I lent my car to a mate who managed to snag the front bumper of my EF on a curb and snap it in half while backing out of a drive way.

I've been unable to source a 2nd hand fairmont bumper in NZ and my mate ain't willing to pay for a brand new one. So the bumper skin is in getting plastic welded atm.

The the bumper has been painted 3 or 4 times before and the old paint is flaking and there are lots of fractures/cracks in the exsisting paint so I really need to strip all the paint off the bumper before it is resprayed.

Being a Fairmont bar I need to strip the inserts for the brake ducts, air dam and tickford lip spoiler as well.

What is the best of going about this - can they be sand blasted or can I get a chemical stripper that won't stuff the plastic?

Use a sander. I wounldn't be using chemicals, & a sand blaster will be too agressive IMO.

just sand down the fractures/cracks in the exsisting paint to remove them , then just giv the rest of the bumper a sand to remove the shine off it , then it shud be ready to be painted .

A very "HIGH PRESSURE" pressure washer will work wonders on cracked paint, you can also get a special paint stripper for bumper bars that is in an aerosol can, we have used it a couple of times with mixed results.

Sand paper, Sanding block and alot of time does the trick.

yea tru that , takes a fair bit of time sanding them down , i found out recently. i just started a spray painting apprenticeship and thats all i been doin , sanding down bumpers , panels etc. Aslong as ya take ya time and prepare em well , then ya get good results[/quote]

I used the paint stripper in the aerosol can on all the small bits ie inserts for brake ducts, stripe/moulding and bar that goes in the main air intake.

The bar that goes in the main air intake is PVC i think and it really didn't like the paint stripper. The surface bubbled, pitted and went real soft. It harden up after a wee while and with bit of filler it will be ok.

The bumper skin and lip spoiler I'll hit with an orbital sander and some 80 grit paper - that seems to cut through all the paint ok - but its still going to take few hours.

The source of the problem has been found to - the panel beater that painted the bumper last used a yellow spray putty thats quite thick. It only takes a small impact or flex of the bumper and the paint will fracture/crack - thats why i have to take all the paint off before it can be respayed.

With a bit of luck I have it back on the car by the weekend.