Painting

[vtech007]

I painted the interior plastics on my truck with Krylon Fusion Plastic Paint. I took them out, soaked/washed them in simple green (remove oil residue), rinsed, wiped down with rubbing alcohol, rinsed, and then did very light coats every hour or so (patience). Finished them off with the Krylon Plastic UV/scratch resistant clear coat. Worked great and I'll probably end up doing my Buell plastics someday. Sorry for the thread jack.

Thank you! This is good information. Do you know if Krylon Fusion Plastic Paint is going to come in the the shade of blue that will match the Buell Thrust Blue plastic? Thanks again!

 

[BuellyBagger]

You Might get something close in krylon

 

[12R_FIRE]

The colors are pretty limited to a couple different shades in each color, so if your looking for a particular color bagger is your man.

Bagger- the post wasn't meant to take away from your work, just a heads up to the DIY guys out there, because in all reality if my rattle can "Magic" doesnt work on my plastics will end up in your hands

 

[BuellyBagger]

no offense taken 12R... I understand that for JOE BUELLER that poof can is often the most practical option. Spray equipment and pro-quality paint are expensive and require some education to use. So by all means try aresols and if ur happy with ur results u saved alot of money and got the job done. I'm not one of those snooty techs that looks down upon DIYers.

 

[CrazyTexan]

Posting this up for anyone else having questions on this topic as well.

PM from me to BuellyBagger...

Thank you for posting up your knowledge and experiences with painting plastics. I've been reading up on your posts to educate myself on how i'm going to go about this. I just converted my S tail to an R. The front fairing and air box cover is black and I could only find a complete tail section which came with a red tail. So a complete bike paint job will be comming up on xmas break. I think I got down the basics of what you were saying as far as how to go about painting and the steps, what my main question is..How would one go about road rash scratches? The tail i bought was wrecked and has some small (but a constant pattern down the lenght of one side) "rash". Could this be sanded out with a rough grit and then smoothed out by stepping up the Grit #? I also have a deep scratch here and there around the mirrors on the front and wasnt sure if it was going to be permanent or if i could get these out before painting it. Thanks in advance

BuellyBaggers Reply...

Well im glad ur enjoying my thread and tryin to learn to do ur own paint and body work. When removing damage on ur plastics such as long deep scrapes u do have somewhat of the right idea... Sanding them out starting with a heavier grit paper is the first step. If the scratches dont easily come out with finer paper like 400 then they will require something heavier like 220-180... if they are really really deep u can start with 80 but 80 removes alot of material and can leave tears in the plastic that are hard to sand down to a finer finish. So try and stay away from it. When u sand ur plastic ur of corse removing some of the plastic and actually creating a low spot or a divet in the surface which will need to be filled. For minor sanding the filling can be acheived with primer surfacer then block sanding and recoating with primer surfacer. For deep tears, gouges and scrapes u may to sand them until they are as removed as u feel comfortable witout sanding a huge divet or sanding thru the plastic and then using a flexible plastic body filler to fill the scratches etc. (Evercoat makes a lot of easy to use plastic repair products) Then block sand ur filler with 180-220 apply primer surfacer and block again then reapply primer and finish sand. If ur tail section is used and kind of beat up it probably wouldnt hurt to prep the whole part for primer surfacer(u can prep around ur repairs with 320-400) and coat the whole part to make sure u dont miss ne damage. Hope this HELPS good luck u can alwys post a pic too and show me how its goin.

Thankyou for the info. I'll keep you posted.

 

[vtech007]

As the color on the stock plastic goes all the way through, what if you just wanted to take out some minor scratches on the surface (and not paint over it)? Incrimental sanding and polishing?

 

[BuellyBagger]

yep absolutely vtech... If the scratches just barely catch ur finger nail they would easily sand out with 1500-2000 and then buff. If they're pretty deep u can start with as heavy as 600 and work ur way up 800, 1000, 1200/1500, 2000 so on then buff. I like to use 3m TRI-ZACT 3000 to finish my sanding procedjure it makes it way easier to buff and makes the finish product very smooth(it doesnt appear to have ever been sanded no matter how close u look).

 

[BuellyBagger]

U guys will have to experiment on which rubbing compounds work best on these Plastics though. I really only use the 3m system that is body shop safe (no or very little silicone) there are More silicone based polishing compounds that may work better.

 

[vtech007]

Thank you very much, BuellyBagger - that is great information! [up]

 

[vtech007]

+1 rep vote for the scratch removal procedure.

 

[BuellyBagger]

no prob

 

[BuellyBagger]

Alright guys i'm doin another paint project of my own. The dealership i work @ traded for one ugly 88 Harley that was made into a custom rigid in 92. It got some hidious 09's custom paint job on it. The plan is to do something very simple (to make it easy to sell) just wanted everyones opinion. I was thinking black pearl with a silver pinstripe. What do u guys think?

 

[BuellyBagger]

 

[BuellyBagger]

EDIT 90's paint job. Not 09's

 

[BuellyBagger]

Well I went with simple Black Crystal Pearl. I think its much improved. The fun part of this job was the removal of the old paint. It was laquer so i stripped all the tins to bare metal, etch primed, applied primer surfacer, sanded, sealed, base, and 3 coats of clear followed by a healthy bit of sanding and buffing.

 

[BuellyBagger]

Ive been pioneering a new technique for painting textured plastic bits and peices i just wanted everyone to hear about. Ive been using Urethane Supply Co.s. Textured bumper paint as a no scuff adhesion premoter and then after its flashed spraying basecoat (what ever color it is to match the vehicle) and then clearing. USC also has an adhesion premotrer/primer to do just this, but the paint and the primer are essentially the same and the primer only comes in grey. i can get quicker coverage by useing the paint that comes in various colors. This Paint is very similar to krylon fusion. So far ive had great luck with it. It recomends u clean the plastic with soap and water, dry, then wipe down with denatured alcohol.

 

[chiligrease]

BB, looking to get my plastic, rims painted/powder coated. looking for a simple color scheme. love the rat rod matte black +red look but want something flat charcoal and light grays/orange as a pop color used sparingly.

current paint was from pervious owner, looks like a viper [cobalt w/white rally stripes] cool but tired of it. years ago a friend painted a "faux candy" on my road king, an SEM process where the tint and clear are mixed. came out great, i call it chiligrease orange. back then it was the only color around, until gm and others released cars that fall. posers.

i like the graphic pattern you had earlier w/the striping on the air box.

thoughts?

 

[BuellyBagger]

lots of options... i like matte colors (obviously my bikes been matte evertime i paint it) i think a very heave mettalic black and a very "floppy" red pearl would look sweet satin... outline maybe some red scallops in silver or black scallops on red outline in pearl white with satin clear.

 

[BuellyBagger]

Posted the pics backwards, but... This is one of my latest bigger projects. This truck came to me with cracked body filler and peeling clear coat galour... grind, fill, prime, repaint and viola she's perdy again. I threw down some rocker gaurd from the body line down to help protect from the giant rocks those tires can sling. Also installed bushwacker pocket flares(not pictured). Trucks for sale by the way if ur interested. 1ton diesel. POINT: remember if u dont prep well and execute all the steps properly ur paint job/ body work can end up someone elses pain in the A$$!

 

[Oldgit]

I'll try not to derail this great thread, but I have a question about renovating plastics. Namely my rear seat cover on my XB12R was scratched so I rubbed it down with 800 or so, then 1K wet, finally Novus 3,2 then 1. it looks ****. What am I doing wrong? Is it worth just spraying it instead? If so, whats the best method?

Thanks in advance, and feel free to tell me to make another thread if need be

Edit: the part is black.