Unpopular opinion: skipping the primer step saved me 3 hours on a bumper repair last week

I had a cracked bumper cover on a 2018 Civic, tried using a self-etching aerosol straight onto the sanded plastic and the paint actually held up fine after a week of driving. Has anyone else gotten away with cutting corners on non-structural repairs or am I just lucky so far?

3 comments

3 Comments

milarodriguez1mo ago

Last month I did a bumper on a 2015 Sonata and skipped the adhesion promoter entirely, just scuffed it up and laid down color. Its been three weeks and no peeling yet. But heres what I keep wondering about - did you use any flex agent in your paint mix? Because I think thats the real secret on plastic bumpers, not the primer. The primer is mostly there to give the paint something to bite into and to seal the plastic from solvents. On a Civic that little crack, maybe the plastic was still fresh enough that it bonded okay on its own. But what about when you hit a pothole or the bumper flexes on a hot day? Thats where skipping primer usually shows its ugly face with spider cracks.

piper_kim1mo ago

That primer is mostly just a money grab anyway.

elizabethmason1mo ago

Totally agree with @piper_kim. Its like half the stuff they sell at Sephora is just solving problems that didnt exist before they made them up lol. Last week I saw a "nose contour stick" that is literally just a darker shade of foundation in a pencil. The whole skincare and makeup aisle is turning into snake oil territory, I swear. Youre better off just using what actually works and ignoring the hype.