I have the chrome/ grey plastic bumpers on my truck. After getting in a minor fender bender, and getting a $750 check from the other driver's insurance company...it got me to thinking....how hard would it be to paint those ugly grey plastic parts of the bumper to match the truck? Turns out, not too hard (in theory)....I have the parts off and in the process of drying the first coat of primer.

Here are the steps to do the same thing, cost so far is $60 in paint and materials. I got everything I needed from Advance Auto Parts.

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1. Remove plastic bumper insert things, clean with a good degreaser (I used that purple stuff) and sand with 400 grit sandpaper until relatively smooth. Forgot to take pics of this step, relatively self explanatory though.

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2. Spray with adhesion promotor ($6 for a can) and let dry 5-10 mins. Forgot to take pics of this too.

2. Spray with primer and sand until smooth with 400 grit sandpaper (repeat 3 times until very smooth)

Here they are after the adhesion promoter and first coat of primer before sanding....
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3. Spray (3 coats) with correct color-matching paint. You can find your paint code and get an exact match from Advance Auto, it called Dupli-Color Perfect Match). It will have your paint code on the can so you can make sure it's right.

Here are the mirrors and rear bumper insert things after pain, before clear coat...

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4. Spray with clear coat (4 coats) making sure no little bits of pollen of dirt got on the paint beforehand, because once it's clear-coated that stuff is stuck in there permanently. I made the mistake of spraying over lacquer paint with snamel clear coat, and it turned yellow...so don't do that.

5. If desired, buff with an orbital buffer or something like that.

6. Re-assemble the bumper and you got a much better looking truck!! Here are the results!

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Turns out I do need to wet sand and buff. The factory paint job was better than mine, and it doesn't match 100%. Everyone told me it would be hard to match bright white paint, and they were right. But I would call it a 95% match, and you can only tell if you look REALLY closely. So, I would call this a success. My new front bumper is on it's way to Tampa, when it gets here I will take pictures and update the thread as I go.

 

You can also do that ugly black plastic door handles....which I'm not sure about yet. It's a tedious process, and involves quite a bit of work...and I'm not sure which would look best, painting them the same color as the truck (Bright White) OR getting chrome door handles. I am going to finish the bumper and then re-assess what I think would look best. I like chrome but not too much, I don't want my truck to look like one of those stupid Honda Civics with the coffee can muffler and the peel-and-stick fake chrome things from Autozone.

We shall see. Updates to come on that also once I decide what I'm gonna do.

 

I should do this too. Mine are actually off right now anyways, because the rear bumper got repainted a few weeks ago. Not sure on color, right now they are the metallic color that SXT's have. And +1 on what you said about the stupid little peel and stick things. Every time I'm in Autozone I see those and shake my head.

 

I've decided to go a little crazy. Gonna paint the ugly black plastic side mirrors and probably door handles too. No place for ugly cheap plastic on such a good looking truck.

 

Nice rear bumper I wish mine looked like that! I pray for some one to rear end me, even this weekend was crazy parked my truck on the side of the dirt road hoping some drunk person would hit it but no that would never happen lol

 

^^i would never want that to happen lol

 

I pay 150.00 a month have never had a claim in almost 4 years of owning my truck I think I deserve a 400.00 bumper lol

 

Anyone looking for a new front bumper (the grey plastic insert part)? I got sick of sanding, priming, and painting today, so I chumped out $90 to get an already primed one. Gonna paint that white and sell my grey plastic one. $50? Best offer?

 

I got a grand when the guy backed into my rear bumper and dented it a couple years ago haha...$100 bumper from a forum and a sub box for my buddy and he painted it. Good deal painting those things tho I dont understand why they left them grey like that.

 

Note- look at what type of paint your using. I used enamel clear over top of laquer paint. FAIL. Paint loked great and matched perfect....clear coat....yellow....looked like crap. Currently re-priming and starting over.