About three years ago I had a '55 chevy back into my '74 at a car show. The guy just slightly tapped the car. At the time when it happened you really couldn't see any damaged. In fact I really didn't even think he hit it. However, about two weeks later I was in the garage and saw the crack coming up through the clear. Eventually it made it's way all the way to the top and I had this unsightly eye sore in the front of my car. The crack was right smack dab in the middle of the bumper about an inch up from the point. Considering this is a custom paint job (Candy Green) I decided to just live with it as much as that pained me. Any major scratch on this car would require a new paint job. I knew that when I committed on this color.

However, to make a long story short I decide to do the unthinkable and attempt to repair this on my own. I was hoping the crack was only through the clear and NOT in the green candy. I tapped off the effected area which was about 2 inch by 3 inch crack. Sorry, no before pics! I lightly wet sanded the area to get down just above the green and level out the cracks. Looked like a nice spider web. The wife thought I should paint a little spider in the middle of it and move on and not attempt it......NOT! Once I got it down to where I thought I was safe I applied five coats of clear coat over a two day period. Let it dry and cure for another 48 hours and wet sanded it again. I then polished the hell out of it. I have some high areas of clear still but I didn't want to chance going any lower.

Do you all see any cracks?

What did you use for clear?

just say no to crack

looks nice

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House of Kolor clear. Had to thin it a little but it was pretty easy to apply.

I like the way your wife thinks. Put a spider in it.

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Well-done!

Looks good from here! I kinda liked the spider idea though.

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Thanks! That is exactly what she had in mind.........I wish now I had kept the crack. The wife is always right!

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i wouldn't be tossing that around too much.. hahaha.. jk

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I'm sure she appreciates me showing you the err of your ways.











Note to self: Curt no longer owes me a beer.

Nice job Curtis.

Hopefully it won't come back, depende on how hard the hit was. And you are actually luck it was the bumper and not the glass.
Most spider webs from harder impacts to the glass are in the gelcoat and they come back. To fix them right, you have to redo the gelcoat or get to bare glass.

I think you lucked out (sorta).

I've used a bunch of HoK, very good stuff (and very pricy).

Looks Great!

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The front and back bumpers are fiberglass as well. So, I'll just have to wait and see. I've never done this type of work before.

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Well, hopefully you saved that candy, I know the effort in a paint job like that.
Time will tell, quite possibily there's not much flex there so, it will last a while compared to a body part like a fender that sees a good bit of flex.

I did hit a low spot on the green in the middle. It's pretty negligible, but I can see it. I do have some HK candy green, but this car has a silver base under the green so I'd be a little nervous in using anything other than clear. The shading is the toughest part. The true test will be when I back it out into direct sunlight. It's raining now so I'll have to wait. Nevertheless, it's whole lot better than looking at a spider crack. Thanks Bill..........

That looks worlds better, and not to mention I'm glad there isn't a bra on the nose of that beautiful car.

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Not yet. I haven't seen it in the sunlight yet.

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The problem with candy & repairs is that the more coats, the darker it gets to a certain degree.
This also makes it a bitch to shoot, you have to be really good and your overlap has to be perfect. Other wise you end up with candy stripes.

Hope it looks good in the sun.

You have more guts than I do. I couldn't have done it. The thought of - now if I flake off some green, how much green will I have to pay. The gamble appears to have paid off. Looks great in the picture.

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Thanks Andy. Yeah, I was certainly brave to do it but I took my time and I think it turned out pretty good considering what it looked like before.

impressive fix!

Very nicely done. I'm a novice when it comes to paint so I don't think I could attempt that at this point!

Matthew