Blue Magic Pure Rubber Coating - Redoing Bumper Finish

Well, first thing, this is a review of the BlueMagic Pure Rubber Coating, compliments of AutomatCentral

You can find info about it and such at http://www.automatcentral.com/rubber-coating-spray.html


As you can see by the following pics, the previous owner had put on some bed liner that is now starting flaking off pretty good.



Originally, I had plans to completely remove the bumper from the frame, but after some careful planning and not having help, I decided the 150+ lb bumper + winch would probably be easiest to leave it on and just work around the tight spots.

So, I started by removing all my lights and sanding off all the previous material. Not sure what type of bed liner used to be on there, but it was strange in that when sanded, it'd turn brown. Either way, its all gone now. I wasn't worried about keeping the original powder coating finish, although I didn't go to any length to preserve it either. With primer, plus the rubber coating, it will be waterproof anyway. Most of the sanding was done with a 80 grit flap disc on a handheld grinder (on tests, the rubber coating would hide these sanding marks quite easily, so wasn't worried about that).



After all sanded down, I tossed on a coat of primer.



Now for the Rubber Coating. It comes with 6 cans, which I'm not sure would be enough for two full coatings for a full sized bed, but should be enough for a short bed. (Guess Herculiner sells it that way as well)

It sprays on what looks to be very thick, but as it dries, it flattens out. It leaves a little bit of a texture and a few minor high points, but really isn't all that aggressive. I do wish it was slightly more aggressive and I'm sure I could've done the whole sponge thing when it was partially dried, but I also didn't want to run into another Herculiner situation like I did on my sliders (way too rough), so this will work out nicely. (As you can probably see in some spots, it is rough enough to take off some of my very dry skin and leave marks, but that really doesn't take a lot to do.)

After its dried, it actually ends up being fairly thick for a rattle can, although I would recommend a few coats due to it being from a can, specially in places that will end up getting touched. I ended up putting on two heavy coats. Probably should've done three, but we'll see how it lasts over time like this.

As for color, it turned out to be a very dark gray, similar to the Rustolium dark primer, but I think it ended up contrasting nicely with the black paint and I'm going to leave it as is. The can does say it is able to be painted, so thats always an option as well. In these two pics below, it is partially dry in the places that are lighter so you can see a contrast of what its like wet vs dry.



I haven't reattached my jack or lights yet since I want to give it a few days to cure due to it being quite cold outside, but here's some after pics.



I ended up using 3 cans on the bumper, so with a few extra cans, I decided to do some other touch up work on my fender flares and mirrors.

Again, the previous owner got a little excited with bed liner, so he decided to coat the mirrors, fender flares, and even door handles with the stuff. As with the bumper, it was also starting to flake off in those locations as well.

I had previously sanded down the fender flares and repainted with textured paint so I really didn't do much prep work on them. Just taped them off and put on a single coat of rubber coating. Not really a lot of change overall, so no before pics. Just better color matching to the bumper.



As for the mirrors, this ended up being a bit of a test to see how well the bed liner could be used to hide defects. It turns out that it levels a bit too much, but I still think it turned out quite a bit better than it used to look. I do wish I did a little more work on the mirrors before painting them though. (The camera really picked up the white from my hands after I put them back on)

Before:

After:


After everything was said and done, I ended up with 1 extra can, which I intend to keep for touchups on the sliders, skid plate, bumper, frame, or whatever else. (Already used it on some scrapes on the sliders).

When I'm able to get my rear bumper, I fully plan on putting this on it as well, assuming it holds up over time (which I see no reason it wouldn't). I'll end up recoating my light bar with it at that time as well.