GT/CS Bumper Swap – Are Pre-Painted Bumpers Worth It? (Vista Blue G9)

[thedude]

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about switching my front and rear bumpers to the Shelby GT/CS style. I've seen a few vendors offering them pre-painted to match your factory color code (mine is G9 Vista Blue), and I'm curious how well the color match usually turns out.

For those of you who've gone this route, was the match good enough to bolt on and go? Or is it better to just buy the bumper unpainted (or OEM) and have a local body shop spray it?

Also, if anyone has recommendations for good paint/body shops in the Chicago suburbs, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[Samos3]

I can't speak for prepainted bumpers, but I have had a prepainted GT500 style rear spoiler on my car. It may depend on who you get it from, but the paint on my spoiler started cracking and checking after a couple years. The failed paint then started flaking off. It took less than 6 months for most of the paint on the top side to come off.

Personally, I would check with the local Ford dealer's autobody shop. When my car got rearended, a Ford dealer was on the list of approved body shops the other persons insurance company gave me. So that is where I took it. I opted to pay the difference for an OEM GT500/CS rear bumper cover (an extra $150 in 2017). So everything was done to Ford bodyshop spec and the Performance White paint color and finish were a dead on match.

A bit of advice....if you tell them you want the CS paint scheme (black only in the diffuser area, not on the sides like a GT500), make sure they know the difference. When I went to pick it up they had done the GT500 scheme. They all seemed confused that the CS was different. I guess no one looked at their own brochures? They corrected it with no problem. Just seemed odd.

 

[whitmanink]

the issue with pre painted bumper is the paint and primer and prep quality ,
if the prep is bad and or the primer \paint,, you will get cracks and chips and maybe some peeling,,,

if you get a high end one, than maybe it will be good,, but remember ,
price does not reflect quality all the time,,

the main issue with pre painted is the color match..

the hue will be off because of different pigment and manufactures colors ,,
and then on your car ,, the paint will have some uv fade (sun fade)
maybe other imperfections due to weather \salt\ ect

so the color will never be the same
youre better off buying as blank bumper and taking it to get color ,matched

im not expert ,, just a meathead with a kinda fast car

 

[thedude]

I was thinking about going that route spending a little extra cash getting the good parts and just taking it somewhere to get it painted. To be honest the car could use a little refresher, but then again it's going to be an SCCA club spec car so I could really GAF about the show quality paint.

 

[Forty61]

I've bought smaller paint matched parts and they've been fine but I've never bought a bumper. We did, however, have the CS bumper on our car repainted at Ford years back and they didn't two-tone the center section so they had to fix it.. make sure to show a picture of what you want when you take it.

 

[thedude]

Im in the need for a new compressor so Im going to buy some new goodies for the garage and spray it myself.
This is going to be an SCCA Club spec car so it doesnt need to be perfect, but I've sprayed cars before and they turned out pretty good in the past.
Now it's just about finding the best quality parts.

 

[Samos3]

Im in the need for a new compressor so Im going to buy some new goodies for the garage and spray it myself.
This is going to be an SCCA Club spec car so it doesnt need to be perfect, but I've sprayed cars before and they turned out pretty good in the past.
Now it's just about finding the best quality parts.

Probably for the best for a racecar.

 

[DieHarder]

You can make your life easier if you order the original primer for the color/year of your car. As Whitmanink points out the color/hue will likely be off. When I took my bumper in a good paint shop owner told me that due to the transparency of modern paints to get a good match it's imperative whoever is spraying the car use the correct (original color/tone/hue) primer for that year and color.

 

[thedude]

I think I will have to spray it myself then, since most come primed with god knows what primer. Not quite there yet, but im going down the rabbit hole and it's not that far out there to do.

 

[Badd GT]

Guess it depends on who you buy it from, I bought a Cervani hood pre-painted match my red car perfectly

 

[whitmanink]

you never said in the first post you dont care how it looks?
in that case ,it wouldnt matter how the bumper came to you or how it would turn out painting it yourself?

you said you might wanted a local shop to paint it , ?
you never mentioned you painted before?
you should already know the answers about this before posting no?

i never painted a car before,. but im a "do it myself " kinda guy, and me building my car,
i thought it was only fitting to paint it myself as well

i got a 21 gal harbor fright compressor .,.,to a 3\8 air dryer \water separator another 25 ft hose and then a screw on blue harbor fright gun dryer..
with two purple hf guns (one for primer one for paint)

i got zero fish eyes,,

i have a post on here showing what i did..

but if i were you.. id go to tcp global ., and get a gallon kit and have at it
i mean tbh i think its overhyped ..
if i can do it without knowing a thing ,, than anyone can lol

 

[asdrew]

Im in the need for a new compressor so Im going to buy some new goodies for the garage and spray it myself.
This is going to be an SCCA Club spec car so it doesnt need to be perfect, but I've sprayed cars before and they turned out pretty good in the past.
Now it's just about finding the best quality parts.

I used to spray a lot of custom furniture, be SURE the compressor has a decent SCFM rating. So many now hype how high the PSI is which is fine for short bursts, but painting requires sustained air volume, not so much pressure. Think of airing up a big tire with one of those original rinky dink 12v compressors, you don't want that.