What kind of finish is on the aluminum bumpers?

[priya]

Thanks Eagleman.  The time I spent on it could have been cut down quite a bit if I had used the sand/easyoff/sand/easyoff method at the start or done as Vangremlin suggested and had the bumper sandblasted.  Also slowing me down was I did most of the sanding with a jitterbug which doesn't cut real well even with coarse sandpaper.  I have an inline sander which is what is best for the coarser sanding but it was working poorly, frequently stopping or running so slow that it was actually faster to sand by hand (which I also did).

[macdude443]

I would like to paint my bumper black.  It looks like someone did, but they didn't prep it right or didn't put on enough layers because it chipped really bad.



I was going to use Klean Strip paint stripper, let it etch slightly, then sand, prime and paint.  Would that work ok?

[priya]

I'm a little foggy on what I did with the aluminum I painted, but if I remember correctly there is a special primer for aluminum.  Hopefully someone else will post that knows better than me.

[carnuck]

Use an etch primer made for aluminum then paint over it.

[macdude443]

I wish I could afford that shipping.  If I were to have someone sandblast it, would I have to use a certain kind of media?  I was going to sand it down by hand  .  I bought Dupli-Color Self-Etching Primer.  Says it works on Aluminum, Steel and Fiberglass.  I also plan to use it on the spoiler.

[ozarkrebel]

Here is a good website for prepping and painting aluminum, steel, and plastics. I used his directions for painting the plastic fender flares on my wife's pathfinder and it still looked good a year later.

http://www.overclockers.com/how-to-paint-steel-aluminum-plastic-and-acrylic/