Rust-Eze Bumper Ointment. Lightning McQueen and Click & Clack hawked the stuff in the Cars Movie. If only such a magical product existed. Unfortunately, the bumpers on my Jeep were beyond the help of any magical snake oil or ointments. The rear bumper was rusty. When the Jeep was hit in the rear (not under my watch) the body shop did not prep the bumper well when they repainted, so it started to rust. It was beyond even sand blasting, so I decided to replace it, along with the front bumper, which was also dented beyond repair thanks to another scrape with my sister. She is not easy on cars.
Two pristine new bumpers...
Actually one pristine new bumper, and one new but slightly dented one. Thanks UPS!
The only thing rustier than that rear bumper - the bolts holding the bumper brackets on. It took hours of cursing and rust shards in the eyes before it finally surrendered and released its grip on the back of the Jeep. Mucho improvement, having some nice new black bumpers on there. Now that the center section of the bumpers was new, it drew attention to the badly faded plastic end caps. Such is life when restoring a car - every new thing that you fix draws attention to the next shittiest thing you can see.
After using a variety of temporary products meant to rejuvenate faded plastic bumpers, I stumbled across a spray paint that bonds with the bumper and restores the black color. Could it really be that easy? Will it instantly start to flake off? Time will tell, but my fingers are certainly crossed on this one. Note that I actually took the time to mask off with blue painters tape. Ordinarily, I would take the time to remove the piece, but the bumper cap fixings would be destroyed if I tried to remove them - best not to poke a bear.
Quite a remarkable transformation. Very close to looking brand new. Almost too easy. Hope it holds up to snow, ice and salt. And grocery carts.
Look at that rear end! I think the only person that appreciates the transformation more than me is my neighbors - their property value just went up slightly.