QUALITY HELP needed for my Z31 repaint project...

[zxguy1986]

Many guys do THEIR OWN paint/repaint jobs. I never did - but wish I could. Right now I have 'new' paint (2 yrs old) peeling from my '86 Z31 fiberglass bumpers. That makes TWICE since 1996 that bonehead 'pros' at the body shop forgot to add a 'FLEX AGENT' to the paint before spraying the bumpers. The paint dries brittle - no problem on metal. But when the bumper flexes, it cracks the paint & clear coat which eventually pops off in flakes, leaving the primer/fiberglass exposed.

I need to know what I have to do next time. I can be there when he adds the flex agent, but the question is whether that paint could be used for the whole car - or just for the fiberglass elements... Do I have to remove ALL of the old finishes down to the fiberglass first? And does he have to add a flex agent to the CLEAR COAT too?

I am totally burned out with boneheads. Maybe breathing those fumes for so long gives them permanent brain issues. I just want the finish to go on, look great - and STAY THERE!

Any paint pros here - or anybody else who knows what they're doing, thanks in advance for any solid input you can give me. I really appreciate it.
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'86na, '86T

[floridaZ]

You can flex agent the whole car. You don't have to remove the old layers of paint unless you want to start with a clean slate. I wouldn't recommend exposing the bare metal due to possible rust complications and the fact that it is much easier to prep a layer of paint so the new stuff will stick, than it is bare metal and (I would assume) the squishy bumper covers.

By the way, the stock bumper covers aren't fiberglass, they're... urethane-based, I think.

[zxguy1986]

You can flex agent the whole car. You don't have to remove the old layers of paint unless you want to start with a clean slate. I wouldn't recommend exposing the bare metal due to possible rust complications and the fact that it is much easier to prep a layer of paint so the new stuff will stick, than it is bare metal and (I would assume) the squishy bumper covers.

By the way, the stock bumper covers aren't fiberglass, they're... urethane-based, I think.

Hey, thanks for the good input. I thought they looked like urethane but wasn't sure. Very flat finish from the factory, sorta creamy foam-colored - that yellows in the sunlight. Just like urethane. I'm surprised it is so dense, like fiberglass.

Anyway, I will have to watch the paint mixing myself and hope for the best. You would think painters would have learned how to deal with non-metal body parts by now. And the flex agent is cheap to buy, too.

Thanks again, floridaZ

[Butter]

There really isn't much you can do unfortunately. Flex agent isn't a miracle cure, and only goes so far. He probably DID put it in. I hit a lot of stuff drifting, so this is how I do it.
-Prep bumper with scotch bright pad. I forget which one I used, but the paint store recommended something like 800 grit. If you go too coarse, it causes the urethane to make little shavings like pubic hair. I dropped it down to a gentle scuffing with 600 I think, which you can just make out in the final finish if you look for it, but the trade-off is I got some durability. Now the paint has something to stick to.
-For all my fiberglass body kits and urethane stuff, I shoot it with Bulldog adhesion promoter first before topcoating.

[NissanEgg]

^THIS....That's how I did my bumpers on my Z.

[zxguy1986]

You guys are good at this. I guess I just found the wrong body shop or got there on the wrong day. Seems like it's no big deal to do it right - if you actually THINK about what you're doing. So I will put in the effort needed to strip and prep the covers before taking them in for a repaint. Then I watch the agent getting added to the paint per mfr's spec. That should do it!

Thank you, gentlemen! You made my day.

[PulseCode]

Thank You for the thread. I gleaned some important information which I will need, since I will be painting soon myself.