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66/67 rubber bumper protectors refinish

AR67GTX

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My 66 Satellite has the rubber bumper protectors front and back and they are badly cracked. I probably won't live long enough to see these reproduced if it like most other 66/67 parts so I set out to refinish these. It appears they have been repaired once in the past - probably in the early 90s and repainted with something or the other. I had hoped it was a paint without a flex additive and that the cracks were only in the paint but after sanding the first one down, that's not the case.

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I looked for something to try to heal the cracks as much as possible and came across this Capt Tolley's crack and seam sealer. It's for marine applications and is advertised to be highly penetrating throughout the depth of the crack. It also has a good elastic range in cured form. They caution you can't use it on a crack penetrating all the way through a surface as it will simply seep through and drip out of the bottom. I found that was very true - this stuff really penetrates. You have to seal the bottom of the crack or form some sort of dam to keep it from running back out. I applied it about 3 times to the cracks to be fairly certain it filled them up completely. I finally discovered it was easiest to work on one surface at a time and level it up. Then dribble some of the Captain Tolleys down the trim and use a plastic spreader to spread it up and down the length and let it just pool on the surface and seep into the cracks. This rear bumper piece below in the picture has been sanded and sealed.
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Next I sanded this flat again to get back down to the rubber and then went to my paint store to see what they might have for repairing plastic bumpers that would work to build the surface back up and bridge over the cracks. He suggested this material.

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It's a two part filler and glazing putty with high flexibility. I've applied two coats and block sanded this first piece now. The picture shows the one I'm working on in gray next to the other one that I haven't started on yet. You can see all the cracks in it.

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That's where I'm at so far but I'm encouraged this will work. The pieces are formed on a steel backing plate so they don't flex much and once mounted on the bumper they are very stable. Not sure what I'm going to finish them with - I'm mulling over SEM Bumper Coater but I've also seen several suggestions to use spray Plasti-Dip coating. I have some of the Plasti-Dip spray coating so I may give it a trial run and see what I think.
 
Got all of them stripped and cracks sealed up on them. The front ones had had a lot of work done on them in the past. I sanded them down pretty far but didn't get through all the past fillers. The remaining filler is pretty thin, seems well adhered and doesn't seem to have contributed to any of the crazing so I'm going to take a chance what's left won't cause a problem.

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I have them now all coated in the Poly-Flex and mostly sanded out. Right now I'm pretty optimistic on how they will come out. Decided against the Plastic Dip coating for a final finish as I don't know that it will lay down smooth enough. So, I'm going with SEM Bumper Coater Flexible Black.
 
Thanks much.
I have the identical bumper cushions in the same condition and will try your method.
Again, thanks for sharing
 
Finished sanding and filled a few pin holes, etc with spot putty.

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Then I applied a light coat of the SEM Bumper Coater. I figured I would find a few more pin holes and other tiny defects and would wait a while to see if there is any sign of the original cracks reflecting back through. One of my bumpers is at the plating shop and not going to be back for several months anyway.

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I see some ringing, shadowing of the different layers of Poly-Flex and sanding scratches showing through the light coat which tells me I needed to spend a little more time with 400 and 600 sandpaper and that I should have applied a coat of Bullseye first - more for sealing the surface than for adhesion. But, I think they will turn out good in the end.
 
I wrapped this up today. Took several coats of SEM Bumper Protector as I kept having to fill a couple of pinholes and sand out a few coarser sanding scratches here and there.
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I'm debating whether to put a coat of SEM Low Luster Clear over them for a bit more protection but I kind of like the appearance of the Bumper Protection Coating.

Now to get my workbench and area cleaned up for the next project.
 
You're hired, those look better than new. Great job, shine looks just right MO.
 
Thanks Fran. I’ll watch them a few weeks and hope they stay stable and no cracks reflect through but I think that penetrating crack/crevice sealer is pretty tough. I did have one fat-fingered incident on one of the front ones where I lost my grip on it. It tumbled down, bounced off the edge of my bench, hit my leg, bounced of the shelf edge under the bench and then hit the floor. Upon examine it I found one small crack about 3/8” long in the bend that showed through. I ground it back down, put more sealer in the crack, patched over it with the Poly-Flex and sanded it flush. Looks OK. I figure it must have hit something in a way that flexed the legs a bit which opened the crack slightly. But I figure once mounted on the rigid bumper they should be fine.
 
Hit a bit of a set back when blisters/bubbles started appearing on the front protectors. After probing the bubbles and where they were separating, I concluded that the Capt Tolleys sealant that I more or less flood coated the surface with to seal all the cracks was the cause. I scuffed it up but didn’t try to sand through it back down to the bare rubber. It left a layer that was too slick and smooth and created a lack of adhesion for the Poly-Flex which eventually started to turn loose. So far the rears haven’t had this problem - I may have sanded the Capt Tolleys more throughly on them. So I’ve sanded them back down to bare rubber with 80 grit which should fix the adhesion issue when I recover them with the Poly-Flex.
 
I wrapped this up today. Took several coats of SEM Bumper Protector as I kept having to fill a couple of pinholes and sand out a few coarser sanding scratches here and there. View attachment 1115246 View attachment 1115247 View attachment 1115248

I'm debating whether to put a coat of SEM Low Luster Clear over them for a bit more protection but I kind of like the appearance of the Bumper Protection Coating.

Now to get my workbench and area cleaned up for the next project.
I do a lot of plastic dyeing and the SEM low gloss is pretty much a must have for the UV protection and durability.
 
That’s been my impression too. I will put a coat on once I’m sure they are stable and not bubbling. My GTX interior pieces were dyed over 15 years ago and covered with SEM low luster and still look like new.
 
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