flat black on grill and bumper looks great

[bluebombersfan]

I painted my bumper and grill flat black, wich makes my 96 Ranger look much better, the front actually looks new from the factory kind of like a mazda look. I find the light grey shows the rust more. Only problem now is I've realized flat paints are pretty much primers and this paint job will suck by next summer. So I figure the best would be to spray it with a coating of rubber ashfalt but theres a few kinds and I was hoping you guys could tell me wich one would be the best. Theres regular ashpalt spray, rocker guard, and bed liner? Which one should I go for?

 

[koda6966]

Just bed-line it.

 

[bluebombersfan]

Just bed-line it.

Your Ranger looks good too with the black. How did you do yours? Looks like a semi-glosss, that would hold up alot more then the flat that I have. I tried full gloss but it didn't blend with the rest of the truck didn't look right. I look using armor coat enamel paints, nock off of tremclad. $3.99 a can does the same in my opinion as a $14 dupli-color,

 

[koda6966]

I'm not sure what picture your looking at, but here's why I did with mine.

I used full gloss the first time. I'd let you know how well it held up but the bumper was replaced. This is how it looked a year after I did it. Notice the bent bumper? I rear ended another car (their fault), they were totaled. I just got a little bend.

Guy that replaced it (I temporarily didn't own the truck) used flat, but he only did one coat it looks like.

This is flat black after about 6 months.

All I really did was take the old paint off and clean up the bumper down to bare metal. Then I sprayed on some primer, a few coats of gloss black, and clear.

I love painting anything black, because if you ever scuff it up you can throw more black on and nobody will notice. I have to do the new bumper over again, but I'm debating it because I don't know if I want to keep the 1993 bumper when I do an 08 conversion.

 

[bluebombersfan]

Well when my paint job goes to crap, I guess I spray bed liner on the grill and bumper and hopefully that will last forever as a permenant solutuion and look as good as the flat that I have on it right now.

 

[bluebombersfan]

I was also doing some research and a trick to getting a strong flat paint job is to put a coat of gloss clear coat followed by a flat clear coat. The gloss underneath gives the strength you want and the flat on top gives you the look you want.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

I'm not sure what picture your looking at, but here's why I did with mine.

I used full gloss the first time. I'd let you know how well it held up but the bumper was replaced. This is how it looked a year after I did it. Notice the bent bumper? I rear ended another car (their fault), they were totaled. I just got a little bend.

Guy that replaced it (I temporarily didn't own the truck) used flat, but he only did one coat it looks like.

This is flat black after about 6 months.

All I really did was take the old paint off and clean up the bumper down to bare metal. Then I sprayed on some primer, a few coats of gloss black, and clear.

I love painting anything black, because if you ever scuff it up you can throw more black on and nobody will notice. I have to do the new bumper over again, but I'm debating it because I don't know if I want to keep the 1993 bumper when I do an 08 conversion.

That bumper will ruin your whole work on the front end facelift. it has to go.
get atleast a 01-03 one.

 

[koda6966]

That bumper will ruin your whole work on the front end facelift. it has to go.
get atleast a 01-03 one.

I don't remember who's truck this is but he's a member on here. I kind of like the look with the old bumper, it's unique.

Eventually I'll have an all metal custom bumper made up. But that's in the future.