Touchup paints for steel bumper compared

[JonMN]

Someone cut a little too close to my bumper and left a large scuff. I am guessing he got the worst of it, however. Some of the scratches were deep, so I would have had to sand down to metal to actually smooth it out. I decided to go with just painting the surface--turned out very acceptable.

Looking thru various forums, I saw three main candidates for paint. I had one of the Rustoleums already, so I bought another as well as the AEV designed for this.

Short version: Rustoleum Textured (black) worked great.

Here are the paints I compared.

I taped some black plastic to cardboard and sprayed it to get some samples for comparison. While it was a bit of a challenge to photograph, here are the samples next to the bumper. In person, the choice was pretty obvious; RustOleum textured was really close. TruckBody was too coarse, and the AEV was a little too shiny. All would probably be acceptable, but the Textured was the clear winner to me and a couple others I showed the samples to.

For comparison, here are the samples:

RustOleum Truck Body:

AEV:

RustOleum Textured:

So here are the before and after. Quite an improvement!

I went with 3 light coats.

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[YGBSM]

Thanks for posting this. Great information.

 

[Jaxmax]

Nice job looks great , thanks for posting will help a lot of us out when needed , even if repainting a bumper or perhaps painting a bare metal bumper to match!….Jack

 

[pnbld]

Thanks for posting this. Great information.

Nice job looks great , thanks for posting will help a lot of us out when needed , even if repainting a bumper or perhaps painting a bare metal bumper to match!….Jack

I agree , turned out really good

 

[JonMN]

Thanks all! Have to admit, it's fun (but a little expensive!) to have a vehicle I can work on and tweak at home. Easy access to almost everything and a huge amount of interesting aftermarket parts. Waiting for a warmer day to take a doors-off drive and see if my wife can handle the wind. If she can, I'm in for a set of tube doors!

 

[LouisvEarlleJT]

A+ post, commenting so I can find it later!

 

[NC_Overland]

Good job and good info, but I would have tried getting the paint transfer off first. I’ve done it a lot of times and that looks like almost all of it would come off. Hard to tell in pics though.

 

[JonMN]

Good job and good info, but I would have tried getting the paint transfer off first. I’ve done it a lot of times and that looks like almost all of it would come off. Hard to tell in pics though.

Thanks NC! Funny thing is I did try that. Not completely sure it was transfer, as when I wetted the surface it went all black. Also tried isopropanol. If It was transfer, I would have thought it would stay white when wetted, but it went black and then back to white when dried. Since some of the deep scratches went all the way to metal I did want to get something on it.

 

[Klabat]

That's a really good match for an off-the-shelf rattle can. Good job!

 

[Pilsner]

Nice. I have some decent rock rash I need to touch up. Good info.

 

[NC_Overland]

Thanks NC! Funny thing is I did try that. Not completely sure it was transfer, as when I wetted the surface it went all black. Also tried isopropanol. If It was transfer, I would have thought it would stay white when wetted, but it went black and then back to white when dried. Since some of the deep scratches went all the way to metal I did want to get something on it.

Yeah. It’s hard to tell in pics. You usually don’t have deep scratches like that in bumper hits like that. I wonder what hit it. Regardless, you did a good job.

btw, I never liked the powder coating on my front bumper so I used their rollbar paint and 1k satin clear and it gave a very stock like, durable finish that cleans easily. I had to let it cure for a week before I could clear it though. I’ve never run into that before.

 

[bleda2002]

Rust-Oleum also sells a bumper and trim paint that I've used to great effect and also matches very well but it's not textured.

 

[jnett]

That looks great. Another option for paint is SEM Trim Black.

 

[DanW]

Someone cut a little too close to my bumper and left a large scuff. I am guessing he got the worst of it, however. Some of the scratches were deep, so I would have had to sand down to metal to actually smooth it out. I decided to go with just painting the surface--turned out very acceptable.

Looking thru various forums, I saw three main candidates for paint. I had one of the Rustoleums already, so I bought another as well as the AEV designed for this.

Short version: Rustoleum Textured (black) worked great.

Here are the paints I compared.

I taped some black plastic to cardboard and sprayed it to get some samples for comparison. While it was a bit of a challenge to photograph, here are the samples next to the bumper. In person, the choice was pretty obvious; RustOleum textured was really close. TruckBody was too coarse, and the AEV was a little too shiny. All would probably be acceptable, but the Textured was the clear winner to me and a couple others I showed the samples to.

For comparison, here are the samples:

RustOleum Truck Body:

AEV:

RustOleum Textured:

So here are the before and after. Quite an improvement!

I went with 3 light coats.

Wow, thanks for this! I have some big bumps and bruises on my JL's rear bumper and I'm certain that the future holds those kinds of things for my Gladiator as it enters it's role as my primary off-roader!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Thanks NC! Funny thing is I did try that. Not completely sure it was transfer, as when I wetted the surface it went all black. Also tried isopropanol. If It was transfer, I would have thought it would stay white when wetted, but it went black and then back to white when dried. Since some of the deep scratches went all the way to metal I did want to get something on it.

It took the texture right off the bumper - can tell from your pic. You needed to do what you did. That's how that sort of paint reacts when "scuffed" by something. (sadly, speaking from experience on another vehicle). There were scratches that would have never gone away.

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