Bumper Blues are gone -- now I'm Forever Black!

[Andrew_72]

Some before and after pics of bumper restoration using 'Forever Black'. I feel sooooooooo much better about the car now. The faded blue bumpers were an eyesore.

[skibo]

That's a big difference.

Keep us posted on how it holds up, please.

None of the treatments I've tried have been very long-lasting.

[cbj]

That looks really good. I have always thought black was the only right color anyway.

[RockitShip]

That looks nice Andrew... I wonder how it will look on the mud guards?

[MLPVT]

Some before and after pics of bumper restoration using 'Forever Black'. I feel sooooooooo much better about the car now. The faded blue bumpers were an eyesore.

WOW...What a difference! Great Job!

(If you haven't already, you might want to consider putting on an additional 2-3 coats)

[Andrew_72]

WOW...What a difference! Great Job!

(If you haven't already, you might want to consider putting on an additional 2-3 coats)

Yes, have several coats on the bumpers. Need to do a 2nd & 3rd coat for the wheel arches and side mouldings.

Given that it's a dye it should last for some time. The box reckons it'll hold up after 50 washes. Not a bad result for $20 worth of product!

I was originally going to use 'Plastic Renew' but this is just a top coat rather than a dye and would have required some serious scrubbing of the plastic with steel wool to bring them back to new before coating. 'Forever Black' was much easier -- applicator is a bit tricky to keep wet but you get the hang of it.

Will post some updates to see how it holds up in the Queensland sun.

BTW, if anyone is wondering how the bumpers got that bad in the first place -- I made the mistake of using a "UV protectant" type product. Looks great for about 2 weeks but rapidly accelerates the fading.

[IpswichXC]

I have a blue car.. with blue trim.. I wonder if I would be making a mistake using the black? Your silver car looks great with the black but I am hesitant to go black because.... once I go black there may be no going back.... the color that is ;)

[v70+xc70]

Always disliked the blue. Ours is white with brown bumpers/wheelarches and it still looks classy.

[Andrew_72]

Always disliked the blue. Ours is white with brown bumpers/wheelarches and it still looks classy.

Yeah, I agree. Had an Ash Gold XC with the brown bumpers before this one but someone rear-ended it and it was totaled :(

I think the blue plastic seems more prone to fading.

[Mike_v]

Hi there,
I used "Back-to-Black" on my blue 2001 XC last month (from MOTHERS, 8 fl oz, 236 ml, under $7 at the local AutoZone). Contrary to what the name of the product suggests, it is will not make your trim black. This stuff brings back any original color (as it says on the bottle). Because of the somewhat wet-look (I did not find it too wet...), it may be a bit darker than how the car would be new, but my blue trim definitely did not turn black (for which I'm glad). My bumpers looked "before" exactly like the ones from Andrew_72 who started this thread. I've applied it only once and have been driving for a month now and have had rain dirt and it still looks great. See my "after" pics that I made just after applying it. I did the whole trim in one go after I had washed the whole car thoroughly. I used only half the bottle.

[IpswichXC]

yea well.. I like the blue.

[xc4life]

wow, what a great improvement.

[wiz]

I have a stack of "Back-to-Black". It works really well and my bumpers are a nice deep blue! :)

[Mike_v]

I used "Back-to-Black" on my blue 2001 XC last August (see my other post with picture in this thread). Three months later and a lot of rain, about 80% is "Back-to-Faded-Blue". (so about 20% still sticks, but it's showing streaks were water tends to drip).

My conclusion about Back-to-Black: great for a few weeks, you're not doing any damage, but I'll try something else next time to see if it holds longer.

Oh yeah: I detail my car a few times per year (2 or 3 times?), so I'm looking for SUPER stuff that probably doesn't exist.

[ChazzyD]

I just did some touchup of the bumpers on our silver/blue bumpered car with the Forever Black as well. When we bought it, it had very black bumpers and realized they were treated with this stuff after we bought it. I was bummed at first that the bumpers were actually blue. Now, it doesn't bother me, just touch up the Forever Black every year or so and it looks like new again.
Charles

[NE-XC]

I just did the blue bumpers on my blue 01'.I used Duplicolor flexible bumper black.Sprayed on nice and made the car 100% better looking in my eyes.Now I'll have to see how it holds up.

[DaveBush]

Some before and after pics of bumper restoration using 'Forever Black'. I feel sooooooooo much better about the car now. The faded blue bumpers were an eyesore.


Looks sweet! I used some stuff called "Back to Black" made by Mothers Wax and it did the same thing! I realize I'm replying to a very old post, but thought it couldn't hurt!

[Ocean Racer]

I just used tyre shine.
Its the spray that foams on the tyres and you wipe it over with a rag 1 min later.

Its come up a treat [thumbup]

[Willy]

I used the search function but couldn't find a reference to this, so perhaps it hasn't been mentioned before:
http://www.jwardell.com/mini/2006/09/10/the-final-trim-test-we-have-a-winner/
Willy