A&Q about 350Z
Q:
What kind of paint did they use, and what color. My silverstone is chipping like mad, did they use stock paint with an additive or a different brand of paint completely?
n/a
A:
Body shop manager here:
There is no such thing as "factory" paint. You can't buy "Nissan" paint or "BMW" paint, etc. Each shop has to pick which paint manufacturer they want to use, and what line within that manufacturer. For example, we use PPG (one of the better ones out there)... but PPG has several different "grades" of paint such as PPG Deltron, etc. We use PPG Global, which is their top-tier product. Most paints today are available in either water-borne or solvent-borne. Some areas of the US require the use of water-borne. We use solvent-borne because we aren't regulated here. No additives are needed to make paint not chip if solvent-based paint is used... I'm not sure about water-borne.
Keep in mind that even if you buy a new bumper, it will have to be painted. Nissan bumpers (along with Toyotas) don't come primered from the factory, and so some shops have problems getting paint to stick to them because they haven't been trained to prep bare plastic properly. A special plastic adhesion-promoting coating is applied to new bare plastic parts to prevent peeling also.
So, you're best off getting your factory bumper repaired and repainted, but if it's too badly beaten up, it might be just as cost-effective to replace it. Expect to pay at minimum $250 for a repaint, and up to $500 depending on the bumper's condition and whether your car is PPW (which is 3-stage). Insist that the bumper be painted OFF the car so that you don't get overspray all over the headlamps, wheelwell liners, etc.
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1983 280ZX NA 2-Seater Cadet Blue, restored with Nismo suspension & brakes
2005 Saab 9-3ss Linear (daily driver)
A:
Buy a nice aftermarket front end
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04.5 DB Performance
Typhoon Intake
Injen SES Straight Tip Exhaust
Blue Z-Xtreme Grounding Kit
Kenwood MP3 Player
EBC V4 Greenstuff Pads
Clear Lens
Carbon Fiber Piller Covers
20% Tint
5 Coats of Zaino
......
'01 Yamaha R6
A:
280zxfan,
is polyurethane repairable once it gets stress marks in it? My bumper was bumped, which scraped off the paint and created stress marks. So I just had it repainted, but the stress marks came back and are now cracking the paint off. Is this repairable?
A:
Owali,
Sometimes. In an ideal world, urethane bumpers with stress marks should be replaced, however, a skilled technician can sometimes repair such damage by using a 2-part plastic repair kit from a company like SEM or 3M. However, this kind of repair isn't cheap so it's usually only used for very small (no bigger than an apple) areas because anything more laborious than that would cost as much or more than a new part usually.
If your bumper has already been repaired once and failed, it should probably be replaced. Who knows if it could've been repaired in the first place, but obviously someone didn't do something right and fixing such a mess would probably be quite laborious.
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1983 280ZX NA 2-Seater Cadet Blue, restored with Nismo suspension & brakes
2005 Saab 9-3ss Linear (daily driver)
A:
thanks for the info 280
A:
inquisitive, I have a bumper I can sell to you. I just put my veilside kit on, so I don't need my front bumper anymore. What color is your z? Mine is silver.
04.5 silver Touring, JWT-filter, Maya Gr-5's, Fusion/audio, StrosekAeroKit.
A:
solidus,
it is silverstone. any pics of your bumper?