Mondeo budget bumper replacement

[sierraman]

Decided to start on replacing the cracked front bumper on the Mondeo today. Purchased the new bumper from Fellow shiter Rev Bluejeans, though you can get them new on eBay for £43 delivered. How they arrive in one piece is beyond me as it’s the most fragile plastic known to man.

 

Painting it on the car was a no no. So I used the trusty workmate and clamped it to that. Given the forecasters have predicted the next ice age I decided to use one of those big spot lamps that gives off a shit load of heat to help the paint dry successfully.

 

Anyway, started by flatting it down with some 400 grade wet and dry, it comes primed but I felt for the sake of £4 I’d prime it with some fresh primer from ECP. Once it’s thoroughly flatted I’ve then degreased it with some meths. You can get this in an aerosol for £5-6 if you like burning money. I just used a bottle I had in the shed that cost about 80p. But I’m tight.

[Des]

I wonder if it would be worth lining that with fibreglass or something, maybe builders expanding foam misted with acetone as it's applied so it sets more on the dense side. Be nice for a Mondeo to not come off worse to a touch parker. A video of such an event could be used to convince everyone that we're living in the matrix.

[sierraman]

It sits snug with the foam behind so not sure it would add much to it.

[Hendry]

Genuine or pattern one sierraman?

 

Pattern one might be better quality than the shite Ford were fitting to these and mk6 Escorts, fuck knows why they decided to have bumpers as fragile as eggshells with foam behind them rather than a solid plastic bumper like other Fords of the era had.

[sierraman]

A genuine new one if you could find one would be about £200, a pattern is £43 so I’ll let you decide...

 

Coat of plastic primer on it now, the heat from the lights will warm the panel up and speed up drying a bit. The actual colour coat will need to go on in stages otherwise it’s difficult to get it right. Aerosols aren’t really designed for jobs of this size but where there’s a will there’s a way!

 

I’ll flash a coat off every 30 minutes or so... once you’ve done a coat fuck off. Hanging round wet paint is a recipe for disaster.

[sierraman]

Wait on it drying at 3 coats now so...

[sierraman]

Gave it a mist of colour coat on it and cover off the edges first...

[sierraman]

Moar coats of paint. I’ll give it a few more then leave it to harden before lacquer.