New Rear Bumper Paint on my 1992 Custo

My next project is getting the rear bumper on the Custom Cruiser re-painted. The car was in a carport in North Carolina most of it's life, and the rear end faced the sunset. The bumper is the only bad paint on the car.





I drop the car off tomorrow and will get it back tues-wed next week. They are going to sand and paint the rear bumper and the lower rear 1/4 trim, just to make sure the color and gloss match perfectly where they touch each other.

Will be lecturing all my kids about ONLY stepping on the black rubber part of the upper bumper.



Painted bumper pics to follow.



-Mike

 

Nice. As to the wheels, I kind of like the idea of the Corvette alloys. They look very similar to the Olds wheels, only bigger.

 

I really don't want to deal with offset changes and wheel adaptors. I'm either going to just stay with stock wheels and install Radial T/A's, find a set 80's style Buick wagon Turbine wheels, or just settle for Impala SS wheels.

We'll see.

 

Tick.....Tock......Tick............Tock.

I keep waiting for the call that the car is ready to pick up. It's supposed to be done today or tomorrow. It took all my energy to NOT go by the body shop yesterday...I really want to see how it's coming...

Ring Phone Ring!!

-Mike

 

Well it won't be done today....and the interior is really dusty now....





-Mike

 

I was thinking they were going to do the painting without removing the cover, since you mentioned they were going to paint the darker areas on the lower quarters to match as well. Only tough part is for the painter having to paint below his waist. For this job he might even be on his knees...........

 

I asked that they not remove the 1/4 trim....hard to find now. May not be as pretty as if they had removed the trim, but did not want to chance anything getting broken.

-Mike

 

I like the stock wheels on your CC Mike.

 

So does my Dad...and my son Eddie. I just do not like the white walls, but think black walls looks plain and raised-letter might look....redneck..on these '92 wheels.

I had Radial T/A's on my '89 OCC and loved them, but had turbine wheels.

If I do replace the tires on the 92 and keep the wheels, I would most likely go with T'A's again. They looked great, rode good and wore well.

-Mike

 

The nice thing about your wheels is the condition. Mine are looking pekid due to the clear coat dying. They need to be either refinished, polished or replaced.

 

beauties all around!!

 

This is the only reason I don't like aluminum wheels at all. Once the clearcoat on them gets hazy or yellowed (or worse, starts peeling and flaking off) it has to be stripped down, scrubbed and polished, and then resprayed with the clearcoat. Here is an example of a wheel from a minivan I once owned. Example of a clean new van, the van's wheel as crusty as when I got it, and the wheel as best as I could do without stripping/respraying.





I was able to brighten the wheels but I wouldn't be able to get that shine without going through the whole refinishing process. It was a $250 van, I wasn't about to go through that much effort, but I did scrubby pad it with simple green and polished with a red shop towel and some toothpaste. That's about as good as it gets without acid and aerosol.

 

Salt just kills the finish on alloy wheels........

 

BEFORE:




AND AFTER:









It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

-Mike

 

It's weird paint. Shines and has a lot of sparkle in it, but not a smooth-like-glass finish. We talked about it and he said GM used this paint on a lot of 90's vehicles for the lower body cladding.

The gloss matches the door and front bumper trim pretty much perfectly. Car looks SOO much better from the back now.

They did mix flex additive in it, so hopefully the kids climbing in and out won't hurt it. He did say to leave it parked in the sun about a week and also not to wax it for a month. Lifetime warranty against cracking or fading. Works for me!

Next...RWL tires.

-Mike