how to paint my rock lizard bumper to match?

[donberry]

just sent in my payment for the rock lizard bumper and grill guard, so figure I had better start thinking about how I am going to finish it.
I think it would look best to go ahead and paint it gray to match the plastic fenders, but was wondering.....
I was thinking I was going to paint it using base/clear as that is pretty durable, but if I just match the gray and paint it that way, I am thinking it might look a little "off" because it won't have the same texture as the plastic but just be nice and smooth.
Am I over thinking this ?
just hoping to get it right the 1st time.
I don't think it would look quite right if I painted it to match the vehicle since it will be butting up against the gray plastic fenders.

Here is a pic of my jeep just for color purposes.

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[tommudd]

Use hammertone paint, durable and matches the "roughness" sort of with the flares . Be real hard to completely match the flares

 

[John3seventeen]

Unless you paint the flares:mad3:

 

[donberry]

hammertone paint. Just off the top of my head, that is out of a spray can - correct ? My 1st question then would be about durability. While I have painted many a things with spray can paint that came out looking very good, the durability never compared to that of "real" auto paint (I use base/clear because it is easy enough even an idiot like me can make it look good)....
I will head off to do some research into the hammertone.
Thanks

Painting the flares - while I prefer the look of painted flares over plastic flares, I would guess for off road use the plastic would work out much better.
I have read quite a few things where people talk about the plastic fading and they painted them with Fusion paint, but I am going to take for granted they never tried something like Mother's Back to Black. The stuff is pretty amazing and restores faded plastic as easily as basically wiping it on and wiping it off......If I painted the flares, if/when I scratched them up there would be a whole lot more involved than Back to Black.
Actually tho, in a way that is the "beauty" of my jeep. It was totaled by the insurance company due to a giant hail storm. I bought it back on the cheap and never had the hood replaced or fixed any of the other dents. It still looks okay, but obvious hail damage. The beauty is I think if I had a pristine looking jeep, I would think twice before barreling thru the bushes etc. While I do try to be careful, I am not so much concerned about it now.
Until I get my bumper, the winch and some new suspension, I am limited in what I will attempt so I have found myself in some pretty brushy areas

 

[cplchris]

powdercoat would be durable....my question and i mean absolutely no offense by this but are you going to use it off road or are you a mall crawler (like myself)? you can get custom mixed rattlecans of singlestage from most autobody supply shops, this would allow you to pick whatever color you want and get touch up cans on standby, (they would also make any touch up work easier), you could get the bumper line-x'd but that isnt something you could touch up too easily (or properly)...so when choosing your method of coating the bumper i would put maintenance of the coating before durability...everything can be broken, but fixing it is usually the hard part.

 

[donberry]

cplchris - don't see why that would be offensive asking me that, but your consideration is appreciated.
Well, the goal is to do actual off roading. This was my wife's vehicle and I had never really even driven it, let alone taken it off road. I bought her a new car and thought before I sold it, it would be a good time to finally "test" out the 4wd.
Even though it was fairly simple terrain, I loved it of course so decided to keep it, fix it up for off road use and sell my car.
The goal at the moment is to plan trips around off road use, day trips to the local 4wd parks and the ultimate use - towing my motorcycle with it to Co, etc so I can ride the bike plus have some off road fun.
While I am not deliberately trying to ruin my paint job, when the grandkids and I go out now and tend to crash over bushes and small trees instead of trying to avoid them.
Not as much fun as when I was in a M60A1 tank (you can knock over some seriously big trees in a 50 ton tracked vehicle made of homogeneous steel ), but fun none the less

I have painted quite a few cars etc at home and have everything needed to paint my own. I have always preferred auto base/clear over spray can stuff as it has always just seemed much more durable to me - albeit I have just used spray cans like Rustoleum etc and I am sure there are much better ones out there, but even for touchup work, I'd just as soon have to clean out my spray gun if I was getting a more durable finish....

Not sure about hammertone in an auto paint tho - is something I am going to look into.

Thanks

 

[donberry]

well, that was a short stay - ended up buying a Jaguar and unfortunately sold my Jeep.........