Fading bumpers, what would you repaint?...

[Ian]

Like me, I'm sure others have run across the problem of bumper fading. I see Solara's on the road with faded bumpers all the time.

I no longer park my car in the garage, so my black bumpers are fading from sun exposure. I need your opinions on the following:

1. Would you try to repaint the bumpers to match the car? Or just repaint the car?

2. What is a reasonable price to repaint bumpers? What is a reasonable price to repaint the car?

3. How many coats of paint is normally painted on a car?

Thanks

[theprodigy79]

Dude, before you go repainting anything... if it's just a bit of fading, get a fresh coat of high quality wax on there to restore the lustre and it will look good as new... Keep it clean and waxed and it should help a bit to prevent fading / discoloration as well... Otherwise get a car cover... Any of those methods are better than re-painting anything on the car (trust me, it'll never be the same).

Worst case scenario, if it's the original factory paint with no bubbles or cracks, seek a high quality cut and polish... It's much better than repainting and generally costs less for a much better job (if you pay for a cheap paint job you get cheap results).

[jon015]

I actually have a similar but even worse issue in that my front bumper is peeling and needs multiple coats, and was wondering about repainting bumper or whole car.

Jon

[theprodigy79]

I actually have a similar but even worse issue in that my front bumper is peeling and needs multiple coats, and was wondering about repainting bumper or whole car.

Jon

I'd avoid painting the whole car if at all possible... a good quality, blended paint job on the bumper should be a reasonably priced job. If it's peeling, it sounds like it may have already been repainted at some point, been in any accidents?

[ClassySolaraGuy]

What kind of Solara do you have? If you don't have the body kit & plan to get one I would hold off on painting anything till then.

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

FYI: even from factory, some of us never got a one color car. The material for the bumper in general the color seems ligher (or offcolor) than the same paint used on the car. I wouldn't worry about it too much..take it to a detail shop if your that worried!

[onefiend]

FYI: even from factory, some of us never got a one color car. The material for the bumper in general the color seems ligher (or offcolor) than the same paint used on the car. I wouldn't worry about it too much..take it to a detail shop if your that worried!

I thought that color uneveness was only on the Gen 1's? I know the color of my rear bumper was way off from the rest of the car.

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

^^ if you want to get technical...then gen 1 and gen1.5 were plagued with this issues. I haven't noticed gen 2's bum that closely!

[Ian]

I have the 2001 Gen 1. I noticed it on other Solara's before actually seeing it on mine.

I figured that because my car was getting a lot more sun from not being in a garage, and that it is black, the sun was just cooking the bumpers.

Maybe I will get a serious detail done to see if that resolves the problem.

Thanks for the input.