Paint Question

[Full_Throttle]

I will be painting my new hood and the Limited flairs/body pannels using a basecoat/clearcoat system and I was curious if anyone had any tips/suggestions for making sure the paint ad-hears to the plastic of the flairs. I know I will need to sand everything down, but what about additives? Do I need to get the "flex" additive that is used when painting bumpers? The Paint is a PPG brand paint.

Thanks for any advice you can share:cheers:

 

[Mahalas]

PPG caries a very good adhesion promoter for plastics. If the flairs are unpainted and unprimed.
We use this in my shop. Make sure you put it on bare plastic only.
As for flex agents we never use any. As far as I'm concerned the less carp you mix with your paint the better.

 

[Mahalas]

Also if the flairs are bare plastic make sure you use an alcohol based final wipe to degrease them before paint. Alcohol based will also work on your body panels, but a solvent based wipe might make the paint peel from the plastic even if you use an adhesion promoter.

 

[Full_Throttle]

The flairs are NOT new, they have been on the vehicle, painted, since it's build date of 1999. Should I try and remove all of the factory paint from the flairs/body panels (PIA I am guessing) to use this special adhesion product or just buff them up and paint over them?

 

[Mahalas]

No do not remove the paint. Its way too much work and Toyota never had problems with peeling.
Are you fixing any scratches or just refreshing the paint?

 

[Full_Throttle]

Well, I do have some scratches I COULD repair, I guess it depends on what it will take to fix, or just paint right over the scratches. I assume that the plastic filler (bondo type) is OK to use? Would I prime all of this or just paint over top of the 'yota paint?

 

[Millerad1651]

I would sand to take off the sheen. Then you can use a small amount of body filler to fill any scratches or gouges. I'd skip the adhesion promoter and just throw a few coats of primer with fine sanding in between.

Once you have a good primer coat, throw the color on. Extra fine wet sanding before throwing a clear on it. Take your time, you won't be happy with a rush job.

 

[Full_Throttle]

I have quite a bit of experience with painting metal/plastic filler, but almost none on plastic pieces. Here is a pic of the last thing I did that involved paint.

I stretched the gas tank on a honda shadow;

 

[Millerad1651]

Your flares are plastic, but are pretty rigid. I don't see them flexing to much. I would assume they are real similar to painting your other projects.

 

[jmildoc]

Wow!! I need some plastic painted. Where are you located? Wanna give a guy a lesson??

 

[ichambers]

if you have the painted flares, such as the ones that come on the limited or like those, they are rigid plastic. You don't need to worry about flex there. If they are already painted, you do not even need to primer, just use a scuffing pad or very fine sand paper like wet sanding with 2000-3000 grit. If you have minor scratches that exist only in the clear coat you may be able to use that wet sanding to get rid of those imperfections. If the scratches are deep scratches, then you should scuff the whole area and use filler primer and sand to get rid of them. Only use body filler for very deep scratches, if you are not very experienced with body filler it could be a to of work. If you are going to primer it is best to do a whole section like an entire flare, because feathering the primer is iffy and will most likely be visible in the final paint. As long as you have a solid painted surface ( no bare plastic ) you should be five, A previously painted and cleared surface works like a base as you apply the new paint on top. There is no need to sand it all away unless you are doing body work.