Matt or Gloss?

Evening everyone.
On my recently bought 1998 Duetto, the plastic front and rear bumpers are in a horrible grey, it looks like someone for some reason has sprayed them with primer and then left them.
Looking at photos of other Duettos, the front and rear bumpers all seem to be in black (which looks much better)
Is the black finish a gloss black or a matt black??
Thanks.
Mike

I'd say in between, satin black.

Are they black? Looking at a couple on line they look dark grey, unpainted plastic to me. A satin finish would be best.

My guess would be that the bumper is sun bleached.
Try giving it a good clean and then on a small patch rub on a little Linseed Oil in and see if it comes back to a reasonable colour. If good rub over rest of bumper (must be a dry warm day) leave to dry for 2-4 hours and then rub off excess with a dry clean lint free cloth
If you do have to paint you will need to apply a plastic undercoat paint as normal paint will not stick
David

Unless they've been painted by an owner they'll be the standard dark grey plastic that bleaches as it gets older until it's a disgusting looking pale dusty grey. Even within a year or two the sun would affect the surface colour and it needs regular attention with AutoGlym [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or something similar. Handy stuff as it can be used to smarten up any rubber or unfinished plastic like mudflaps, mirror casings etc. It leaves the bumpers with a sort of mid sheen dark grey that's water repellent 'til it ages of again. The bumpers on my avatar van are unpainted but almost colour coded to the Grey metallic bodywork.

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I had a Transit work van several years back and repainted my bumpers and trim with Bumper Paint from Halfords, just had a look and they now only appear to do black but I seem to remember I used a dark grey which was a perfect match for the van back then [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] you might be able to get something on eBay if not.

I use linseed oil. works a treat and quick to apply. mine  still has a gloss and the rain beads on it, now will do the wing mirrors etc,

Thanks everyone for you comments and advice.
Just found a few on flee bay, I know my eyes are due to be tested, but they look black to me!!
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Have decided to rub the front one down as I've taken it off,spray with some plastic primer then try gloss, if to shiny will uses matt, good job they sell them in pound land!!
Got the dreaded rust to tackle next in the usual places, front wings at the bottom, and both rear doors at the bottom, I guess they are welded on, not sure if it's best to repair or replace?
Thanks
Mike

You should have used black shoe polish as they were grey through being bleached in the sun. Bought my old van up a treat.

rose49f wrote:You should have used black shoe polish as they were grey through being bleached in the sun. Bought my old van up a treat.

Yes, I used shoe polish on my old Duetto but it soon washes off and fades back to grey. My mechanic always brought it back looking smart and I asked him about it and he smiled and said "old engine oil". It certainly lasted a little longer.

rose49f wrote:You should have used black shoe polish as they were grey through being bleached in the sun. Bought my old van up a treat.

Both front bumper and rear end caps are originally grey and eventually fade due to weathering from sun, but were always grey (not black) from new.

Autoglym Bumper Care [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] mentioned by another poster is excellent stuff and does a pretty good job. However it soon wears off and you are back to buffing up again! You could have them sprayed but would best be done by a professional bodyshop and it wouldn't be cheap. 

Much depends on how far the op wants to go but i've just replaced the rear metal bumper with a new one as the bodyshop guy i use told me it would cost more in preparation to spray the old one than what i could buy a new one for (£25). Even though both plastic end caps were structurally fine, they had bleached somewhat so i decided to replace those at the same time. At £10.45 a piece it was a no brainer really!

I bought the end caps from MVS and i'm pretty sure they would have a front bumper. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Worth a phone call. Alternatively [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

hI my wife bought some paint from QVC, it's called paint it black you get two tins, it is water based and can be used on almost any surface including rust, I did the bumpers on the Trophy almost a year ago and they are still black, worth a try !
mike 
vwt4
ps don,t use when possibility of rain if doing bumpers outside, wait for a dry and warm day

vwt4 wrote:hI my wife bought some paint from QVC, it's called paint it black you get two tins, it is water based and can be used on almost any surface including rust, I did the bumpers on the Trophy almost a year ago and they are still black, worth a try !
mike 
vwt4
ps don,t use when possibility of rain if doing bumpers outside, wait for a dry and warm day

This is the stuff I think:

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'Black Magic'

Painted my bumpers, mirrors etc.
Advertised that it doesn't crack. There is a video where it is painted onto a plastic cola bottle. When dry, however much the bottle is scrunched up, it doesn't crack.
Preparation was a rub down with some very fine wet and dry, cleaned off and brush painted.
Been on two years now and still looks good.


PB

Mk6 Ford Transit bumpers should be dark grey plastic, but it does fade. The colour can be brought back to life by gently running a hot air paint stripper gun across the bumper, slightly melting the top surface. This will bring back the satin finish dark grey colour of the plastic.  I'll try to upload some photos of my Transit bumpers that I did this way.

In my view colour coding to match the rest of the van is OK, though on older vans I'm not so sure, as white painted bumpers were never ordinarily available. The standard grey plastic, looked after in any of the many ways described here is great and retains the look true to the original. Painting them black, is too much of a direct contrast to the white bodyshell and looks too brash and garish. If you think about it there's a reason people don't generally have car bumpers painted a contrasting colour to their car's bodywork. Sadly, in my eyes it marks the vehicle out as non-original and 'fiddled with' not in a good way.

Another vote for linseed oil, I tried everything on our old '95 van, nothing kept the bumpers black for long, they soon went back to bleached mottled grey.

I bought some boiled linseed oil originally for the cupboards, but once I'd tried it on the bumpers...

It seemed to keep them black for more or less the whole year, very quick to apply and only uses a thimble full for both bumpers and the mirrors etc.

I've just done our new van with it two days ago, and it looks fantastic.

I did try peanut butter once, and that's good too, but the entourage of squirrels was annoying.

Anyone tried Marmite?

Yes, I love it, especially on hot toast! 

steamdrivenandy wrote:In my view colour coding to match the rest of the van is OK, though on older vans I'm not so sure, as white painted bumpers were never ordinarily available. The standard grey plastic, looked after in any of the many ways described here is great and retains the look true to the original. Painting them black, is too much of a direct contrast to the white bodyshell and looks too brash and garish. If you think about it there's a reason people don't generally have car bumpers painted a contrasting colour to their car's bodywork. Sadly, in my eyes it marks the vehicle out as non-original and 'fiddled with' not in a good way.

All Mk5 Duetto bodies were finished in Ivory which is the original Ford paint colour. The plastic front bumper and rear bumper end caps are both grey and the rear metal bumper section, also grey. I think black bumpers were used on the VW version? As you rightly say, colour coding the lot would look rather odd not to mention impractical! 

There are some pretty weird colour schemes going on with new vehicles now. One of my neighbours has just bought a new Ford Focus....black, with black alloy spoked wheels, red door mirrors and a red roof! But the red roof finishes a good three inches in from the door top. It looks like a "boy racer" car.....he's 67 years old!

We had to be careful when speccing Mrs SDA's new Twingo. It's the Iconic special edition in a purpley blue metallic but the standard is to have alloys with purple inserts on the rims. We went for the free option black inserts instead and the standard plastic interior trim was an odd matt purple as well around the dash instruments and air vents. Again we went for the optional shiny black instead. Just makes the car look a bit more classy, rather than kid's toy garish.