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For those of you who checked out my parade thread, we had a great time as a family with the old truck. But when the kids got into the back, they must have had dirt on their shoes or grit, and put scratches in the finish on the top of the bumper.
I have been hesitant to polish them out, just because I have never polished paint, only hand wax. I broke out the Torq 10fx tonight and practiced on a spare bumper I bought from Ross a while back. It had storage and shipping scratches, but they all polished out and the paint looks perfect. Used a cutting polish and then a final polish. It was easier than I thought and results were amazing.
Going to polish the real thing this week, wish me luck!
That bumper looks to have a nice finish on it...has it been powder coated or is it paint? Base coat clear coat?
Sounds like you have a process that works for you...good luck!
Hello Charlie, the bumper is two stage clear coat. I was able to get all the feather scratches out on the truck. I have one I couldn’t get out, I think to get it out would require wet sanding with 1000 grit, so I am leaving it alone.
Pleased with the polisher. I was also able to get out a few scratches at the bottom of the doors where dirt debris had collected on the bottom door weatherstripping. Lesson that I need to keep that area cleaner. It gets overlooked.
Be very careful on the edges of the bumper with something like a cutting polish and that machine! You could really do some damage to the paint.
For the type of scratches your describing I wouldn't be surprised if you just took a micro fiber and by hand, polished out the scratches with the finer final polish you have. I like to use Griots hand polish for those kinds of light scratches. Ive had those same ones appear on the top of the black bumper.
Be very careful on the edges of the bumper with something like a cutting polish and that machine! You could really do some damage to the paint.
For the type of scratches your describing I wouldn't be surprised if you just took a micro fiber and by hand, polished out the scratches with the finer final polish you have. I like to use Griots hand polish for those kinds of light scratches. Ive had those same ones appear on the top of the black bumper.
agreed sir! I was a nervous Nelly for sure. That machine only gets pulled out every 5 years - was the deal I made with dad tonight! Will do as you suggest next time. I did take it easy on the top edge, rotating the machine with the top curve to keep from biting too deep. The black bumper is the way to go for looks, but you can’t step on it with shoes. The good news, if I need to paint it down the road, it’s easy to take off! Will have to live with that one scratch for now.
I'd have to see how bad the scratches are, but from the pic about that's a tough surface to polish, with many high & low spots, Unless you have a nice wool pad I would do it by hand as 52Flthed notes, things can go bad really quick on non-flat surfaces (even flat surfaces). There are some really good polishes out there for hand use that should accomplish what you need.
If you are determined to polish it with machine polisher I would take some masking tape at least and tape off about 1/8" of the end of the bumper on each side you you don't burn through the edges. Edges normally have about 1/3 of the clear coat thickness a normal surface has.
Also not to scare you, but black is one of the worse colors to polish, while you will remove the fine scratches you may end up with fine swirl marks in the paint which you don't see until the light hits it just right..
My front and rear bumpers along with most of the tail light components are one area I chose to have black powder coated.
I experimented and yes I was able to polish out scratches on the powder coating. I find it tougher wearing in this area than regular paint. But I can also see the advantages of using paint if it ever gets really scratched and needs paint touch up.
My running boards are single stage black gloss paint and I’m polishing them up by hand about twice a season.
I painted the front bumper on my F350 to make it look better to prospective buyers. I used Rustoleum Gloss Black with the trigger. It sprayed real nice with a nice pattern and was easier than pushing down a button.
It looks so good I Might have use that on my 54 come spring.
