Hi S2k,

don't wet sand the primer with a fine sand paper. If it's too smooth, the paint won't stick. I found that out the hard way. You want the primer to have a slightly rough finish so the paint can grab onto it. After you give it a couple of coats of your base coloe, then you wet sand.

I couldn't find a way to remove the window trim. There's got to be some kind of trick to it.

I got the 3M tape from a local sign shop. They had two colors that were very close to torch red. The one I chose is an almost perfect match. The guy at the sign shop said I can wax it also. I haven't tried that yet but I will.

 

Oh wow thanks alot! So when i paint it with the base color i wait 15 btw the coats then wet sand those after they dry and then base it again then finally start clearcoating it?

 

If you are painting yourself with your own gun and autobody shop paints, you prime, base and clear (no sanding); 15min between prime, base and clear is fine, you need to clean the gun in between anyway unless you have a couple guns.The only sanding you would do is in the prep of the mirrors and sand with no finer than 320wet; adhesion promoter should be used on the raw plastic before the primer. (this was in the step by step post I added quite some time ago)

BTW:
I wouldn't recommend painting them yourself as a shop has more experience, better equipment (gun, moisture free air supply, less dust, etc.) buying all the materials is more expensive than having the shop do the work. You do the prep up to sand in 320 and hand them over.

 

Ditto, Fairlane is right. I have a compressor and a gun yet every time I try to paint anything I wind up with dust all over the place and an uneven spray job. It's worth it to take it to a pro to shoot it.

 

Right, Imean I don'twant to discourage you from trying; that's what I did years ago;quite a bitof study, some trial and error, and talking toa few guys in the profession,as I dida body off resto on a 65 Corvette. ...but evenwith that done I would still have a shop domy mirrors today, if not just just for the economics of a small job; primer, base and clear will cost you a small fortune and you'll have so much left over. ...just not worth it.

I did prep my mirrors butthe painter that did the flames did the black on them, along with the black on thedecklid (shaved gas cap & lock), fenders (shavedGT emblems, antenna). He was going to clear the whole car anyway. Sometimes just better to let the seasoned pro do it. ...you know what I mean.