Painted Bumper Fascia -->Scratches and Paint Defects....

[gsaintchar]

Is it harder to remove scratches and defects from the painted bumper fascia. I've noticed that I have to work these areas a little harder than other body panels.

[Murr1525]

They can be a different type of paint.

[gsaintchar]

I've tried removing some small scratches in my front fascia by hand buffing, although I was able to 95% of them out, it did take 4 passes. Next time I may try the DA.

[Michael Stoops]

Urethane bumper covers tend to arrive at the factory already painted from the supplying vendor, and there is no guarantee that the paint on them is identical to the paint used on the rest of the body when it gets painted. Heck, we've even seen brand new cars where the bumpers appeared to have a slight color mismatch with the rest of the car. Most commonly this is with lighter metallic colors where the orientation of the metallic particles can impact the appearance of the paint - one of the reasons why silver is such a hard color to match when a body shop paints a single panel. If there's a potential for color mismatch, there's a potential for all kinds of differences, as well. It may even be the flex agent used in these paints is making them more resistant to the buffing process, but even that is going to be a variable. So you're not imagining things - the paint isn't necessarily identical.

[gsaintchar]

Thanks Michael...that explains it!

[David Fermani]