well i finally took my plastics off to do some maintenance and they're cracked to ****. much worse than i thought. i'm going to leave them off for a few weeks while i fix and paint them...

for the current spray paint that's on there, what's the best way to strip it? typically when i paint wheels i use aircraft stripper but i feel like that will melt the plastics...

i have a compressor but no spray gun at the moment. is a $25 spray gun better than some "quality" spray paint? if i do end up getting a spray gun, how much is paint for them?

will spray can primer work then?

and will i have to bake it to get any sort of durable finish? or will just a few coats of clear work?

 

Just rough up with a da and some 80 grit u dont really have to remove all the paint. Primer just has to stick to it. Spray gun is the way to go and u may wanna get a water seperator if your using a smsll compressor . My .02 cents

 

80 grit is way to harsh.

Sand everything down very well with 400, that gives you a nice smooth finish, but rough enough for the paint to adhere to. You can do rattle can primer, its not the best method but better than nothing. If you do go that route, build it up fairly decent then lightly sand it after it's cured with 400 again.

Before you spray the base coat use some sort of prep wipe or tack cloth to wipe everything down, if you don't that is what will cause fisheye.
As far as times between coats and spraying the clear that depends on you climate/ temp.

As far as the paint gun goes, I've got a $400 Devilbis gun, and a cheap one I've had forever... I still use the cheap one from time to time just because it sprays great for what it is.... A lot of its in the prep work to get a good finish. Also, make sure you use a water/air seperator!

When Buying paint DO NOT buy that cheap pre-mixed crap they sell at auto parts stores and Meijer, that stuff is junk and sprays like it too.

 

i would even go as far as 600 for the primer. but 400 is about right. never 80 and on plastic you will just make big gouges with it.

 

You can use 80 with a DA as long as you prime, wet sand with 200, and possibly repeat. I used 200 first to get all of the crap paint off that the guy before me slopped on, then I used the 80 to quickly get all of the really stubborn spots off. If you take your time, 200 works great.

 

i think we have a water separator. the paint, at least on the lowers, is really thick. i would want to use at least a mild stripper/thinner first to take it down because it's chipped really bad at the bottom. i'll take pics of it when i get my camera back.

if i use a stripper, it'll be a lot easier to sand so i'll probably just use a 200.

the bottoms i want to spray with like a bed liner for some reason for the texture. i don't know if it'll look like **** next to a hopefully decent finish on the uppers.

so:

strip
sand - 400
prime
sand - 600
prime
sand - 600
wipe down
paint x 6 or 7
sand - 2000?
paint
clear?

 

another idea i have been kicking around since it was a pretty big fad in the car world for a while... anyone ever vinyl wrapped their bike?

 

i saw a guy with alligator wrap on his bike. you wouldnt have a problem with it if you know what youre doing. but it was just way to gaudy for me. definately creative though

 

i wouldn't do anything that tacky... i like to stick to clean and sexy stuff. the loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room. i heard of someone locally who got it done for $400. i wonder how much i could do it myself for?

 

condition of current plastics: