Question about painting plastic parts

[gtome]

Im am getting ready to paint a sport bike and there are several little black raw plastic parts. Do I need to scuff these or is a simple good washing and Bulldog enough? Going to primer over them before paint because its going from black to white. Thanks guys!

[Phil V]

Im am getting ready to paint a sport bike and there are several little black raw plastic parts. Do I need to scuff these or is a simple good washing and Bulldog enough? Going to primer over them before paint because its going from black to white. Thanks guys!

Scuff with a gray scotchbrite pad until all the shine is gone form the plastic panel and it looks dull wherever you plan on shooting paint. Then adhesion promoter, then a light sealer coat of epoxy primer, then the base color coat, then the clear coat. All of that can (and probably should) be done in one sitting with the obvious flash times in between.

[gtome]

Yeah the parts im asking about are raw plastic so there is no shine. Do you think epoxy primer will work better on plastic than regular 2k primer?

Also there is some damage on the raw plastic. Do they take a special filler to repair? Or can i use a short strand fiberglass filler, or something like Half Time?

[Phil V]

Yeah the parts im asking about are raw plastic so there is no shine. Do you think epoxy primer will work better on plastic than regular 2k primer?

Also there is some damage on the raw plastic. Do they take a special filler to repair? Or can i use a short strand fiberglass filler, or something like Half Time?

You didn't mention the parts were damaged. The process and materials used to repair the damaged spots will depend on the severity of the damage.

Is the damage just plain light road rash ?

Also, even if there is no existing shine on the used plastic parts they still have to be scuffed with at least a gray scotchbrite pad where ever you plan on spraying paint.


Can you post any pictures of the damaged panels showing the damage ?

[gtome]

Yeah its just common road rash. A couple edges look like they have been sanded with 10 grit. Im going to sand them down a bit I guess to minimize the filler. I will take a couple pics here after dinner. The filler will just be to fill the gouges.

[frostje]

Don't forget your flex additive for the clear or it'll be cracking right off there.

[Len]

Don't forget your flex additive for the clear or it'll be cracking right off there.

If it's rigid plastic the flex additive isn't that important, actually a good acrylic urethane is a lot like rigid plastic. The adhesion promoter is still important however.

[btday]

gtome, I recently used Evercoat Polyflex for filler on my motorcycle fairing plastic road rash with good results so far.

Sanded and feathered beautifully. Len sells it.

Brian