Painted Black Front Bumper 2001 Tacoma PreRunner

My front bumper on my 2001 PreRunner was fading/dented, so I painted it yesterday.

I used Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter, Duplicolor acrylic black paint, 320 grit 3M sandpaper, painters tape, trash bags, and good, ol' fashioned duct tape (which WILL leave sticky residue on your plastic grill and isn't recommended).

Anyway, the process was pretty simple and only took about 4-5 hours. I washed the bumper, sanded it, washed the flakes off and sanded it again, put 3 coats of adhesion promoter, and then put 4 coats of paint. I'm thinking about putting on a few more coats on and wet sanding it next weekend, but I'm not sure.

Total cost was about $25 and, in my opinion, was well worth it. Whadaya think?

Also, sorry if some of the pics are sideways. The uploader must've melted down on the Dec 21 apocalypse

Washed the bumper:



Sanded the bumper:



Re-washed and res-anded:



Taped up:





1st coat:



2nd coat:



Final:

 

If you ever have to do this again or paint anything else try Plasti-dip. I just recently painted the lower section of my bumper on my 02 (the upper section in body color) and I used Plasti-dip and it looks great. The best part is you can just peel it off if you mess up.

 

Yep way too much use of that stuff on here. Plenty of good uses for it but IMHO a bumper is not one of them...

 

OP

Looks really good. But you could have saved yourself a lot of time if you just removed your bumper and valence rather than masking.

 

I merely handed you the light saber... you're the one who wielded it.




(no homo)

 

I was going to take it off, but didn't even bother to look up how b/c I figured it'd be more of a pain than to tape it up...that's my luck, though lol. I'm doing the back bumper tomorrow. Any tips?

 

Thanks. Mine is the black rear bumper, not the chrome, but I assume the process is the same.

 

When I (re)did the rear bumper, I left it on the truck but took the license plate lights off/out and did those separately.

And yes the process is pretty much the same for all metal/plastic. Sand, clean (remove dust), prime, and paint. Clear coat optional.

 

Thanks. I'll put the pics up as soon as I do it, provided it goes well.

 

Hey, brand new member here, I like It! I’m going for a similar look in terms of ride height and wheels/tires. What size are they and did you lift it at all? Thanks!

 

Looks good man wondering if can do my fender flares like this my are fadeit out like a mf ..

 

3" Toytec lift and 31's, IIRC...I sold that truck a while back.

Yep. I did those on a 2003 I had after this truck. Same concept: tape up everything, sand, and paint!

 

I would use bedliner on the fender flares. Looks better imo and more protective

 

Looks clean.

 

If you have a local Certifit location, I picked up a brand new bumper for my '00 for <$50 bucks.

 

Looks good.

 

It's like 4 bolts. unplug the turn signal lights. done.

For the back bumper same thing, just remove/unplug the license plate lights. Just look under there, you'll the the bolts that need to be removed. THen pop the plastic top thing off and sand away.

 

Like 6 bolts for the feint but yeah its really easy

 

My truck was getting pretty heavy and I wanted to lighten it up, so I took two out.

Just kidding.

I forgot about the 1 on each side that bolt to the fender well area. They're kinda hidden under the plastic liner.

 

Yeah there is more bolts holding your fender on the car then there is holding the bumpers on, there is probably more bolts holding the valance on to the bumber the the bumper to the car lol.