Today I noticed some whitish areas at the right side of the front bumper in front of the wheel. I thought it might be some water drops or something so I took out the wax to wipe it off. Instead as I rubbed around the area the white areas got larger. It turns out it was some clear stuff de-laminating from the bumper resulting in bubbles. This is one of the most flexible areas of the bumper and as I pushed and flexed it the bubbles got larger. There was really no way to deal with this other than use my finger nail to pull the stuff away. Some came off in big chunks a couple of inches in diameter but a lot remained as it was better adhered.

My understanding is that the bumpers are not actually painted, or are they? This real thin stuff that flaked off was almost like some extremely thin mylar or possibly a clear coat. The areas where the stuff came off look fine underneath.

Am I supposed to get the bumper re-clear-coated or should I just leave alone?

Doug

 

Doug, that would drive me nuts. Maybe the PO had it re-coated and it wasn't done very well.

You could try polishing what is underneath but you will still have the white edges. If it were me, I would have it redone or you could try it yourself.

 

There is a local guy in my area that specializes in repairing bumpers. I have used him twice on other cars and his work is amazing, including bumpers that are badly scraped or scuffed.

I was thinking of having someone respray the bumper eventually anyway due the scuffing from the underside so I may have him take a look. It does not really look that bad except at the edges but luckily it does not stick out that badly given the paint color.

Doug

 

The bumper is polyurethane. It is painted (not self coloured) and must be refinished with a paint system appropriate for polyurethane substrate application.

It's essential that the finishing clear lacquer includes a plasticising ingredient that achieves the 'semi-flex' condition of the factory finished item.

As jimbov8 suggested, possibly the PO has had it refinished and the correct paint / lacquer wasn't used.

Graham

 

Graham
Lacquer is a thing of the past state side, most repair shops don't have it and most paint supply outlets don't carry it. I bought some a few years ago and it's not the same as the acrylic lacquers of the 80's I believe the removal of lead. I believe these cars are painted with urethane, flex agents should be added when refinishing the bumpers. many shops do not use the flex agent. The new urethanes will stick OK, until it get hit, then the paint will crack easier. But not adding the flex agent won't make the clear coat peel. One of the reasons for the peeling may be improper application of the clear coat. There's a window from when the base coat (color) is applied to the clear coat I know some manufacturers recommend 24 hours. other reasons can be contamination between coats, touching the base coat surface, or air born pollutants. It's hard to match the bumpers to the color at times when using a flex agent. It can be the same paint but the variables, added agents, humidity, and the way the painter lays the paint on, too wet or too dry will enter into the equation. That's one of the reason many cars will be a shade off on the poly bumpers.

 

Doug,

As it is over here. Ancient people like me refer to clearcoat as 'lacquer' even though we've been using clear over base for years!

You're right about the difficulty in matching the bumpers - and the lighter the colour, the harder it is.

Graham

 

The funny thing is that in the past I had noticed very small areas/bubbles indicative of the clear coat delaminating in this area of the bumper (areas smaller than a fingernail). Also, I have always washed the car by hand and never created any further clear coat problems. But this time the dealer washed it after servicing and I wonder if they used some high pressure spray or something. I guess it's not really their fault since I believe the previous owner had told me that he had the bumper resprayed from the dealer where he bought the car due to address scuffing on the underside near the valence. Still I will call the service department to warn them that they might be using too aggressive washing techniques.

Doug

 

As written by Graham
Sorry about that I didn't want to be a "Bugger", I'm figuring out most of the differences between what the British call one thing and we call it, I just learned again, lacquer is now clear coat.

 

This post about sums it up for the most part (other than some paint systems claiming the flex agent is not to be used with their product and cross linking with another brand shall void warranty) Also, flex is rarely used in the color or base, coat. Only in the clear, when used at all).


Funny this thread comes up now. just yesterday I took a power spray wand at a pay car wash to blast the bugs off my front bumper cover. I blasted away some of the clear....disappointing because I have been an automotive painter by trade for over 30 years and worked through the evolution of the products. I expected someone who had work on this fine car, to be more competent

I'll be repairing it at the same time I address a few other small blemishes.

 

Hey Jazz--sounds like what happened to mine. I did call the Jaguar dealer to see if they had used a pressure washer or something unusual. He said they do use a pressure wand of some sort but they use this on ALL the cars (and have used it on mine in the past when it was being serviced). The first thing the service guy asked was if the bumper had been repainted in the past as he was very familiar with paint and body work having worked at an auto body repair shop for about 7 years. I told him that the previous owner did say he did and the service guy said that de-laminating of paint and/or clear coat was not all that unusual on the poly bumpers and it was really difficult to get it right.

The only annoyance is the edges that are left after I removed the loose stuff but a casual observer would not really notice. Still I might call my local Amazing Bumper repair guy to see if he could either buff away the edges or respray some clear coat.

Doug

 

Had the same problem with a Pontiac Bonneville. It was during the winter and she had driven home in a rain storm from her parents house.I thought it was ice build up. To make a long story short the 70% of the clear coat peeled. Thank god that it was under warranty, they had to repaint the car twice. Is the color pigment rubbing off? If so paint and clear coat will have to be redone.