73 front bumper colour

[born2cruze]

Hi,

In the process of restoring my 73 Mach1.

The rear part of the front bumper has an area that has to be black.

Anybody know what colour black, flat, shinny?

 

[will e]

I think it was usually shiney.

 

[born2cruze]

I think it was usually shiney.

Your car looks great! I see that you have the black on the front bumper, can I get a closer picture of that?

 

[Austin Vert]

Hi There,

The best looking finish and paint to use would be satin black. A 2Pak satin black enamel is the most durable paint to use. That's what i used on my front bumper bar resto. You can buy 2 pak satin paint pre mixed to satin finish from a good auto paint store. Mat black is acceptable, but satin black looks the best and most classy in my opinion. Glossy black looks cheap and rinky dinky, again in my opinion, but it's what rocks your boat that matters i guess.

If 2 Pak is too hard to spray with your home setup, then move into a satin black acrylic lacquer paint. Not as durable but will work fairly well also. Spraying with a rattle can will get you out of trouble, but a better finish is gotten by shooting from a spray gun, and mixing up your own lacquer with quality thinners. You might want to use a primer first though, to achieve a top looking final finish. Remember, lacquer primer for lacquer top coats, and 2 pak primer for 2 pak topcoats, with the exception being that you can spray lacquer top coats over 2 pak primers if you want. No need to use flex aids either, as the paint alone will withstand the amount of flex back there.

Here is a link to an article i did on restoring my own '73 front bumper bar back in 2014.

https://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-austin-vert-s-front-bumper-makeover

Hope that helps,

Greg.

 

[born2cruze]

Hi There,

The best looking finish and paint to use would be satin black. A 2Pak satin black enamel is the most durable paint to use. That's what i used on my front bumper bar resto. You can buy 2 pak satin paint pre mixed to satin finish from a good auto paint store. Mat black is acceptable, but satin black looks the best and most classy in my opinion. Glossy black looks cheap and rinky dinky, again in my opinion, but it's what rocks your boat that matters i guess.

If 2 Pak is too hard to spray with your home setup, then move into a satin black acrylic lacquer paint. Not as durable but will work fairly well also. Spraying with a rattle can will get you out of trouble, but a better finish is gotten by shooting from a spray gun, and mixing up your own lacquer with quality thinners.  You might want to use a primer first though, to achieve a top looking  final finish. Remember, lacquer primer for lacquer top coats, and 2 pak primer for 2 pak topcoats, with the exception being that you can spray lacquer top coats over 2 pak primers if you want.  No need to use flex aids either, as the paint alone will withstand the amount of flex back there.

Here is a link to an article i did on restoring my own '73 front bumper bar back in 2014.

https://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-austin-vert-s-front-bumper-makeover

Hope that helps,

Greg.

 

[bkdunha]

I would agree with Austin. The date on the bumper is most likely its production (molding) date. In assembly they did not have much time to date subassembly components before installation. I would suspect the 1818 is probably the inspector id number following quality inspection in case a later flaw was detected they new who did initial qc.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

The bumpers were painted satin or flat black in the recess next to the grill. The same as was used around the edge of the tail lights and around the front parking lights on Mach 1. The only exception might be if you had a Special Order Paint car and the front bumper is Argent as in the picture. They did not have the correct paint for the rubber bumper in all non production colors so Ford chose to use Argent on those cars. I have one confirmed by Marti was first one he actually saw the documentation of the build sheet showing "Install Argent Front Bumper" in the Remarks section. His records do not have the Special Paint info..

This pic is an original Argent bumper and you can see some of the black on my original 73 Mach 1.

When I went back to the Argent bumper its is also black next to the grill.

David