Bumper plugs close to Seneca Blue?

[Thirdgen89gta]

I bought my car used, and unfortunately, PO drilled holes in the front bumper to mount the plate brakes. For now, I'd just like to plug them with a body colored plastic plug, it's not perfect, but certainly would be less visible than the hole itself. Want to get something close to body color, because I'm going to get the front PPF'd, and even though its not perfect, Ill have the PPF over the plugs. I don't understand why anyone would spend this kind of money on a car and not find a plate bracket that doesn't require drilling holes in bumpers. . Front plates are vile.

Tried searching for M501 Bumper Plugs, or Seneca Blue Bumper plugs, but nothing came up. So, probably gonna have to pick a bumper plug for another blue car and hope it's mostly close. Or maybe just get one thats close and use a touch-up kit to paint it to match.

Not sure I want to have the front of the car fixed and sprayed to remove the holes, because with the flake in the blue, I can imagine that they might not match it correctly and I'll be more annoyed by the difference in shade, than I would have been with the bumper plugs.

I was thinking it's possible that maybe Ford Grabber Blue might come slightly close to Seneca Blue. Or Nitrous Blue off a Focus RS.

I suppose its possible a shop could fill it and paint the top to match, but it wouldn't last.

 

[sixtyy]

When I owned a blue BMW X1 briefly, dealer also drilled. I just purchased some black screws. Black mixed well with any color. Especially blue.

AOOTF Black License Plate Screws-... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MW2952W?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

When I owned a blue BMW X1 briefly, dealer also drilled. I just purchased some black screws. Black mixed well with any color. Especially blue.

AOOTF Black License Plate Screws-... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MW2952W?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Not Seneca Blue, too light in color.

 

[Rapture]

I would call this place. I've purchased from them several times in the past. These help. Thye don't list Lotus colors, but they should be able to make a special color.

BumperPlugs.com

Custom paint-matched BumperPlugs™ for front license plate holes in bumper, finished in 19-stage factory chemistry.

bumperplugs.com

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Well, I called around to a few paint shops, and detail shops to see if they had any interest in trying to take care of this without repainting the entire bumper. I'm afraid they'd never match it properly and it would always be a slightly different color.

So, since the worst I can do is make it so I have to have the bumper painted, I'm going to take a crack at filling the holes with plastic filler, then cleaning, priming, touching up with color and then clear. Ordered the touch-up kit for M501, should arrive in a few days.

I've painted a car before from scratch, though it was just a white car, and we painted the entire car, so paint matching wasn't something we had to really worry about.

So, I figure the worst case scenario is I end up in a place where it looks like I just painted the screw heads M501 color.

So, I plan to do the following:

1. Remove the screws
2. Use heavy masking tape to mask off the bumper to prevent smears, streaking, unintentional scratchings.
3. Carefully use a very sharp exacto-blade to cut the crown of the damaged plastic off so that it's level with the surrounding plastic. I may use a RC car body reamer to create a slightly concave chamfered edge, taking care to remove the minimum amount of material.
4. Fill the hole with the plastic-weld filler so that its not QUITE to the to top of the hole.
5. Leave enough room so that I can put down the primer, and a color coat while leaving it still concave. May take a few layers. Then put thin clear coat layers on that to bring the coverage to slightly above level.
6. As it cures, the level may fall below the surrounding surface. So I'll add another layer if required so it's slightly above the rest.
7. Then remove the tape, and wet-sand with 5000grit till its level, and polish.

With any hope it should be visible only on close examination, but not really visible from 5ft or more away.

This is what I have to start with. Stupid previous owner for mounting a front plate. $100k+ car and can't be bothered to buy a bracket that mounts from underneath.

 

[MiamiBlue]

Well, I called around to a few paint shops, and detail shops to see if they had any interest in trying to take care of this without repainting the entire bumper. I'm afraid they'd never match it properly and it would always be a slightly different color.

So, since the worst I can do is make it so I have to have the bumper painted, I'm going to take a crack at filling the holes with plastic filler, then cleaning, priming, touching up with color and then clear. Ordered the touch-up kit for M501, should arrive in a few days.

I've painted a car before from scratch, though it was just a white car, and we painted the entire car, so paint matching wasn't something we had to really worry about.

So, I figure the worst case scenario is I end up in a place where it looks like I just painted the screw heads M501 color.

So, I plan to do the following:

1. Remove the screws
2. Use heavy masking tape to mask off the bumper to prevent smears, streaking, unintentional scratchings.
3. Carefully use a very sharp exacto-blade to cut the crown of the damaged plastic off so that it's level with the surrounding plastic. I may use a RC car body reamer to create a slightly concave chamfered edge, taking care to remove the minimum amount of material.
4. Fill the hole with the plastic-weld filler so that its not QUITE to the to top of the hole.
5. Leave enough room so that I can put down the primer, and a color coat while leaving it still concave. May take a few layers. Then put thin clear coat layers on that to bring the coverage to slightly above level.
6. As it cures, the level may fall below the surrounding surface. So I'll add another layer if required so it's slightly above the rest.
7. Then remove the tape, and wet-sand with 5000grit till its level, and polish.

You need to add step 8. Shoot the person who thought it was a good idea to drill holes across the front bumper.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Well, still waiting on the touch-up paint, but I didn't want to wait since the filler needs 24hrs to dry. I should have done this yesterday, but life happened.

So, I started off by using a VERY sharp exacto blade to trim the crown. You know how the story goes, I'll be careful. Ugh. It was all going great, till on one of the holes the blade slipped as I pulled it too far out of the hole and it did scratch the paint. I can catch it with my nail, but I figure I can polish it out after I'm done. And if not, put a bit of blue touch-up paint on top, or maybe just clear if that works. I don't think I went through the clear. But we'll find out. If not, I'm okay with that scratch, even as annoyed as I am at myself.

3 of the holes didn't go all the way through. But the 4th one on the right DID go all the way through. this made filling that one a bit hard because I couldn't pack the filler in there. if I didn't what will happen is the filler won't adhere and it will drop out or sink causing the touch-up paint I put-on top to crack.

So after I cleared the crowns off, this is what I was left with.

Before:

After:

You can see the scratch the blade put into the paint here. . I'll try and fix it, but I'll have to live with my mistake. I still maintain the worst case scenario is I have the bumper painted in that area. dont' want to, but maybe next year.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Then, I put a layer of painters tape down, I ended up putting a different layer down later on to completely cover the lip when I saw how messy the filler was going to be.

After I put the new layer down, I added another layer to the splitter. Because this stuff is goopy and I could see it dropping onto the lip.

Then I mixed up some, and started to force it into the holes. I used a wooden spreader that came with the filler, and a Q-Tip cut in have to try and ram the filler down the hole. I need to wait a bit longer for it to thicken up which helped on the last hole.

Then, I didn't want to wait for the filler to harden completely and become pain to cut off so after about 30 minutes, I removed the paint, and using my nail I was able to carefully remove any flash that was above the paint layer.

It's clear I'll need a 2nd much smaller application. Because it sunk down quite a bit.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Application #2 waiting to set so I can remove the tape and see how much more I need to fill. I may get to a point where I can't use the tape and will have to very quickly fill, then wipe off the excess. We'll see how it looks after the 2nd application. Might need a 3rd, or 4th to get to a point where I can fill in the rest with primer and base/clear.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

I'll be honest, even if I were to apply the touch-up paint to a dip in the paint, it would look better than bumper plugs sticking up, and causing the PPF to bubble around them.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Okay, 2nd application is done, just needs to cure now. I don't think it will sink much further. I'm gonna leave it here and then use a layer of primer, then touch-up Seneca Blue, and slowly layer that up, and finish with clear on top. Then I should be able to wet sand it smooth and buff. And the repair while it will always be visible, I don't think anyone will really see it at a glance. Which is what I was going for.

We'll see what they look like after 24hrs.

 

[Eagle7]

I was going to suggest plastic screws, then cut the tops off before screwing them all the way in so there's a flush surface that matches the area around it. That would fill the holes with a hard surface, then you could use touch-up paint on them and buff it out.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

I was going to suggest plastic screws, then cut the tops off before screwing them all the way in so there's a flush surface that matches the area around it. That would fill the holes with a hard surface, then you could use touch-up paint on them and buff it out.

Totally didn't even think of plastic screws. Might have had to drill the heads off though since not sure I could get them cut down flush enough.

Oh well, too late. Maybe if I have to fix it again in the next few days.

The bumper is pretty thin there, so there isn't much for a screw to grab on to.

A proper repair by a body shop would consist of them removing the bumper and using a plastic welding rod with fiberglass mesh reinforcement on the back side to patch the hole from the back, then filling it in from the front with a hot plastic welder. Then really sanding everything down flush. and repainting, and matching the lip.

I did basic body work on my TransAm when I painted it myself back in 2010. I didn't have to do any plastic repair on the car. But I did basic body work and leveling the paint. But I was painting the entire car, and it was just a gloss white so pretty simple.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

24hrs later, holes look pretty filled. Feel pretty solid. I did notice a bit of crowning in the light reflection, so I might lose a bit of paint when I sand the area after adding the touch-up.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

This is where I'm leaving it for the night, the touch-up needs to cure fully before I can try and level it out.

I'm not happy with the 2nd hole from the left. I think it's raised up too much, and I might have too much primer in there. If I do then when I go to level it out tomorrow, I'll expose the primer instead of flattening it out. If I do expose the primer because it's too high, then I'll remove the primer and re-fill the hole. Would suck, but is fixable.

I'll try to level with 2000grit, which is pretty fine. And if I'm left with a bit of a bump, then that will be that and I'll leave it as is. If I think I can get away with it I'll use 3000grit wet sand to blend it all, then polish.

Like I said originally, you will ALWAYS be able to tell it's been repaired. Nothing short of stripping it completely and doing a full paint will fix these holes properly. But I'll be okay for the $60 I have into this even if I had to leave it as is and just polish it out as I still think it will look better than bumper plugs.

Also, my clumsy self knocked the color bottle over, so I don't really have MUCH M501 to work with. enough to redo maybe 2-3 holes vs the 50 I would have had.

Wish I had a halogen light, I could have had that shining on the bumper to cure the paint more quickly, Instead I have only LEDs now, so I'll have to wait for it to cure overnight.

 

[geoffbland]

Like I said originally, you will ALWAYS be able to tell it's been repaired. Nothing short of stripping it completely and doing a full paint will fix these holes properly. But I'll be okay for the $60 I have into this even if I had to leave it as is and just polish it out as I still think it will look better than bumper plugs.

If you are not happy in the end with this fix, another way would be to get hold of some wrap, something like black or carbon fibre (maybe matching the splitter) and to wrap all/most of the lower lip of the radiator intake. You've probably already thought of this but I mentioned it just in case.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

If you are not happy in the end with this fix, another way would be to get hold of some wrap, something like black or carbon fibre (maybe matching the splitter) and to wrap all/most of the lower lip of the radiator intake. You've probably already thought of this but I mentioned it just in case.

That is still a possibility. I did consider instead of ppf on the mirrors having them wrapped in a CF wrap.

 

[RoryBellows]

That should clean up a bunch with some wet sanding and polish. We are looking at very zoomed in shots. Sand it down, take it out in the sun and look from a normal distance and it will probably be fine.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Sad news. Went to wet-sand it, and before I even got there, I went to wipe the panel down with a bit of soapy water and a microfibre towel to remove anything on the paint and the touch-up wasn't adhering, peeled right off in some spots.

I spent like 20m prepping the filler and surrounding area to remove oils, and ensure the primer stuck.

So, new plan. Drill the holes out deeper, wet-sand/buff the surrounding paint to remove scratches, then just fill in the holes and keep the level below the paint. Then tell the PPF installer NOT to correct that spot at all and just very carefully install the PPF over it.

 

[RoryBellows]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe some more sanding before primer is in order. Unless you have a deadline for PPF I would give it one more try.