Stripping...

[whitevanman]

NO... not that sort right I've used paint strippers on metal and wood to various degrees of success over the years, but I have a never tried to use it to remove paint from a bumper....the plastic bumper on the Orion is loosing its paint to flaking, but its not all coming off, I am assuming that chemical strippers will effect the plastic? will it though? anyone had success with using anything else?

[retrogeezer]

chemicals will probably melt the plastic. A high powered jet wash might get the paint off though.

[FredTransit]

Try a test area, as they say on the tin.

[Timewaster]

If it is a grained plastic, then you have got no chance.wouldn't it be simpler to rub down and re-spray the bumper?

[Pillock]

Rub it against a multistorey carpark wall. They treat them with something that immediately takes the paint off plastic with the lightest touch

[Anglevan]

If you use normal paintstripper it will just melt the plastic. If it's just starting to flake i'd try and using a high pressure washer (hot) if it's due to poor adhesion that will sort it. You can buy stripper for plastics (modellers use it - modelstrip) however god knows how much it would cost to do a full bumper as it's dear stuff.

[whitevanman]

pretty much my thoughts then....the plastic is smooth as it is a genuine Ford "painted" bumper, had hoped to put it to original plastic to be different....its too easy to paint them I'll give the HP washer a try

[AXrescuer]

Why not do a test with something like Nitromors on a small and less visible part of the bumper?

[whitevanman]

Why not do a test with something like Nitromors on a small and less visible part of the bumper?

I intended too, but thought it might be worth tapping into the Autoshite collective mind.......it might save me the trouble

[wilko]

How old is the Orion? Weren't colour coded bumpers an option and/or only for certain specs?If the above is true, why not just take the bumper off and bolt a povvo spec one on instead?

[whitevanman]

How old is the Orion? Weren't colour coded bumpers an option and/or only for certain specs?If the above is true, why not just take the bumper off and bolt a povvo spec one on instead?

its an 89 Orion, the RS bumper is the only one I have lying around and I dont want to spend any more money than I have to to put it back on the road, and as its flaking off I'd like to get it all off

[AXrescuer]

This morning my son got some Nitromors and successfully removed the paint off an Astra Sport plastic rear bumper. Only left it for 10 mins before washing it off and it didn't harm the plastic at all. Maybe it will work for you too.*1000th post*

[whitevanman]

This morning my son got some Nitromors and successfully removed the paint off an Astra Sport plastic rear bumper. Only left it for 10 mins before washing it off and it didn't harm the plastic at all. Maybe it will work for you too.*1000th post*

Cheers AXr, that an encouraging post

[vicsmith]

If i were painting a bumper that was colour coded from the factory, rather than try and get all the paint off, which I reckon would be a bit difficult, I`d probably sand down the whole thing, but a bit of stopper over the areas that have flaked, sand the whole thing smooth, give it a coat of filler primer, then plastic primer. I`m presuming you want to paint the bumper matt black or grey again.Not saying that would definately work, but I`d try it first, it should be an easy fix with long lasting results.

[whitevanman]

If i were painting a bumper that was colour coded from the factory, rather than try and get all the paint off, which I reckon would be a bit difficult, I`d probably sand down the whole thing, but a bit of stopper over the areas that have flaked, sand the whole thing smooth, give it a coat of filler primer, then plastic primer. I`m presuming you want to paint the bumper matt black or grey again.Not saying that would definately work, but I`d try it first, it should be an easy fix with long lasting results.

to be honest if the Orion works properly again it will be getting a respspray at some point, but in the mean time I was just hoping to make it look better, the flaking is very bad and I think just rubbing it down would consume too much time for the end result to be worth it