Re clear-coating bumper cover. Help & advice needed.

[staying_tuned]

Howdy folks, I'm in the process of correcting the paint and laying down a coat of CQuartz 3.0 on my recently purchased 2014 1500 and so far the results have been great.

The front bumper cover though is pretty bad. There were no previous accidents reported on the carfax but while claying the truck down, the lower portions of the bumper cover felt almost like some spots were missing clear. It felt like 2000 grit sandpaper in places. I've also got some clear bubbling up and chipping away. I'm thinking maybe the previous owner curbed it and just had a cheap paint job cover it up or something.

I figure this would be a great opportunity to finally try clear-coating something myself. I did some initial searching and have heard great things about 2k clear so I amazon primed a can of that. I was thinking I'd remove the lower cover entirely and wet sand it with 1500 making sure to knock out all of these bubbles and various imperfections in the existing clear. Wipe it down with IPA and apply a few coats of the 2k clear. Let it cure for a few weeks then hit it with Menzerna 3500 before ceramic coating it.

Are there any tips or advice you can give me? Thanks in advance!!!!

Here is a shot of the absolute worst area.

 

[staying_tuned]

Ok so I'm still on the fence on attempting to fix this myself. This morning I took it to a local body shop that I've had great experiences with and its evident that work had been done to this cover already. He said they'd take it back down to the plastic, fill the previously drilled license plate holes and top it off with 5 coats of clear. He quoted me $470. To attempt this myself I'm looking at around $120 in rattle base and clear (2 cans of base, 2 cans of 2k clear, bondo for holes, etc) and I'm uncertain how my results would be. Basically $350 for it to be done by a pro (vs me spending $120-ish to attempt it myself).

I'm thinking I take it in. I was hoping to get the truck looking like new myself but heck, if this is the only out of pocket cost I guess thats not too bad. Fortunately the correction on the rest of the truck is going very well. Time consuming but the results have been worth it.

 

[averageguy]

I would have the shop do it. That way if anything goes wrong, they can deal with it.