Ok so I have an 08' Limited with a painted rear bumper. I noticed this past fall that my bumper's paint was starting to bubble and turn the dreded rust color. So i brought the truck in for an estimate. The guy there said like 500 bones, and that even with refinishing it, it would most likely just come back. He said the only way to get rid of it is to purchase a new bumper So i went home and sanded the problem areas down to bare metal, primed it, then shot it with duraliner coating then color matched it with a rattle can of paint. Now the Brown spots have come back. Any suggestions?????? Its looking like I'm going to have to get a bumper

 

If you repair it again yourself use some rust treatment such as POR15 or something similar. Possible take the bumper completely off and check for other areas of rust and treat those also. This will not garauntee it will not come back, but you will have a better chance of it not coming back by using the rust inhibitor.

Are you the origional owner of the truck? Have you ever had the bumper replaced before? I find that you have this issue with reconditioned bumpers every now and then. The company will usually warranty the part.

 

I thought ford had a 5 year rust warranty? Now that you have applied a topcoat yourself, you are probably screwed out of it, even if available.

That said, Your bumper is salvageable. What you need to do, is remove it, completely disassemble it, take it to a sandblast facility to have them bead blast it, or if you have a do it yourself place there, have at it. Although they are not sheet metal, you can still cause warpage if not careful. Blast it inside and out, eliminating ALL RUST, and paint. Once blasted, you need to clean it well with a solvent based cleaner, and start the priming phase. 2 Part epoxy primers are by far a better product than the regular spray can primer you can get, and depending on the company you choose to get your product from, (PPG Dupont, RM, Sikka ect) they often have rust inhibitors built in, so you would not need to etch prime. That said, the best process always begins with a good etch primer. Make sure the etch, and epoxy are compatible. Even if they are made from the same company, they are sometimes not compatible.

After the primer cures, sand it, base it, clear it.

Make sure that any of the parts that go on the bumper are rust free too before you re-assemble. The metal brackets can be treated with rust-mort or a comparable product. Google it. The plastic pieces need to be cleaned real good to get the rust particles off it. If you leave rust particles, they will find a way to contaminate your bumper, slowly.

I cannot emphasize enough the need to get it at least primes very soon after sandblasting it. Don't blast on a rainy day, and try not to blast on a humid day. Water and humidity are your worst nightmare when working with fresh blasted steel. It starts to rust almost immediately in a microscopic world. Your best chance is to blast and prime on the same day. Do not leave it for a week in the garage. If you do, take it back and blast it again before you prime it.

 

Sweet!! Thanks for the Help!!

 

Are you having any rust speckles showing up on your front bumper, it seems like an issue with the Limited's, I have a bit going and every other one I've seen is sporting a bit too

 

Yeah, I'm having problems with the front bumper also, not nearly as bad as the rear but still there. I'm actaully bringing my truck into the body shop to have them do it. The guy was pretty sure that he could take care of it and basically just how "candianelbow" had said. And he is going to line the inside of the bumper with something similar to POR15, he said he uses it on all his ground up restoration projects. He is doing it for around 530....if I wasn't so **** I wouldn't even worry about it.

 

Strange, I have nothing on the back bumper, just the speckling on the front. My body shop wants $300 to fix a 4" crack in the plastic lower valence on the front bumper if I take it off (damage present when I bought the truck). I will have to quote around because if you can get that sort of work done for $500 I think I'm being had.

 

It really depends on the shop. Something like that is based mostly on labor. One person may see 5 hours of repair on that whereas another person might see 2 hours of repair. But watch out. The cheap guy may not be repairing the panel in a quality manner. That crack should be repaired using a "plastic repair kit" that essentialy welds the plastic back together. Otherwise the first time a rock or something hits it that crack will show back up.

 

Good to know, we deal with one shop for any body work. They usually are pretty reasonable on price, and have fixed a crack in a snowmobile hood with the plastic repair for me and it held up okay, considering that was about the only place that the hood wasn't cracked after thieves rolled it off a 4 place trailer, to steal the trailer... So most likely I'm best to stick with him I guess

 

The old saying holds true "you get what you pay for". If you know the persons work and they have never done you wrong before i would say its worth the little extra to have them do it.

Maybe you save $50-$100 going to the hack shop down the street. then the savings get negated when you have to spend twice as much and take it back to another shop to get the origional repair stripped out and redone because it was not fixed correctly. Either that or roll around with a crappy repair that ends up sticking out like a sore thumb.

It alwasy gets me when I get people that come in with a nice vehicle like a new mercedes ot BMW that had a repair done by some guy with a can of bondo and a spray can on the side of the road. Whats even better is when they get mad at me when i tell them how much more its going to cost for me to repair what the other person did. Like its my fault for the poor decision they made.

 

Very true. As soon as spring sticks here it will go in for the fix. This guy does good work and will fix any issues if I'm not completely satisfied, in that light it seems best to stick with him, and I would have to waste an afternoon to save $50.