Novice needs advice on painting plastic

[Big Cruiser Guy]

I'm wanting to paint my headlight surrounds black. Can I use sandpaper to give them some tooth, or should I go with something like red scuff pads? Also, would a self-etching primer reduce or eliminate any need for prep on the plastic?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Clean parts thoroughly then I used a regular green Scotch-Brite pad followed by 400 grit sandpaper to remove all flaking chrome and to smooth up, clean again, let parts dry completely, spray with an etching primer, and paint.

I used a SEM etch primer, but you could use Duplicolor or any other brand. Some use the Krylon Fusion and seem to get results, but I'm a prime and paint kinda guy.

Good Luck J

 

[WarDamnEagle]

x2 on the SEM products. They make a trim black that has a slight satin sheen that looks pretty OEM and they have the appropriate primer to go under it.

 

[cuteo100]

Plastic flexes, so use paint that is made for plastic (got flexible agents in it.)

 

[Splangy]

x2 on the SEM products. They make a trim black that has a slight satin sheen that looks pretty OEM and they have the appropriate primer to go under it.

X3 of the SEM products. They make good stuff.

Clean parts thoroughly then I used a regular green Scotch-Brite pad followed by 400 grit sandpaper to remove all flaking chrome and to smooth up, clean again, let parts dry completely, spray with an etching primer, and paint.

I used a SEM etch primer, but you could use Duplicolor or any other brand. Some use the Krylon Fusion and seem to get results, but I'm a prime and paint kinda guy.

Good Luck J

Most etching primers should not be painted over. Every quality etching primer I have used has required a surfacer primer to be applied over it before painting. You will have adhesion problems if you ignore this step when required (IIRC, SEM requires this step)

Plastic flexes, so use paint that is made for plastic (got flexible agents in it.)

Paints with flex agents only provide a window of flexibilty for the paint. They are designed to give the paint flexibility for a couple days or weeks so that flexible parts like urethane bumpers can be installed without cracking the paint. After that window, they behave no differently than other paints. I doubt that hard-plastic headlight bezels will flex much while installing.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Splangy, I never used a surfacing primer prior to paint with mine.. I didn't have a single problem on my plastic parts in two years or over three years on my steel wheels.. Go figure?? Maybe I got lucky...

I'll look at it more in depth before I do my next set of trim. Thanks for the heads up on the surface primer..

J