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chiromaster Member
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My bumpers need help. They are weathered looking. What steps should I take to restore them? What products are good to re finish with? Thank You Nels |
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JodyKerr Member 
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I'm assuming you're talking rubber bumpers. How bad is bad? The ones on my current project weren't the greatest when I started with them. I washed them really well with dish soap, and then applied Meguiar's Natural Shine Vinyl & Rubber Protectant (I love the stuff) every day for a week or so. They came back nice and black. Even sitting in the AZ sun all I have to do it treat them with it when I was the car and they stay nice and black. If they're really bad, there's a full restoration process I've been thinking of trying on a JH bumper. I snagged it off the MG experience site. It's a how to for the rubber bumper MGs, which is more or less the same stuff as the JH bumper. http://www.mgexperience.net/article/rb-repair.html Jody |
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chiromaster Member
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They are rubber bumpers. The rubber is hard and looks cracked from the AZ sun. It looks as they may have been coated with something in the past. I will have to take a closer look. |
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JodyKerr Member
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Hard and cracked is one thing, but covered with other stuff is another. Someone really poorly recoated the bumpers on my TR8. Looks ok from 10 feet, looks like crap up close. Noticed you're in AZ. I'm in the Tempe area. Depending on how far away you are I'd be happy to get 'em a look see and tell ya if they're better/worse than the ones I started with. Jody |
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Art DeKneef Member
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Hi Nels. I was just wondering how you were doing on your car. When I went to clean the bumpers I had when I wiped my hands over the bumper it turned black from being weathered so much. I started with a stiff plastic brush, bucket of water and car cleaner. Scrubbed the bumpers to get them clean first. Then used an orange cleaner in a spray bottle with a ScotchBrite pad to clean/work the rubber one more time. This got all the junk and dead rubber off. Went through a couple of buckets of water. Then I used a rubber cleaner/conditioner I had from Meguairs. Sprayed it on, let soak for a while, rubbed it in and then wiped it off. Did the other bumper and let them sit for a while. Looked better. I went over the bumpers one more time but didn't wipe them off. I wanted to let them sit over night and see how they looked in the morning. In the morning when I looked at the bumpers it looked like some of conditioner had been absorbed by the rubber. The sheen was different shades. Sprayed on my stuff, rubbed it around and then wiped it off. Bumpers looked good but more importantly I could put my hand on the bumper and not have black all over it from the bumper. |
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Dan (Florida) Member
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Mine were too badly deteriorated. I ended up scraping them off and painting them. You can see the results in the gallery under Florida cars (red 74) |
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subwoofer Member
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Polytrol (plastic renewer from Owatrol) did wonders with mine. Cheap as well, a pint lasted me one inner liner in a boat and at least five cars. You could also use the clear stuff used for oiling wooden patio decks, works a charm, even as a rust preventer. I can give you brand names, but that would probably just be helpful to the Scandinavian crowd... -- Joachim |
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chiromaster Member
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Thank you all for the input on bumper restoration. I will start with the cleaning methods first. If they don't work I will get busy on sanding and re rubberizing. |
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Frank Schwartz Guest
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Try some "Back to Black". Available in most car parts stores. Works great for us.. |
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