[jrsmiles]

I've been reading tons of threads on who did what, and what works best. I decided to give it a go tonight and see what all the fuss is about. I stopped by Autozone on the way home from work this evening to see what they had for supplies. I picked up a can of Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter, Duplicolor Bumper Coating, and Rustoleum Spray in Bedliner.

A lot of folks recommended the Blackout RE-DO thread, with the build up of paint was bedliner, then bumper paint, but I decided to skip the bedliner just to see the initial result with only the bumper paint.

I decided to first start with my bezel, since it is so easy to remove. I popped it off and took it to the shed, removed the grill insert and started on the surround. First I thoroughly wiped it down with a rag with a small amount of mineral spirits. I then sanded with a 320 grit 3M automotive sanding sponge. I wiped it down again after sanding and let it dry for a few minutes.

I hung the bezel from a cable attached to the ceiling so I could get to all the spots I needed in one position, instead of lying flat on a surface. Next I hit it with 2 light coats of adhesion promoter. Probably more than I needed, but it was hard to tell how much was on there since it's so light and clear. I let that dry for about 30 minutes. Keep in mind, I'm in Central FL so the humidity tonight is about 80% or more.

Then came the bumper spray, this took probably 4 solid coats, and a lot of touch up in places that were missed. I waited about 10-15 minutes between each coat, it seemed to dry rather quickly. After I had a lot of paint on, I let it sit for about 30 minutes to settle.

During this time, I gave the same treatment to the TOYOTA letters on the grill. Instead of masking off the grill, I washed everything with mineral spirits, sanded the surface of the grill, and all visible spots of the letters and applied the same treatment as above. I figured a little paint in the honeycomb areas won't hurt anything.

After I went back to the bezel, I started seeing spots that were missed. This finish can be deceiving, since it reflects a light silver color, which is the same color you're painting over, so make sure you look at it in different light and angles.

I had a two run spots where I got too close to the surface with the nozzle, they are in inconspicuous spots though. Also, at the end of the can, the nozzle started spitting out big dots of paint, some of which splattered right on my beautiful paint job directly under the lettering. :flame:

The end result leaves me about 95% happy, I'll know tomorrow in full sunlight.

This weekend I'm going to try and get to the wings, bumper insert, rear bumper and mirrors. I'll have more time, daylight and patience, and hopefully less humidity. I still haven't decided if I'm going to use the bedliner or not. I think that will significantly extend the project time due to extra drying time, sanding between bedliner and bumper paint, and drive the cost up more. I'd like to hear from some members to see if they think it's worth it? I'm willing to put in some extra time up front if it will be worth it over time.

Here are some crappy pics from my iPhone. Notice how my black seems blacker than stock under a flash. Not sure how it will look in the daytime.

 

[Cogen Man]

Looks like you did a good job.

 

[jaddds]

Looks like you did a good job.

x2.
Post new pics in daytime please. I would like to see how well it matches the existing black. Thanks for posting details.:cheers:

 

[jrsmiles]

I'm wondering how many coats I'll have to put on. I pulled off my bezel today and inspected it closely. I found quite a few specks where the silver is showing through.

I pulled my bumper and wings to start the prep tomorrow morning. I may have to redo my bezel, or add more coats. I think I will take the bed liner approach on the lower parts to increase the chance of not having to do it again soon. I may even hit the bezel with bed liner to fix it.

 

[Sergeant Savage]

I just did mine last weekend and I put on 4 coats. So far it's holding up to bumps and scrapes. Are you planning on doing your wheels, handles and mirrors too?

 

[Hindsight]

Looks good!

Doc

 

[PA-NC Cruiser]

Looking good! Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming!

:cheers:

 

[jrsmiles]

I do plan on painting the mirrors and just buying handles. I think they'll be touched too much for paint to work well.

I'm about to get out and start prepping. I'll keep you posted.

 

[w5wi]

Looking good!

cheers,

dale

 

[hazardhat]

I do plan on painting the mirrors and just buying handles. I think they'll be touched too much for paint to work well.

I'm about to get out and start prepping. I'll keep you posted.

Honestly, the handles were the easiest to remove and are the only items that don't have any chips after 2 years of being blacked out.

 

[jrsmiles]

I've got the two front wings, center valance, and headlight bezel finished with 2 coats of bedliner. I'm having a beyotch of a time getting the back bumper to drop. I just can't figure it out and I'm scared to pull on anything too hard because I don't want to break anything.

The bedliner looks great on the parts I've painted so far. I'm wondering how it will look with the bumper coating as the top coat. I have to let it dry for an hour or so and I'll go back out and top it off with a couple coats of bumper spray.


And as a side note, if this doesn't come out the way I like it, it will give me an excuse to buy that All-Pro bumper I've been eying!

 

[jrsmiles]

Here's a couple of pics after the Duplicolor Bumper Coating was applied.

This is 2 coats bedliner, 2 coats bumper coating. The texture is pretty rough, I'm worried about washing it, hopefully bug guts will come off like a normal bumper. The bumper coating didn't seem to do much, since the bedliner is so rough. Hopefully the bumper coat will act as a UV protector to help keep the bedliner from whiting out.

The texture is going to be much different than the factory plastic on the bumper. I guess the only other option is to give the same treatment to the bumper, but I'm hesitant to do that because there is so much flex, and it's a different material than the wings, I think it would be hard to prep. Thoughts?

I pulled the bezel and shot it with bedliner, and pulled the grill to shoot with about 6 more coats of bumper spray on the logo, hopefully that will be enough to keep it from getting speckled. I'm also going to leave the grill off until tomorrow night, to give it more time to dry/cure so maybe it can harden some more before I get it back on the road.

I'm going to let all this stuff dry out for a few hours, I'm getting some food then I'll start removing my emblems to paint flat black. I'll have to pick up some 3M adhesive while I'm out, I'm hoping the Advance or Autozone carries it.

 

[Jaydon]

looking great :bigthumb:

 

[Jaydon]

btw. What brand of bedliner spray did you use?

 

[jrsmiles]

Ok, front end is done. Wings installed, bumper back on truck. It's pretty cool working on your car with the Blue Angels flying overhead.

Overall, I like it. The texture is different than the stock bumper, but the color doesn't stand out at all.

Pics:

I'm going out to do the badges now. I'm running out of daylight, so I'm going to tackle the rear bumper in the morning. I still can't figure out how to drop it. Anyone have any tips???

 

[jrsmiles]

The emblems totally didn't go as planned. Maybe I had a crappy can of paint. I pulled the emblems, cleaned, sanded and cleaned again. I sprayed adhesion promoter and let dry for 10min or so, then I went back with the first coat of Krylon flat black indoor/outdoor spray paint and sprayed a light coat. The particles in this stuff was so thick, it looked like bedliner. I couldn't get it any thinner, even shaking the can for 2 minutes. I let that dry, thinking they might go down, and hit it with another coat. I let that dry and hit it with clear coat. The clear coat stuck to the rough texture and just looked funky. I sanded everything back down to figure out what else to do.

Here are some pics of the disaster. In case you're wondering, I dropped the CRUISER and I'm just going back with the Toyota logo, TOYOTA and FJ. I'm still debating on adding back the TOYOTA, I may just go with the bull head on one side, and the FJ on the other.

I liked the look of the rough texture on the badges, so I decided to give them the same treatment I did my wings. I hit them with a coat of bedliner then two coats of bumper coating. They have a nice rough look to them, which I think is fitting for the FJ. I'm letting that dry overnight, I'll post some pics in the morning.

 

[jrsmiles]

The bedliner/bumper coating on the badges came out pretty nice. 3M emblem adhesive is nasty stuff, I suggest using a toothpick to apply it because it seriously gets everywhere.

I decided to skip reapplying the TOYOTA emblem. There was a lot of gunk and build up in the two "O"s on the paint, so I had to take about 5min with a clay bar cleaning that up. I cleaned the area with alcohol and applied with the instructions on the 3M label.

I also reinstalled my wings and bumper, and wouldn't you know I f'd up my bumper plastic. :flame: After I dropped the bumper, I had it on the ground while I was pulling the wings off the soft black plastic up near the taillights rubbed on some rocks. Hopefully I can "buff" it out with some protectant. I'd hate to have to drop this again and paint that plastic with bumper coat, so maybe I'll learn to live with it. It just sucks that I put all that time into the prep and careful removal and wind up with this :flame:. Oh well, life goes on.

I'm still a bit worried about how the bedliner is going to hold up against bugs, I'm afraid the guts are going to get splattered into the texture and be a royal PITA to clean. We'll see how it fairs this week.

I'm going to research a different paint for the mirrors, since those are bug magnets. I've seen another member here use Krylon Fusion satin black, maybe I'll try that out. I'm planning on doing the mirrors next week, and ordering the Tundra handles tomorrow.

 

[jaddds]

I dont know how it looks in real life, but the pictures look really good IMO. Good job. Wanna come out to Cali and do mine??

 

[MedicMike]

looks absolutley bada$$!! what brand of bedliner did you use??

 

[jrsmiles]

Bedliner was Rustoleum brand.

I did the mirrors and door handles today. The mirrors were probably the toughest thing to do out of everything. It's hard to hit it from all angles, since there is so many little spots that need to be hit with paint around the rotating cylinder.

Also, I masked off the factory black bezel, you know the part that's already black. I figured I wouldn't paint that since it's already black. That was a mistake. Now I can see a line of silver between the mirror housing and the bezel, not on the surface, but down inside, where the bezel snaps onto the housing. I wish I would have removed the bezel, or prepped it for paint like the rest of the plastic. Maybe I won't notice that much, but I probably will.

I really don't want to take them off and do them again but I might have to. At least I'll be able to test how this paint job holds up on the housing in the meantime.

I skipped the bedliner treatment and just used Duplicolor bumper coat. First layer was adhesion promoter, then about 6 coats of bumper coating.

I'll post pics tomorrow in the daylight, I ran out of it when I was finished tonight.