Any luck painting plastics?

[roadthrills]

Has anyone had any luck painting your plastic? If so, what steps and product did you use? I want to do something custom but donlt want it to flake off.

[hondaguy2]

get something that will be able to flex good, casue my friend painted his and now it is chipping off.

[Ridin' Jesse]

havnt seen any paiting work really...chips to easy

[JR3]

I WAS THINKIN ID NEVER DO IT BUT WOULDT THAT RHINO LYNER STUFF WORK

[nosliw]

probably. that'd be pretty cool actually. i remember one of their old commercials where they coated a cinderblock with the stuff and dropped it off a building and it didnt break. tough ****. even some of that DIY hercu-liner would be cool.

[sampleez]

i don't know about the spray can bed liner. i did my axle a few times and it doesn't last very long. it does look pretty cool tho.

[VTRJason]

My sister's boyfriend painted both his 3 wheeler plastic and the paint chipped off. He even used flex additive. It is that the plastic is way too flexible.

[Kev]

Krylon Fusion paint will work. However you need to give it a week to dry completly. I did this on mine and the down sides are this.
Dont' spill gas on it, it will eat it right off.
You will have to touch it up, boots are bruital to paint, along with all the other stuff you can scratch it with.

I would not do what I did, which was paint a green fender black. I did however paint a yellow fender a darker yellow and it really looked pretty good for a longer period, as you really couldn't see the other color yellow as easily.

Hope this helps you painters out there.

One note on truck bed liner, you can't add stickers/number plates to it, and it adds way to much weight to the fenders.

Kevin

[copter]

http://img85.exs.cx/img85/92/titusupdate5sg.jpg
http://img85.exs.cx/img85/352/titus33nn.jpg
http://img85.exs.cx/img85/198/stageoneds2ww.jpg


OK, tell me these guys don't ride these;;;; But if the paint is done right, its gotta stick. Plastic bumpers, street bikes and the list goes on. Lightly sand, prime, flex agent, good quality auto paint and several clear coats.

[Black250EX]

heres a try at powdercoating plastic it was done by my cousin's uncle

[priebo15]

whoa, that is tight...is that sitting in ur living room? saw the couch lol

[ny300exrider]

well dont want to sound like a prick but dont you have to heat the item in an over to powdercoat it, last time i checked plastic melts unless theres a plastic powdercoater that ive never seen or heard of

[copter]

I thought it needs to be grounded... IE Metal

Found this:

Powder coating is a dry finishing process, using finely ground particles of pigment and resin that are generally electrostatically charged and sprayed onto electrically grounded parts. The charged powder particles adhere to the parts and are held there until melted and fused into a smooth coating in a curing oven. Before coating, the parts to be coated are first pretreated similarly to conventional liquid coated parts. The pretreatment process is normally conducted in series with the coating and curing operations.

There is essentially two common ways of applying powder coating: by electrostatic spray and by fluidized bed powder coating. There are several other processes that have been developed, but they are far less used. These include flame spraying, spraying with a plasma gun, airless hot spray, and coating by electophoretic deposition.

[ny300exrider]

exactly the whole point of powdercoat is to have electric charge on the object so the powder sticks, then its baked on

[Black250EX]

he told me that the process of doing it was very complicated but he got it done.

[ny300exrider]

okey dokey:)

[TheFontMaster]

How well has that powdercoat on the plastics held up?

[Lolli2]

Wow. That's weird. Thought the plastic would melt in the oven. Wonder if it will last. Anyway, we tried some fusion paint stuff and were able to scrape it right off with a finger nail. I've seen painted plastics, but not sure what they use. I've heard the regular bedliner stuff that you mix uses good but adds a lot of additional weight.

[Black250EX]

the paint has held up very good its very flexible and its hard to scratch.

[copter]

http://www.roostfest.com/images/mybanshee/finished/finished%20021.jpg

From: http://www.roostfest.com/Plastic%20refinshing.htm

WARNING! Once you start prepping the plastic there is NO going back!! "standard disclaimer " This is ONLY for stock OEM quad plastic... it WILL NOT work on Maier plastic.

I will have a procedure listed soon for painting Maier plastic.

Its obvious that you must remove the plastic from the quad. Next wash the plastic inside and out with a gray (3M) scotch bright pad with dish detergent thoroughly. This will lightly scuff the plastic and semi remove the release agents from the plastic, besides remove dirt and mud. Dry off the plastic and look for any shiny areas that were missed....re-scuff those areas. You don't want the water to sheet off of the plastic, like a fresh waxed hood on a car.

Next wet sand the plastic with some 400 grit wet and dry sand paper. Make sure that you get all tight areas very well. Make sure that you get the outside edges well also! They are just as important! Those areas will be the first to peal if not prepped correctly. If your doing the whole plastic, tank cover, radiator cover, front fenders, and rear fenders (banshee) you will use approx 6-8 9x11 sheets. Dry the plastic and recheck for any missed areas. Remember the flatter the prepped area the better the job will look. If you have any small chips or scratches take a small flat block of wood (paint paddles/sticks work well) and wet sand the area well to remove any little imperfections. The plastic is thick so you can sand allot to get a deep scratch out

Next use a red (3M 07447) scotch bright pad with a plastic cleaner (this will need to be purchased at an automotive paint supply house) ICI autocolor's # is P273-1333 cleaner for plastics. RM's part number is 901 and/or 902. The 1333 plastic cleaner is the best I have seen... Spies Hecker has some also but I don't have the part # in front of me. All of the major paint lines have plastic refinish procedures but NOT all of them work successfully! You need to scuff the plastic again w/ the red scuff pad and the plastic cleaner P273-1333. Make sure the cleaner does not dry up... keep it wet. This will open the pores to the plastic and greatly help adhesion.
Rinse with water and dry the plastic off. You have to topcoat the plastic with a plastic primer within 10 minutes of cleaning/drying the plastic with the P273-1333 cleaner.
Next apply 2 medium coats of plastic primer (ICI's # P572-2001) with a flash of 5-10 minutes between coats. Since there are a lot of tight areas I recommend letting the plastic primer sitting a few extra minutes since it will take longer for it to flash in those wetter areas.

procedure has changed.

After the 572-2001 plastic primer has flashed for 10-15 minutes you now need to apply 1 medium or 2 light coats of ICI's P565-668 transparent adhesion promoter / wet on wet sealer. The correct mix ratio is; 5:1 with P100-2020 flex additive. Once that is mixed you now need mix at a ratio of 3:1:2 ( 3 parts 668 to 1 part P210-796 hardner to 2 parts P850-1693 reducer) For extremely flexible parts you want to mix the 668 at a ratio of 2:1 w/ the P100-2020 flex and then mix normally at 3:1:2. For flex ratios click here. That page also has the preping procedure for painting plastic... but on a side note. I have you do things a little differently since ATV plastic is a little different than painting automotive bumpers for cars.

Let the primer dry for 15-20 minutes and then top coat it with a high quality basecoat (this is where I recommend base coating the whole part for better adhesion) Apply your basecoat until coverage is obtained, making sure that you gave each coat plenty of flash time in-between coats. Let the base coat sit for 15 minutes per coat (3 coats 45 minutes, 4 coats 1 hour) After a thorough flash you can do any graphics or Highlighting as wanted.

Next apply a high quality clear coat (follow instructions for the clear you use for painting plastics) adding flex agent etc. There are many diff paint lines out there. If you decide on one stick with there system from start to finish. Just keep in mind that NOT all of them work like they say they do. The best plastic refinish systems I have seen are from Spies Hecker, ICI Autocolor, and Sikkens. Other paint companies out there have plastic refinish systems but for painting quad plastic its a diff story. This project wont be cheap since most companies don't sell these products in small amounts.

I am sorry this is so long but that's what's involved in painting plastic and having it hold up well. If you have any more questions or if your confused about something let me know and I will help as much as I can.

Update 2-13-02

I hope to list all the products needed by part numbers and quantity needed for the job soon.

ICI has a few different sealers that can be used for this, BUT the P565-668 is the most flexible and also has the best adhesion for excellent long term results. I will be updating the tech sheets page in the near future for the rest of the products used..

While there are other ways of painting plastic... Some work ok.... some work good.... I ONLY recommend staying with 1 system and don't mix other systems together. There are other process that you can do to paint plastic...but this seems to me to the easiest way w/o buying a couple hundred dollars in supplies

[priebo15]

omg :eek2: that is a sick shee!!!

[kicker696]

your "cousins uncle" pulled a quick one on ya, you can't powdercoat plastic, it would melt, what you have there is a good coat of paint!

[rippen_honda400]

hey JR3, i was kinda thinking the same thing with the rhino lining, but i was also thinking that, that stuff would bee really heavy on the plastics, so if you wrecked then it would crack or brake your plastics, im not sure, somebodys gonna have to to try it. :)

[trict_out]

i always thought it would be neat to rhino line your wheels?

[ny300exrider]

theres a guy on z400central with rhinolined plastics and he races xc, he says its very flexible and didnt add TOO much extra weight to the quad

[acold7dusta]

i think the bedliner on plastics would be too heavy-the fenders would sway when u hit a bump n stuff

[Kev]

You can't put number plates or stickers on a bedliner covered plastic.

Just a FYI.

Lev

[TheZis2Fst4U]

someone on z400central has bedliner plastics. I think it held up really well because the liner supports it

[Martin Blair]

how can you pc plasitc, the powered could stick threw induction charging the plastic, but you couldnt bake it at all, and why?:confused:

[Honda]

Personally, I think the idea is stupid!

Why spend the time or even money on a custom paint scheme, knowing that the first time you roll her over it is going to be trashed. Boots, mud, sand, flying rocks and limbs are going to scratch the hell out of it anyway!

It would be cool on a show only bike, but seriously? How cool is it if you can't even ride it without worrying about scratching the thing.

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't waste my time! And who ever mentioned the idea of rhino lining your axle, or even fenders? That is one of the most red neck things I have ever heard of. LOL!

[baseballplaya23]

my cousin painted his plastics on his YFZ and they have held up great. i will get pics on here when i get home or you can search for other threads i have posted in and there is pics or a link to the pics. were gonna paint the plastic on my R also cuz it looks awesome and holds up awesome also.