Just finished my front bumper conversion yesterday. Depite being a "compiter guy" by trade, I did all the paint and install work myself. A LOT of work, but a lot of pride in being able to say I did it myself

A new hood is being worked on right now and will get installed in a few weeks.

Here's a couple shots of the end result, along with some "in progress" photos:

 

How/Where did you do the paint yourself?? Auto shop class?? Very cool!!

 

Believe it or not: on my front porch with a $30 HVLP gun from Harbor Freight and a Sears compressor that's older than my daughter in college

 

looks great!

 

Awesome!! How many days/hours did it take and how many coats? Where did you get paint and clearcoat? Have you done this before??

 

Ok, details:

I've done a bit of casual painting over the years, but nothing serious and nothing too recent. I would put myself in the "careful novice" category.

I called around and found a local auto paint supplier that was willing to assist a hobbyist in choosing materials and give a bit of advice (some can be sort of snippy dealing with anyone but auto body/paint shops, if they are just move on)

They helped me get setup with the proper materials (I used Dupont basecoat and clearcoat in my case) It was actually pretty easy. I gave the bumper a light coat of Bulldog adhesion promoter, let that set and then did the basecoat and clearcoat per the manufacturers recommended mixing and flash times between coats.

Three coats of color (Dupont says two, but I found I needed three for full coverage/eveness) and three coats of clear.

Since I was essentially outside, I timed my painting so I started right afrer a brief rain shower (enough to wash dust/pollen out of the air, but not enough to push the humidity way up). I only have a couple tiny things to correct in the clearcoat (a couple tiny miniscule dust nibs and one tiny run in the clear that no one would see unless I pointed it out.. All of these can be carefully wetsanded and polished out pretty easily.

The real trick (even in the open air) is cleanliness. regularly blowing the part off with air, and wiping it down with a tack rag to pick up any remaining particles on the goes a long way towards ensuring a good looking result. Straining the paint as it goes into the gun is important too.

Another thing that helped me greatly is my car has a non-metallic paint color. Metallics are trickier (even for the pros) to get a good color match because the metallic particles suspended in the paint have to line up the same as in the color you're trying to match to get a color match. Spray a little too dry or too wet, and the color will be too light or dark.

 

Looks good. What bumper lights are those?

 

I'm assuming you mean the turn signals? Don't know the brand. Picked them up off eBay. I've also seen them at a few online Mustang dealers.

 

Well Torch you just inspired me to paint my own GT/CS rear bumper. The color appears to pretty much be spot on. I saw your post on the collective and must have missed that you painted it. Are you painting the hood too?

 

Yep, definitely painting the hood too

 

Awesome!! I can't wait to see it.