I want to paint rear bumper the color has faded out, the car is a dark gray with light gray trim and red pin stripe.

i feel confident I can do this but as always I like to come here first and get the best advice

Thx
greazer2b

I have seen my brother paint a the bumper and lower door trim on a w126. It wasn't sanded correctly and he used a cheap paint from a auto parts store. Duplicolor or something. It lasted about two year before it started coming off.

After buying a small $50 HPLV gun from Harbor Freight and painting part of the interior of my 85 SE I've decided to remove the bumpers and trim from my car and paint them all on a table in my carport.

I used SEM's three stage cleaning and prep system and the painting I've done appears to be factory fresh. I strongly recommend you use SEM paint. I know there are others who make good products and have good systems but for a rookie SEM is a very patient producer of fine products.

I forewent the SEM soap in lieu of using ammonia and Ivory Liquid to clean for the first stage. The second stage was using the SEM XXX 77774 cleaner. I bought a quart because I'm painting an entire interior not just a part or two. The XXX was sprayed on with a cheap spray bottle from a discount store, Walmart, Kmart, dollar store...and wiped off using lint free, dye free cloths. It turns out the guy who told me to clean with ammonia was right. I got almost nothing on the cloth from the second cleaning.

My advise is look into SEM products. They make bumper paints and probably have a good system for cleaning and preparing bumpers for paint. They had the original gray paint color for the interior of my 85 SE too.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

+ one regarding SEM products.

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