I've been reading posts here for almost a year now with a few posts. I have finally gotten the time and money to try some things. I took off my step bars last night to see if I like the look better with or without. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has painted their bumper. I have a stock XLT 4x4 bumper and I want the grey part to be black. I know I could look for an Edge bumper, but I want to keep the chrome strip for now. Any suggestions?

 

I'm not sure about the ranger bumpers, but on my 01 explorer, there is a grey plastic cap covering the top of the bumper.. I took that off and spray painted the bumper black and put the grey cap back on. I have to admit, it looks a hella lot better (if you know how to spray paint).

 

Chris I think he is talking about the lower valence. I don't think it wiuld be any problem to paint it, never done it before, but I think you would use black plastic spray paint or dye.

 

ask bailey she just did it

 

I painted my Bumpers/Mirrors....But i used a paint gun, not a can...

 

get it Line-x'ed

 

I was thinking about using spray-on liner on the plastic bumpers as well as step bars.

 

get an edge VALANCE and keep the chrome bumper really easy

 

Oh
I just automatically assume rear bumper

 

I was gonna use the spray on bedliner to my front valance and the plastic over the rear bumper. I still wanna do the rear plastic. I'm not too sure how the liner would take the flex and bending of the valance. It's not the most solid thing in the world. If you do the front valance let me know how it works for you. I know it would look nice, just not sure how well it'd hold up to abuse.

 

The Line-X will hold better than paint will

 

well line-x is guaranteed. reguardless of it holding up or not you can take it b ack and have it redone. i'm talking about the bedliner in a can made by plasticote and duplicote.

 

Do what zach said, you dont lose the chrome upper part

 

apparently he wants to paint, not replace

 

I was thinking of replacing eventually, but this is a low cost solution for the meantime. I'm curious to see how the texture looks on the valence. I was going to start today, but it rained all day and I never got around to it. Maybe tomorrow before the game. I'l get some pictures when I get started.

I assume the chrome strip comes off of the plastic valance fairly easily. It looked like several screws holding the two together. Being that I live in VA, I have to keep a front plate. Does the plate holder attach to the chrome? If so I can remove the valance and work on it for a while off the truck.

 

I have my front valence/bumper painted black with Krylon Fusion, a spray paint in a can for plastic. It works very well. The valence is held on to the chrome bumper with I believe around 8 bolts. They're a pain to get off, mine were rusted a little and a few sheared off. The paint does hold well, unless you wheel it hard and hit the valence off the ground, as I have done, then the paint will chip a little.

I'm not sure if the front plate can be on without the valence, being that I don't have a plate on the front and have no idea of how it is mounted.
Any other questions i'll be happy to answer.

I also painted my fender flares. Here's a pic, hopefully you can tell of the black paint.

 

I like the look of it Joe. I took the whole bumper off this afternoon, then took the valance off of the chrome. Now I just have to re attach the bumper for the meantime. I'm going to wash the valance and sand it this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I will get to start painting tomorrow evening. I haven't decided whether I am going to go with a black paint, or a bed liner paint. I may test the paints on something else and see how the finish looks first.

 

So yeaterday I got the valance off. Tonight I sprayed the valance with Duplicolor Bed Liner. I looks awesome. I've got a few touch-ups to do tomorrow, then it goes back on. As for the step bars, I cleaned and primed them with self-etching primer. Then several coats of the bed liner. They are looking great as well. My camera won't turn on, so no pics yet. I'll get mt brother's tomorrow and have some pics up tomorrow night. I cant wait to see everything back on the truck.

 

i'm interested to see how long that bedliner holds up

 

me too. I wonder if it holds better to the plastic or to the metal. I guess I'll find out the first time I get back out on the trails. It looks to be holding real well on the step bars. I've got one almost done.

 

I'm planning on doing the rear bumper cover this weekend so it'll kinda be like my test project. i think it will hold up hella better cuz nothing really flex's on it. that baby's solid. This is what i've done so far using the same stuff. it's holding up really well on my body, it's only been a month but i'm impressed. Almost pressure washed my pin stripes off the other day lol. Those baby's need to bake on I'm tired of tip toeing around it.

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ighlight=rhino

 

Havent seen this yet, the FX4 Valance is black, I believe.

 

Why does my mouth water when I see your avatar!?!?!? THat is beautiful. Got the larger pic?

 

lmao um it used to be for real needforspeed

The FX4 Valance (2003 anyways) is the grey plastic.

 

Here are some pics of the valance after being painted. Sorry about the dark pics, the basement doesn't have good light. Hopefully it will go back on this weekend.

Check out the step bars here. They're painted and back on the truck.
Step Bars