Painting rear applique

[Number4]

The paint and body shop wants $300 to paint the rear applique on my 05 Explorer.

Has anyone used spray paint to successfully paint this?

Primer, Paint, Clear?

 

[IIGood]

I did it on my last '03. It came out just okay...it was passable; it wasn't perfect but it looked a lot better than the bare primer color it was before I painted it. The part was already in primer so I first wiped that down with some rubbing alcohol to clean it up a bit, then I just got a Duplicolor spray can of the body color from one of the chain parts stores and some clearcoat, sprayed a few thin coats of color first. Waited for that to dry a bit, did a light wet sand, and applied clear after that. I could've probably sanded that and buffed it too, but it looked "good enough" for me.

I painted it while it was on the car too. Just took contractor-size trash bags, split them open, and taped those to the areas I didn't want to get sprayed.

 

[Donystoy]

I just received a new rear applique for my 02 as well. I still have to install it on the vehicle but was going to paint it first. Mine is also raw plastic and was planning on using a plastic prep prior to painting it. This I believe is readily available from various manufacturers but I am using SEM 38953 that I have left over from when I restored my 71 Torino. I think I got it from Eastwood.
The paint I got from Canadian Tire up here. I recently did a repair on the hood from when I accidently hit a second floor staircase in my garage (thought I was in reverse). The paint is so faded on the vehicle that the new paint is quite noticeable. Maybe I will paint the compete hood some day or better yet the entire vehicle.

On a side note, I did try to repair the original using fiberglass and bondo which looked great after painting. First time out in the hot sun it went all to hell.