Need some help fom all the painters....so i need to paint some plastic...whats the best way, paint prep, clear?...needs to be very durable and scratch/ flexable..thanks in advance.
The secret to doing it right is to know exactly what kind of plastic you have. Most times, on modern parts, there is some sort of logo, with letters inside. That will tell you what type it is. Some plastics, like polypropylene, need special primers for anything to stick. Others need adhesion pormoters, or at least a good sticky epoxy as a primer. Others you can spray and shoot, just like a steel part. Some need flex agents added to the paint, others don't. If yours is very flexible, and you can't ID it, I'd at least put a coat or 2 of flexible bumper primer, available in your local suto body store. Then use a flex agent in the paint as well. You might even want to use an adhesion promoter, like Bulldog, just to be safe, after sanding and cleaning the part, but before the primer.
chopolds nailed it, and remember if you don't look like a monkey humping a football while you're sanding it you're doing it wrong. wet sand the hell out of it.
i usually put a couple coats of bulldog on plastic, then medalion flex primer. even sticks on poly it is true , not all plastics react the same, but bulldog will stick to most skull
thanks guys...but like I said OT (off topic) this for a non related car part...a hard hat to be exact...sorry but I've never shot plastic...any ideas?thanks.
if it has paint or some sort of coating on it already and you do not sand through it then prep it and paint it just like you would anything else.
Scothbrite it, use bulldog from Walmart in a spray can and paint away..You will be fine..Its painting, not overly difficult. Hell, I can do it and im a monkey....
BTW, flew agents are only flexible for a short window of time. once the paint is fully cured it's no more flexible than the paint without the flex agent. check the P-sheets on specific products for a more specific time frame... I do show cars for GM and we do ALOT of interior stuff and it is all brand new stuff (for the most part at least), some of it does'nt even have the texture on it yet as they are pre-production parts. i just finished a plastic piece today that was machined from a solid hunk of plastic (not sure the type). i sanded it like any other part and prepped it for primer. i cleaned it with wax and grease remover, surface cleaner and then alcohol (we are spraying PPG water borne paint and that is what PPG recommends) . then we used something called "Plas-Stic" (comes in quarts or a spray can) you put it on and then wipe it off. this part had a pretty rough surface so i put it on using a fine Scotchbrite pad then wiped it off with a rag. wait a good 10 minutes before you spray the part with primer. after that i primed it with Polyester primer, sanded it smooth (with 320grit on a block) and re-primed with regular primer/surfacer (you can not topcoat the Polyester) and sanded smooth again (this time with 500grit). i also sealed the part before the topcoat went on so 500 was smooth enough. it's also a dark color. some colors (like silver) you want to finish with a finer grit, like 800 or 1000. again, you can go a little more coarse if you are sealing the part too... so there you go, way more than you probably wanted to know about painting plastic.
The most important step to painting plastic parts is to wash it first with soap and water. Then Wax and grease remover. The Soap and water will lift off the releasing agent if it's there. Then the Wax and grease remover will take off any contaiminats. If in doubt use a coat of adhesion promoter. Just a little insurance. The Old Tinbasher
Thanks, I figured it would be just like painting a fender or hood, just a little different material..thanks alot for all your wisdom.
All the advice is spot on and I use to paint my guys hard-hats and pinstripe mine. Also drawing our names on it too. Clean it good,scotch-brite it and spray away......don't you want yellow? LOL
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