Smoking tail light advice

[overtwo636]

So I attempted to smoke some tail lights today and we sanded with 800 wet, allowed to dry, cleaned with wax/grease remover. Applied some bulldog adhesion promoter to it and it cracked. The adhesion promoter seemed to separate on the light, so if that doesnt stick obviously paint wont. Aside from a contaminant on the light are there any other tricks I should know before sanding them down and trying again?

[ColorTex]

That's strange:confused: So you sprayed the bulldog, let it flash(how long?) an it just cracked? Are these plastic taillights? The couple pairs of tailights I've smoked I just scuffed them with a red scotch pad, and sprayed clear with a couple small splashes of black basecoat mixed in it.

[overtwo636]

I thought it was very strange. They are plastic tail lights. I sprayed a coat of Bulldog on it, and about 10 mins later I went to check on it and the bulldog had cracked all over the plastic. Didn't even spray clear over it.

[style]

wax and grease remover on plastic? thats odd too, sand it completely off with 600 or 800 then use those blue disposible paper towels they sell at your local auto parts store to wipe off any residue left by sanding and shoot your tinted clear, the problem was contamination if i understand your steps as stated it was either a dirty rag or your wax and grease remover..:)

[overtwo636]

I'll give it a shot this morning. Probably just going to DA it off with 320 and then sand it up to 1000 before hitting it with the clear.

[olvanish]

Since I'm pretty much a tool here, I'm not sure what bulldog adh. promoter even looks like, but one thing I can tell you about smoking tail lights is that if the first coat is too wet, then you will end up with cracks and the more coats you apply the worse those cracks will be. You're supposed to let it dry COMPLETELY and then try again. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing with adh promoter

[200horse]

always heard you should use waterbase grease was remover on plastic. I would say the pre- cleaner, wasnt wiped off good enough and/or maybe lens had alot of contamintation like somone else said also

[overtwo636]

It was the wax and grease remover that did me in on the first attempt. I clean everything with denatured alcohol now before smoking.