receiver hitch and trailer electricals port.



9. Paint

Shake, rattle and roll paint. Wipe down the bumper one last time to remove face prints, finger/arm smudges and other debris. Spray light even coats. Here I went with 4 coats of grey Plasti-dip to get a nice thick base layer. You'll notice I didn't bother painting the hitch bumper area in the middle. It will be covered with the plastic when everything is reassembled.









I then sprayed 3 layers of a dark metallic grey - aka Rustoleum Flat Soft Iron. It's very gun metal-esque, it's got some sparklies in it too. And then 2 layers of a satin top coat to protect it. See the pictures in the "Thoughts" section below for some close ups of the sparklies and the texture they give the paint.







The gun metal gray color looks pretty sick against the red! What do you think?

I am hoping this clears up any confusion and provides some inspiration and confidence building for anybody wishing to paint their bumper. Go slow, do some prepping, and if you mess up, you can always peel it off and have another go. You can do it!

Thoughts:

1. Don't let the tape touch the paint while you are pulling it off. It seems to be pretty fragile. The tape touched in those two spots, and pulled the topcoat off, but not the Plasti-dip underneath. A possible fix may be to use a few coats of primer on top of the Plasti-dip for better adhesion.

2. You may have to go in with a touch up brush to get any areas that show the icky chrome through, from a shoddy masking job (second photo). What can I say... the curves are hard to mask. This may not be an issue if you were able to remove the top pieces of plastic.

3. Some will say to do this properly, you need to sand off the chrome or roughen the surface of the bumper with a brillo pad or similar. That way the paint will adhere to the bumper better. Do this if you want. I chose not to - which means the paint job may not last as long (it seems to be kind of fragile) but it's less permanent if I ever want to go back to the stock look and a chrome bumper.

 

Thanks for the write-up, I was going to pull the entire bumper, think i'l just take your idea and leave it on, tape it off. Turned out nice, good work.

 

Perfect timing to find this. I was going to plasti dip my rear bumper today. I just have to remove some rust dots that it currently has.

 

Nice work. Did you ever think of getting a gravity fed touch up gun? It makes projects like this fun and gives you more color choices.