Front Bumper Overhaul

namaste

Member
Messages
212
Didn't get round to doing this last year. Going to give the bumper a going over along with the under tray, bolts, etc. A lot of the bolts were corroded up when I tried removing some of the inner arch lining last year when I was doing my side skirts so I knew I'd be replacing some parts. I got the front bumper off eventually (no small task I warn you), and sure enough there are some bits corroded up behind there. A few bolts around the edge of the bumper and inner wheel arch needed drilling out. One of the supporting brackets was corroded through in some places. A bit disappointing to see on a car this age and only 40K miles but I think its more of a design thing than anything else. The area is open to the elements and these silly u clips and flimsy brackets are used that snap as soon as they start sticking a bit.

As for the bumper, there's some stone chips on the front face around the grill area and some scrapes along the bottom. I'm going to be re-spraying these parts and blending the paint towards the top half of bumper to help blend the fresh paint to where the bumper meets the bonnet and front tips of the wings. I've got the colour match pretty good but doing it this way ensures no obvious change of tone from bumper to the bonnet.

Anyway, here's some pictures. I dug out my DSLR so the quality is much better than usual. I'll update as I go but most bits aren't coming til later in the week. I might get some spraying done before hand, we'll see.


Here's the bumper. Not in bad shape, the emblems a bit faded and is being replaced.

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Some lacquer peeling here and around the washer cover and parking sensors.

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A lot of scratches underneath. I'm not sure if this part is meant to be flat black or body coloured? Hard to tell with this colour. I'll flatten all this and primer it with 2k primer before painting. I'll re-paint those grill pieces black too.

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This is something I notice on GTs, a bit of a dip either side of the center top of the bumper where it isn't supported underneath. It looks bad here because I've deliberately angled the light to highlight it. But it is noticable and makes the bumper look obviously plastic rather than part of the car body as it should. I'm going to try and flatten these parts out by bonding a sheet of metal up under there and hopefully I can shape it as though it was a metal body panel, and try to beat those dips out so they flatten up. Then with some flattening of the lacquer before respraying, it should end up smooth and flat. Well see how that goes.

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Front end cleaned up, no problems to report there. The rest of the car is filthy. Thats not corrosion along the top near the bonnet latch by the way, thats the reflection of the brick wall.

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The worst for last. One of these panels is completely rotten on the bottom. I toyed with the idea of making up a piece of metal to replace the bottom half and weld it together, but I bit the bullet and ordered a new one. £100 for that by the way. If it was flatter and less complex in angles I'd probably just make a new one, but its a Maserati after all, I'd prefer to keep it all original. The other one is just surface corrosion. I've already grinded a lot of it off and its currently doused in rust killer. These obviously aren't structural parts they just give something for the inner arch lining and bumper to screw to. I'll be primering and spraying this satin black and I'll make sure all the threads are tapped out and greased so its easily removed in future if need be.

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More to come
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
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21,013
Well done taking that task on. My prior efforts fixing up the grill and lower sacrificial scrape-plate were just fiddly and annoying. Leep those pictures coming!
 

namaste

Member
Messages
212
A little update. Went to Colchester yesterday to pick up some parts. Was going to order from Scuderia but they were suggesting a 3-4 week wait on parts from Italy. Colchester Lancaster had them in from Italy within 3 days. Sad I know but here's a pick of some shiny new parts in their fancy boxes. The chrome piece is the boot lid trim. Mines a little scuffed from previous ownership. Probably people's rings catching it as they pull the boot lid down. There's also a £5.31p screw there. No its not gold plated!

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The old and the new.

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Here's those pieces of metal I stuck under the bumper to flatten out the indents on top. I used body panel adhesive. Its very strong but has some flex in it.

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And after some hammering, its a lot flatter. Compare this to the pick above in the original post (which looks much worse than it actually is mind you), its a big improvement. I'll also be flattening down the top anyway which will straighten out any remaining irregularities.

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I flattened down most of the bumper tonight ( no pics yet) and hopefully I'll get some primer on tomorrow ready for paint on Monday if the weather's warm.
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
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21,013
That’s impressive work! If you’re anywhere near Colchester I hope the rain didn’t stop ‘play’ this afternoon.
 

namaste

Member
Messages
212
Lovely work. More power to your elbow.

Thanks

That’s impressive work! If you’re anywhere near Colchester I hope the rain didn’t stop ‘play’ this afternoon.

If by play you mean rubbing my finger prints off with wet and dry so I can't unlock my phone, yes it did. I was forced into the garage that has about half a bumper size of free space. Suppose to let up tomorrow though.

I'm about an hours drive from Colchester (Canvey Island).
 

namaste

Member
Messages
212
Got the primer down, flattened and ready to go tomorrow. To start with I'm going to do the grill part and underside of the bumper in 2 pack satin black, which means I've got to wait a day or two before doing the rest of the bumper because I'll have to mask up the satin black bits and I don't want to put any sticky tape over a fresh paint job. I'm in no rush but it puts me back a bit. I've purposely left the prong bits un-primered, they'll have a little blend in so they remain matched to the bonnet. I wanted to blend along the top straight edge of the bumper too but I had some rub throughs so no choice but to put some primer down. The new paint match is good (I've used it for side skirts) but you never know whats already had a little touch up or blow over so best in my opinion to blend where possible and where it makes sense to do so.

I'm not painting in the headlight washer housings. I've got to put minimal paint and laquer around the edge of the housing because any extra thickness could upset the flushness of the washer covers with the surface of the bumper. Also, I'm leaving the covers off for a good couple of weeks after the spraying because the pressure of the covers being pulled into the housing can 'squeeze' the lacquer out and you'll end up with a raised lip around it and probably cracked lacquer the first time they pop out. So I'm going to have to be careful to put minimal paint and lacquer around there and preferably nothing where the contact of washer cover and bumper is made.

I pulled out the parking sensors and the housings they sit in. The housings were stuck on with huge dollops off very strong glue. I ended up using a soldering gun with some fuse wire across the prongs to burn through the glue. But they had to come out for a proper job. The support bracket has been cleaned up as best it could. It will be satin black too.


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namaste

Member
Messages
212
Got the black parts sprayed today. Going to wait a day or two before putting down the Granito because I'm going to have to mask over the black parts I sprayed today.

I unfortunately let one of my wheels fall over a couple of days ago and so I've been fixing that up too. Haven't took any in progress pics as I've done it all before but here's the outcome. Got a nice finish. Still had Mercury over from when I painted them last year so the colour is matched, its just a bit shinier than the rest although I doubt that'll last long.


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Rex B

Member
Messages
657
Hi looks good, what colour code is the mercury and is it a base coat with a 2 pack clear coat finish. Also what gun do you use as I am interested in at least being able to refurbish my wheels and perhaps the front bumper on the old 3200.

Rex B
 

GeoffCapes

Member
Messages
14,000
If I bring mine round can you do mine?

I know Canvey well having grown up in Wickford, played footy all over Canvey and then worked there before I moved to Ashford.
 

namaste

Member
Messages
212
Hi looks good, what colour code is the mercury and is it a base coat with a 2 pack clear coat finish. Also what gun do you use as I am interested in at least being able to refurbish my wheels and perhaps the front bumper on the old 3200.

Rex B

I've got code 226679 for Grigio Mercury. Yes the base is 1:1 with 2k thinners followed by 2k clear. I use a pretty cheap Sealey gun (S701G) I bought off Amazon. If I knew I'd be painting as much as I have over the last couple of years I would have bought a half decent DeVilbiss or something but the Sealey has done everything I needed it to do. But if you're doing just a couple of paint jobs a year, you can't really justify spending £100 on a spray gun. Mine was about £30 I think.
 

namaste

Member
Messages
212
If I bring mine round can you do mine?

I know Canvey well having grown up in Wickford, played footy all over Canvey and then worked there before I moved to Ashford.

Sorry, I can't be messing with other people's stuff. I don't mind risking my own car but I'd hate to mess up on someone else's pride and joy. Besides, I'd take twice as long as a professional so it probably wouldn't be any cheaper and not as good either keeping in mind I don't have a booth like them.
 

namaste

Member
Messages
212
Preliminary inspection, probably my best effort yet. A few specs of **** here and there, which is unavoidable when you're just using your garage, but they're easily removed once cured. I'll reassemble in a few days and take some pics when its back on the car. Time for a well earned beer. :drinks:

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namaste

Member
Messages
212
Colour match good???

Haven't held it up to the bonnet yet. The colour was originally matched to the washer cover on the bumper though so it 'should' be the same. I'll wait for it to cure some more before I handle it.