2016 rear bumper mod

First time poster, long time Taco owner here. Love my new 2016! Its my first black Tacoma and I've decided on blacking her out because she will be my garaged and pampered truck, so the cleaning issue associated with black won't be as bad. Anyway, I was told by my local body shop that you couldn't paint this bumper. You guys are so awesome with everything Taco I figured I'd ask. Is this thing really unpaintable? Do I have to trash a perfectly good bumper that I paid for to replace it with a black one?

 

I'm pretty sure the pieces are plastic. You can sandblast and repaint. Or you can purchase the 2 outer parts. It is a modular bumper.

 

Thanks! You are absolutely right. They are definitely plastic. What is a modular bumper, and how does that affect my situation here?

 

Paintable plastic replacement bumper cover panels are $90 each. They come in black plastic.

A body shop swapped my bumper panels without removing the bumper in about 15 minutes. I am looking forward to seeing the bumper in person when I get back to the US in March.

 

Nice! Where do I find these covers?

 

I just taped mine off and painted it myself... Cost me about $20 in auto paint and it looks great.

 

I bought a set and they were $77.85 each from Camelback Toyota(vendor on here). Part numbers are 52155-04010 and 52156-04010.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/attachments/image-jpg.887668/

 

Got any pics? Body shop said paint wouldn't stick? I don't have a paint sprayer so I wouldn't be able to do that.

Did you do the install yourself? Is it something an amateur could pull off?

 

I'm still waiting on my truck to arrive so I haven't done it yet. Should be pretty simple. See post #22 in this thread.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/16-tacoma-bumper-cap-removal.404082/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_design

 

Sooooo...what youa re saying is I can get chrome ones from you if you take them off and replace them with black ones??

 

OP I think the bodyshop meant if they just paint over top of the chrome paint it would not stick. If you get new end pieces they just need to be prepped and then they can paint the NEW replacements as they are probably not painted. Then all you need to do is supply the proper paint code.

 

A month ago when I bought my truck the first thing I set out to do was paint my chrome bumper caps. It wasn't hard, just required careful prep work. I spent about $65 total on the project between all the paint, primer, and fresh set of sanding tools. Did it over Christmas weekend and it took three days, but turned out perfect.

Just make sure you take apart the bumper carefully and spend the time properly sanding the chrome caps. Use adhesion promoter and sandable primer. I used duplicolor paint for an exact match for my Barcelona red (3R3).

 

You can wrap them also. Easy and cheap, any color you want.

 

Edit: add pic

I'll try and snap a pic tomorrow. Like dowNNshift said it's all about prep. I sanded mine first, then sprayed about 4 coats of bonding primer to help with adhesion to the plastic. About 4 coats of black paint, then 3-4 of clear coat. I don't have a sprayer either, just used duplicolor stuff from the auto parts store.

I was pretty nervous about rattle canning a $35k truck, but it turned out great.

 

This is awesome!! I currently have my bumper plasti dipped, but plan on color matching, was it difficult to remove bumper caps?

 

I didn't actually remove my caps :-X I just taped the hell out of the bumper. Draped the tailgate and quarter panels with plastic drop cloth and taped it down.

I really worked the tape in to the creases so that I could spray the edges of the caps without worrying of over spray. I think the taping alone took me about an hour

 

That's what I did when I plasti dipped my bumper and like you said taped the hell out of the bumper

 

Now we're talking! Haven't seen anybody do such a great color match without removing the pieces. Now that I see the great results with much less hassle, I gotta try it. I've never painted a vehicle though.

 

Wow, those rear bumpers look great when painted to color match! Keep the pics coming! Nice job!