The past few weekends I've been attempting to paint my two rear tail fairings and the two cooling vents. Ive sanded down the rash from the previous owner, wet sanded, laquered, and primed. Im using Rustoleum primer for plastic, but I checked the website and they didnt say anything about wet sanding a second time or about double coating the plastic. Any recommendations? what should I do? Continue with 2nd coat and then wet sand or just spray it after the first coat? Should I use a different primer? Thanks!

 

You should be using a more aggressive sanding, 400 grit or less cause the paint needs something to stick to. Wet sanding is great to bring down high spots but be sure to scotchbrite the painted surfaces or something prior to painting so it can adhere.

 

man i already typed this all out and the forums ate it! this is going to be short and lack of detailed now, if you have questions just ask.

-400-600 grit wet sand the plastics
-1 coat of primer
-800-1000grit wet sand the primer
-if it doesn't gleam and has imperfections, prime more, sand more, repeat until smooth
-color coat, make it neat, no runs, there is no sanding here
-clear coat, 1200grit wet sand, coat again, sand again, coat
-buff

 

I used 220 to get down the real bad rash, then wash and wetsand with 400, then primed.... so im going to try to wetsand with the 400 or 600 this weekend.

 

Yeah I have used low grit before too, but you have to be so careful because it gouges the hell out of your plastics and believe it or not, those deep gouges are hard to fill with even 4 or 5 coats of primer. Be very careful with low grit sanding, or you will find yourself filling it all in with putty and sanding it again...

 

Yeah, I had a few pretty bad spots that I decided to leave aside to fill with this gloss filler my uncle had but we couldn't find it. Instead I just took my time to sand with low grit and after wet sanding it really didn't look as chewed up as it previously was. I must have done something right.

I have access to a spray gun for the top coats so hopefully that should come out nicely. But for now Im just priming with rusto-plastic primer spray can. Ill try to toss up some before and after pics. Thanks for your help/ recommendations guys.

 

You can primer over 180-600 grit and paint over 400-2500 grit..
As long as it's clean, scuffed, and the paints play nice together you're good!

 

What kind of primer are you using? I used a flexilble sandable primer so it was fairlly forgiving ... but not 220 grit forgiving LOL

 

Rustoleum Primer For Plastic... in a spray can....
And thats the thing.. says nothing about being sandable or wet sandable...Thats why I started this whole thread! hahahaha

 

I know a good bit about painting but I am no pro... with that said, I never heard of anything that wasn't sandable lol... I've primed with lots of different primers and sanded them all with no problems. Just make sure it says it bonds to plastic and sand away.