Smoothing out textured bumpers
 

I recently got my hands on a GT500 bumper I'm going to have installed as part of my summer car project. Since I have the stock GT rocker panels (i.e. painted) and the CDC aggressive chin spoiler (again, painted), I want to have the bottom of the GT500 spoiler painted to match the GT/CS scheme. I think it wouldn't look right if it was left the way it is since my rocker panels are painted. and if I replaced the rockers with black ones, then the CDC spoiler would look out of place.

The problem is, the black trim is textured, much in the same way as the side view mirrors. How much of a pain is it going to be for the body shop to smooth it out?

FYI, here's the bumper

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-s...527_144958.jpg

And here's what I want the bumper to look like after its been painted:

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3892/68025727xb0.jpg

Filler primer and sanding. Sand the spots you want painted and then spray the filler primer, sand and prime repeatedly until it is smooth. I did the same thing to the textured spots on the CS front facia. It came out really nice.

The people who did mine didn't do anything other than paint that lower bit a little thick, flattened right out, and it hasn't (yet) been a problem.

/Will admit they warned me it *could* possibly be a problem... but again, it hasn't, and it's been hit with high pressure washing to be sure.
//Now I've jinxed it. :p

Although not really answering your question, note that the stock GT-CS bumper is painted right over the textured part on the sides without smoothing. It's the same as the GT-500 bumer except on the GT-500 they don't paint the sides. Once painted, you really can't tell the lower side part is textured. I bought a stock GT-CS bumper from ford and the side part came primed right over the texured part. See attached pics after it was painted.

That's interesting, didn't know the factory GT/CS was still textured. It's hard to tell from that wide angle shot that it's even textured.

But I think I'm gonna try Wade's idea. Wade, how many times did you have to prime/sand?

About 2 times