The urethane bumpers on my 76 are faded and have some spider webbing on them. The original laquer paint on the rest of the car is in great shape. My question is how to remove the paint from the bumpers? I have read on some other threads not to use a chemical stripper as it could damage the bumpers so I guess my only recourse is to sand the old paint off, reprime and paint. I have a quart of the original color laquer paint and the flex agent but I am at a loss on how to remove the old. Any advice would be appreciated.

I would think they could be media blasted with something fairly gentle like plastic with no damage.

Dave

Go to NAPA or other parts store, and get a couple of cans of Bulldog Flexible Bumper Paint Stripper.
www.kleanstripauto.com, Made especially for urethane bumpers. Do not use paint stripper, or you will kiss your bumper goodbye.
Follow directions closely. I stripped mine, and did it in 4 sections. After each section, I washed it down with soap and water. Doing this is supposed to maintain the integrity of the bumper, so it does not shrink or warp. Also, use a scotch pad.
It looked real nice when I was done, but here is the bad stuff, although I am not saying it will happen to you, but it did to me.
When I did the trial fit, I could not get the passenger side upper area end to fit. I had been told, that urethane bumpers on these C3's at the factory, were all a fit unto themselves and that body. I did everything I could, laid it out in the south Florida sun for hours, and nothing. This is not to say it would not fit on another Corvette, but this was my situation.
I corrected it by purchasing a Flex-Fit, and that took care of everything. No warps, and it looks great.
I realize this is not true original specs for the car, but it ended my frustration.
Maybe I did not shrink the bumper, and it was stretched on at the St Louis plant, but I could not get it to fit again.

WOW-

I learn something new every day!

I have a 73 with some problems on the front bumper. I will be trying this soon.

Alex

Boatman,

Thanks for the reply, I have called several paint supply shops in my area and finally found a shop that carries the Bulldog stripper, unfortunately they were out of stock and would be in about a week. I plan on stripping the bumper on the car by masking it off so I wont have the problem of refiiting it. Thanks for the info.

When my '73 was repainted, a 30+ year body shop pro with many Vette paints under his belt told me he would NEVER use stripper on an older Vette. His reasoning was that residual stripper could get under the bonding strips and gradually cause a delamination of the paint -- maybe in six weeks, maybe six months. At that point the only thing left to do was replace and repaint. He suggested (and I took the advice) using media blasting. My $0.02 worth. Hope this helps.

Hey Pearl Orange - Is there any bonding strips on the urethane bumpers? Media blasting is a good idea if you know what you are doing. One slip up on 25 year old urethane will put a hole in there faster'n shark taking bait.
Boatman

As far as I know, there aren't any bonding strips on the bumper itself, but I was told the stripper could penetrate through the separation between the bumper and the bodywork and "creep" into the strips there. If someone's adventurous, they might want to try the stripper on the bumper only while keeping plenty of water handy to continually rinse. Personally, it took me almost eight months to get mine painted and I wasn't willing to take the chance and have to do it over again. But that's me. Guess as you get older, you lose the risky attitude.

We usually just tape over any grooves or separations we don't want the stripper to get to. Just finish stripping the last little bit by hand. Strippers do not eliminate all the hand sanding, but they sure do speed up the process. Care must be used when using any chemical stripper, they will cause damage if they get on the wrong part or used improperly. Good example of this is plastic light lenses. Stripper will ruin these in a very short time!