asl9622

Hey everyone,
I just bought unpainted headlight splitters and am not positive on what steps I have to take to paint them to match my car. Correct me if I am wrong but I figured some sanding with 300 grit paper, prime it up, light sand and spray light coats of exterior color and finish up with a clear coat. Any advice is greatly appreciated

BKRmustangv6

Painted my spoiler. 300 grit sand it down, get all blemishes out (its up painted so u shouldn't have any). Even coat of primer. Light coats of factory color. Let it set about 10 min before each coat. 5 or so coats. Set. Gloss or clear coat to make it shine like that car

usc49erfan

300 is good, but then I like to wet-sand with 800 just to smooth everything out even more. Just make sure to do nice even coats in a garage or something to that effect because of wind. For the clear I would say 3 coats of clear should do the trick. With something as small as splitters the whole process should be fairly simple

eddypython

with 300 grit you might as well drag it on the road.

Primer is for metal, stop using it on plastic, it will flake off in time.

First. The ONLY time you use heavy grit on plastic is if it has a texture on it. If it's smooth, use about 1000 grit to "lightly" scratch the surface. You scratch it ligtly just to help it bond. Then you HAVE to use adhesion promoter. Which is the " primer " of plastics. Adhesion promoter dries very quickly, so no need to wait hours for it to dry.

Then you spray your base coat ( the color )

Usually 2-3 coats will do.

Then clear coat. again 2-3 coats will do. Your last one should be a little thicker. If you know what you are doing you won't even need to wet sand and buff.

If you want to use primer, use a high build primer on top of the adhesion promoter ONLY to hide textures in the plastics. PM me with questions if you attempt this and get stuck.

asl9622

Thanks for the responses! Should I use paint made for plastic then? It is the duplicolor stuff ok?

BeachBlv

not to hijack the thread but how would one go about painting the side mirrors black to match the rest of my car. I dont have a air compressor or anything so it would have to be done with aerosol style cans. If I got some ford gloss black paint and some clear coat from the parts store could I make them look good if I took my time? or not even bother. I am not one to half *** things but I am curious.

eddypython

asl9622 and BeachBlv. Here's a link where you can buy an aerosol can of paint to match your colors. I picked ebony in the link, just go back and select your own color.

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/cho.../buypaint.aspx

Black is really easy to match. Your mirrors have a texture on it, so you will need some high build primer. It's not hard, just time consuming.

As far as clearcoating and not having a compressor, a rattle can clear will need to be wetsanded and buffed. I have yet to see a rattle can clear spray as nice as a gun to not require wetsanding.

asl9622

Awesome responses. I really appreciate it!

pascal

Rattle cans cannot contain catalyst so it's only a cheap solution.