off topic... spray painting plastic?

[Bababouie400]

i tried posting this under another topic and didnt get any feedback


i'm probly going to be doing some work on my friends bike and he wants his plastic a different color. he spray painted them before and it just chipped off within a week but he didnt prep it at all.

i have an idea...
could i clean all the plastic, sand it down with a low grit paper, prime it and then paint with krylon fusion.
i would like as much feedback from you guys i wanna know if this is a good idea or not
thanks

[250ex_dan]

it might work,but not5 100% sure

[CJM]

I did this to my 400ex and it worked pretty well. The paint bonded with the plastic and did hide some of the scratches but not all (dont sand unless its really bad-you will see EVERY scratch from the sandpaper).

The paint doesnt so much as paint over, but dye the plastic itself. Like I said it worked ok but a pressure washer (small electric) and it comes off a bit and dont get any gas near it-it comes off too.

Could try rustoleum plastic paint. They make a plastic primer and plastic paint I used on a snorkle I made for my pick up and the paint NEVER came off the ABS piping.

[jcs003]

i did the krylon fusion. it worked pretty good so far. it helped that i used as close to the original color as i could find.

i first wetsanded it with like 600 grit.

then cleaned it with soap and water.

cleaned it with laquer thinner.

**all was done on a very hot day.

started with a light tack coat and followed the can instructions from there on.

it does have a few areas where it came off. the area is at the very tips of the rear fenders where they roll over. the other area is where our legs hang over the seat.

[JoePA]

You need a plastic adhesion promoter for it to work properly. You can buy it in an aerosol can. We painted several with great success. No crahses so not sure how well they would hold up after a rollover but then again the plastic takes a beating too!!

Don't be afraind to sand the plastic. Scuff it up so it will help the primer adhere. also if you have some deep scratches sand them so no plastic is stick up, you are going to have cuts and you can do one of two things.

If there are deep cuts in the plastic you can use some bondo but you run into the problem of the plastic flexing and it cracking. OR..you can do what we did and mixed our primer ont he heavy side and filled them in that way. The plastics wern't bad so it worked well. Also we used automitve paint and sprayed it with a gun. We used a base clear and it worked really well. We went as far as wet sanding and buffing....but that was cuz we made an oops and too many beers!

Follow the directions on the can and it should work well. I'll see if I can find pics of the YFZ's we did....

[JoePA]

The orange quad was silver frame and blue plastics. It was in ROUGH shape but ran great...she got a make over!

The white one was orignaly red frame white plastics. Redid teh frame and just painted the top of the plastics and put a blue peral in it....turned out great!!!

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/1BAD400/CopyofCopyofGEDC0056.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/1BAD400/CopyofCopyofGEDC0061.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/1BAD400/GEDC0284.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/1BAD400/DSCF2009.jpg

[Bababouie400]

wow thats just spraypaint? it looks just like new plastics thats a great job you did

[CJM]

What kind of paint did you use?

[ridgeracer]

Yes, please give us a little more info on what you used and how you did it. I am prepping my extra set of plastics now and those are the best painted plastics i've seen. Does the paint hold up where your legs rub?

[JoePA]

The paint isn't from a spray can we used automtive paint. Tot tell you the truth the cost he has into the orange one he could have purchased new plastics!! I'll get you details as we sprayed them at his place and withhis materials. I believe all products were ppg standard automotive paint.

[CJM]

Ah ok now I know why it not only looks good, it is holding up well.

When you mix auto paint like that you add an adhesion promoter and a flex agent-just like painting a car bumper.

Regular spray paint will not do that kinda job.

[JoePA]

As far as holding up? the white quad was sold last year but we ran it all summer with no problems.

I believe we sprayed the plastic with the adhesion promoter then shot the primer and of cours the paint.

Yes much like painting a bumper as I do remember now we did add flex agent. Please bare with me as we drank alot of beer ont hose cold nights and the paint fumes didn't help!!!

[MtnEX]

The Yammies look good there...


I have considered spraying my Polaris like that. Not that I care so much about that the yellow has faded a lot because I don't... The plastic just has that sorta crazed look to it that makes me think it could use the UV protection.