Painting lower bumper plastic

[tyet]

Has anyone painted the lower bumper plastic? Im debating doing this on my 2025 HC when i swap the chrome trim to black.

 

[KMeloney]

Not I.

Why are you considering doing this? I can't imagine the prep it would take to sand the plastic to a smooth finish and to get paint to stick and be durable.

 

[Stbentoak]

I'm not painting the lower bumper itself, but I am removing the Vader Chrome and having it painted black on my incoming 25. Starting to see/hear reports that the Vader Chrome is not holding up well on the front or rear of the vehicle. Just to want to eliminate this right out of the box and get it painted correctly, plus I like the blackout look.....

 

[ReaperHWK]

If it was me on a nice new truck like that, I’d talk to a reputable body shop and have them prep and spray it in a booth with the exact paint code. Couldn’t be more than a few $100 bucks.

Save the DIY rattle can paint jobs for the beaters like mine lol


OR

Talk to a wrap shop and have it wrapped. May look good with matte black.

 

[CMoore711]

I don’t know…. Unless you’re also going to paint your plastic side steps and the bottom plastic of your front bumper I wouldn’t do it.

If you paint the lower plastic on your rear bumper cover and leave the side steps and lower front bumper alone the rear will “appear” lower than the sides and front. This is because the paint stops and plastic trim starts at about the same line around the bottom of the vehicle. But that’s just my .02.

 

[tyet]

Why im considering, it looks cheap having the plastic, especially on the high country trim. And yes i would have it professionally done.

Yes I would be looking to have the front bumper and rear bumper plastics painted. I do have the fold down side steps, but it is a concern of mine if those will look completely off.

As for painting that chrome piece, I would absolutely not do that everybody shop I've spoken to has told me it will chip and flake. i've blacked out every single item on this vehicle using OEM parts. You would be better off using that lower trim piece from the RST. here all the part numbers to black everything out.

84496227 bezel

84496193 (S)COVER

13526766 (S)HANDLE

85590194 MOLDING

85590195 MOLDING

84844389 MOLDING

84844390 MOLDING

85649797 RAIL

85649798 RAIL

85136434 MOLDING

85136435 MOLDING

84977518 F FASCIA

86545889 R FASCIA

85775020 Grill

 

[KMeloney]

Why im considering, it looks cheap having the plastic

Got it -- and completely disagree.

Good luck, and make sure you post pics of the final product.

 

[CMoore711]

You could purchase those silver bumper trim pieces brand new and get a big enough plastic storage bin as a container and soak them in muriatic acid and it would strip off the silver/chrome coating and leave you with a bare plastic piece ready to prep and paint.

If you’re going to spend the coin to have these pieces professionally prepped and paint matched might as well spend the money to get them wrapped in some paint protection film.

Cause if you’re matte plastic trim looks like this imagine how much more obvious this would be if painted to gloss black to match.



I’m not trying to discourage you here; I’ve done chrome deletes with either painted to match or gloss black with all OEM parts on (2) K2XX SUVS and now on my GMT900.

If you’re using OEM parts then do it once and do it right.
You want to redo it better the second time; That’s what vinyl is for.

 

[tyet]

As I mentioned, ive already replaced all
the chrome parts with the oem black parts. There is no chrome on the vehicle anymore. For anyone looking to do it, its about $2000 in parts (the grill is the most expensive at $511).

I shouldve also mentioned the whole front of the vehicle is already ppf'd. So yes if i painted the parts in question i would ppf them. The marks on the black plastic under the front bumper is actually dirt, not scrapes, but yes even if ppf'd there is the risk of scraping that area .