1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - ICE ICE Baby - see page 36

[beko1987]

Something nasty inside the plastic of the bumper? 

Amazing even with that though, fuck it leave it for now, move on to the other stuff and try again in a few months (I know you won't... 😂) 

[Peter C]

7 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Something nasty inside the plastic of the bumper?

But the primer didn’t react with the bumper, the issue seems to be between they primer and paint.

[cobblers]

that's 100% silicone contamination, someone has lathered the bumpers in back to black in the past.

It doesn't affect primer because that doesn't "flow".

If using paint from a gun you can get an additive which prevents this sort of thing. From an aerosol you are in trouble - Either strip the lot off somehow and mega mega decontaminate the plastic, or try a bar coat to bury it and then a less finicky top coat.

Some of the specific bumper/plastic paints we use at work aren't as affected by silicone. We use Monofil Vario+ Texture paint and I've never seen it react like that

[Peter C]

@cobblers

After rubbing down the old paint coatings, I cleaned the entire bumper with a scouring pad soaked in white spirit, which I wiped off and then cleaned the entire bumper again with wet wipes. I thought I’ve done enough but evidently not.

[Peter C]

@cobblers

This stuff?

 

[cort16]

13 minutes ago, Peter C said:

@cobblers

After rubbing down the old paint coatings, I cleaned the entire bumper with a scouring pad soaked in white spirit, which I wiped off and then cleaned the entire bumper again with wet wipes. I thought I’ve done enough but evidently not.

I think white spirit can leave a residue so maybe not ideal. you can get proper  panel prep that’s not expensive but I just use something that can flash quickly like brake cleaner on rag   I wouldn’t use wet wipes as the can also sometime have soap or oil in them . If a car has had a mix of paints in the past body shops use an isolator layer to stop it reacting .

I’d also use plastic primer on the bumpers most of the flakey bumpers you see is because they got painted in regular primer, which cracks when the bumpers move  .

[Peter C]

4 minutes ago, cort16 said:

I think white spirit can leave a residue so maybe not ideal. you can get proper  panel prep that’s not expensive but I just use something that can flash quickly like brake cleaner on rag   I wouldn’t use wet wipes as the can also sometime have soap or oil in them . If a car has had a mix of paints in the past body shops use an isolator layer to stop it reacting .

Ok but I treated the front bumper with the same products and it turned out just fine.

[cobblers]

15 minutes ago, Peter C said:

@cobblers

This stuff?

 

Yep that's the stuff we use.

 

Silicone is really a nightmare, even a tiny bit hangs around and will ruin any paint finish that "flows" as it knackers the surface tension, like a single drop oil on a lake causes a flat spot 30m in diameter.

A local bodyshop was more or less put out of business about ten years ago when a disgruntled customer smashed a little window and pierced a few cans of trim shine and threw them in, every job that was in progress had to be re-started, and they were getting defects for months/years!

[cort16]

25 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Ok but I treated the front bumper with the same products and it turned out just fine.

I dunno I’m not saying it caused this but white spirit  is not ideal to use for car paint . 

[Peter C]

11 minutes ago, cort16 said:

I dunno I’m not saying it caused this but white spirit  is not ideal to use for car paint . 

Understood, won’t happen again.

[beko1987]

Sorry popped out after posting! I only mentioned it because I've had exactly the same but from a fuck up I made.

Had 2 vintage Hoover handles sprayed up and drying, forgot about them and sprayed some silicone spray on something else in the garden... The tiny micro droplets that hit the handle looked exactly like that! Sort of blooms out from a centre point

3 years later I must rub them down and re spray them and give the owner his hoover back... Your posts are very inspiring to get on with that now the weather is improving 👍

[Peter C]

Based on @cobblers recommendation, I bought three cans of this stuff, kindly delivered by Amazon this afternoon. 

He speaks highly of it and it only costs £3 per can more than the Halfords gloss black stuff.

My workshop is not ventilated and a Covid mask was the only PPE I had. Leaving the workshop doors open was not an option as the rear bumper would have been exposed to cold temperature and moisture.

I started by giving the nearside part of the rear bumper a thin coat of paint. This was the only part of the two bumpers that didn't receive any black paint yesterday. The finish looked promising, there was no evidence of any silicone contamination.

I proceeded to rub down the front and rear bumpers with a 220 grade pad. Dirty work.

The new paint supposedly has a textured finish. Whilst the front bumper was 90% done and looked ok with a gloss black finish, I didn't want the two bumpers looking different, one with a smooth and the other a textured finish. Shame really, as the front bumper looked pretty good.

After rubbing down, I cleaned the surface with a textured dry wipe. I didn't use white spirit. See @cort16 I do pay attention.

Front bumper ready for paint.

Ditto the rear one, which needed a lot more rubbing down where the silicone contamination occurred.

I sprayed the front bumper first. The paint went on beautifully and covered the entire surface without any problems. The finish is a little more textured than the gloss black before but nothing excessive.

Then I did the same to the rear bumper.

And the front grille.

By the time I finished, I was high as a kite on the fumes. 

First impressions, whilst the paint was still wet, the finish looks great. I applied numerous thin coats to both bumpers, which covered up the majority of the scratches and marks. Most importantly, there was no silicone contamination issues. Thank you again @cobblers for recommending this paint to me.

Despite wearing a face mask, I acquired a deposit of black residue under my nose. I noticed a passing resemblance to a certain unpleasant Austrian chap.

I can't wait to inspect the bumpers tomorrow. Expectations are high!!!

[beko1987]

Nice! Fingers crossed here

[egg]

IMHO that textured finish has a more 'OEM Ford' vibe about it and to me personally is preferable to what you had before.

[Peter C]

Just now, egg said:

IMHO that textured finish a more 'OEM Ford' vibe about it and to me personally is preferable to what you had before.

Agreed.

The gloss paint smoothed out the surface a little too much. This paint restored the slightly textured original finish.

[cobblers]

Glad it's worked out! If you'd used that to start with, you could have saved a primer coat as it's designed to go direct onto plastic. I dunno why it's not more popular - seems to be a "trade only" sort of thing. 

You can tweak the texture by adjusting the nozzle, it's got a little twisty bit on the top. For a fine texture, we use the spare cap that comes in the lid.

We do a couple of coats, with about 30 minutes between them. Seems to look better once properly dry, it settles down and looks more even.

[Peter C]

14 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Glad it's worked out! If you'd used that to start with, you could have saved a primer coat as it's designed to go direct onto plastic. I dunno why it's not more popular - seems to be a "trade only" sort of thing. 

You can tweak the texture by adjusting the nozzle, it's got a little twisty bit on the top. For a fine texture, we use the spare cap that comes in the lid.

We do a couple of coats, with about 30 minutes between them. Seems to look better once properly dry, it settles down and looks more even.

I left the adjustable nozzle on, set it to spray a fine texture, it worked a treat.

[Conan]

Few years back I painted some engine bits and despite cleaning everything well got exactly the same craters on the surface. I thought there could be some moisture left or something but I couldn't really ever got it out. TIL it's silicone contamination which make sense because for whatever reason people love using trim dressing in the engine bay.

[Peter C]

I left the paint to dry overnight and this morning.

I removed the masking tape and broadsheet to reveal sweet looking bumpers.

The front grille looks sweet too.

Next issue, sort out the sun burned bumper trims.

I have a plan and Amazon have delivered the solution but unfortunately I ran out of time this afternoon to make further progress.

Definitely more soon.

 

 

 

[Dobloseven]

Saw a very tidy red D reg low spec hatch yesterday being driven quite vigorously in Leicester.

[Rod/b]

That paint finish on the bumpers is excellent.

Whilst I'm here check this out, for sale in Dubai of all places

https://uae.dubizzle.com/motors/used-cars/ford/other/2024/3/13/1991-ford-sierra-estate-16l-pinto-featured-2-627---2dabcddb8062490bbfd775c6b8df4479/

[lisbon_road]

1 hour ago, Rod/b said:

That paint finish on the bumpers is excellent.

Whilst I'm here check this out, for sale in Dubai of all places

https://uae.dubizzle.com/motors/used-cars/ford/other/2024/3/13/1991-ford-sierra-estate-16l-pinto-featured-2-627---2dabcddb8062490bbfd775c6b8df4479/

Right hand drive, wonder if it started out here?

[Peter C]

1 hour ago, Rod/b said:

 

Whilst I'm here check this out, for sale in Dubai of all places

https://uae.dubizzle.com/motors/used-cars/ford/other/2024/3/13/1991-ford-sierra-estate-16l-pinto-featured-2-627---2dabcddb8062490bbfd775c6b8df4479/

About £5,800. Not a bad price but I imagine that getting it to Blighty would cost more than £400.

[Peter C]

4 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

Saw a very tidy red D reg low spec hatch yesterday being driven quite vigorously in Leicester.

Great for drifting coz RWD, innit.

[Dobloseven]

2 hours ago, Peter C said:

About £5,800. Not a bad price but I imagine that getting it to Blighty would cost more than £400.

Got two daughters in Dubai.Shall I get them to give it a poke for you!

[Rod/b]

9 hours ago, lisbon_road said:

Right hand drive, wonder if it started out here?

No, it was imported from Scotland

https://www.rmamotors.com/used-cars/17584467-ford-sierra-estate/

[cort1977]

Great progress with the bumpers but please get a better mask, paint fumes not good stuff to be breathing.

[Peter C]

My cunning plan to sort out the damaged front bumper trim was to cover it with silver vinyl tape. Back in the day, when I had 10 year old Sierras with chrome trim, I would cover the trim with red vinyl tape, to make them look like newer versions - see photos on page 1.

I got a roll of this stuff from Amazon. It says "High Quality". 

Ten minutes later, the front bumper looked like this.

Unfortunately, the quality of the tape is not brilliant and where I pulled to extend it, the tape discoloured slightly. Not to worry, it looks better than the sun burned plastic strip.

Once finished, I was left with one sexy looking front bumper.

I then spent a couple of hours sorting out a few miscellaneous bodywork jobs.

I sprayed over the non-matching oil based paint on the inner side of the nearside sill.

I rubbed down a couple of small rust plebs on the back door. Fortunately, these are located beneath the trim strip and the repair won't be too obvious once finished. I'd rather have a small repair patch than leave untreated corrosion under matching paint.

I did the same on the offside front door.

There were also a couple of rust plebs on the sills, which extended from beneath the door seals. I treated them in the same way.

I will touch up all these areas with the matching blue aerosol once the oil based paint, which will subdue the corrosion, fully dries.

Whoever re-sprayed the nearside front door, re-used and badly applied the trim strip. The front section of the strip was peeling away.

I got this stuff out. It's not the best, despite what the adverts say but hopefully it will do.

At this stage, I need to explain that I had a different plan that involved putting pressure on the trim to make it stick but it didn't work out and I had to think fast and came up with this arrangement before the adhesive started to set. 

Hopefully, the trim will be secure and I won't have 25 litres of 10W40 spilled all over my workshop floor.

I won't have much time tomorrow or Friday to make more progress, so the plan is:

This Saturday - finish off the bodywork repairs that I started today, tidy up and spray the front suspension components, clean the underside of the gearbox and engine sump and paint the sump.

This Sunday - finish off what I started on Saturday, get the car back on its wheels and apply protective coatings to the underside areas that are currently concealed by axle stands / ramps. Then let everything dry.

Next Friday (Easter) - fire up the engine again, bleed the cooling system. Weather permitting, pull the Sierra out of the workshop and give it a deep clean and hoover. Take pleasure in taking plenty of lovely photos. Clean my workshop, which is a total mess, just about everything is covered with a layer of black spray residue. 

Next Sunday (Easter) - if the weather is shit on Friday, undertake the tasks scheduled for Friday, otherwise I shall rest.

Next Monday (Easter) - the 1st April, get the Sierra taxed and take it out for a drive and take some more photos. 

 

 

[cort16]

The bumpers look great , would you have had as much satisfaction if it’d turned up in mint condition ?

[Peter C]

15 minutes ago, cort16 said:

The bumpers look great , would you have had as much satisfaction if it’d turned up in mint condition ?

I would have had satisfaction knowing that I bought a mint Sierra for £4k, which would have been nice.

However, since taking possession of it, the weather has been absolutely horrendous, including rain almost every day. This means that I wouldn't have driven the Sierra anywhere and thus I wouldn't have enjoyed the ownership experience. Doing this work has kept me busy whenever I had spare time mid week in the afternoons and most weekends and as I managed to complete most tasks without any significant issues, the process has been rewarding for me and I have managed to keep a few regulars entertained.