dress up plastic cladding

[Ed Fenwick]

Hi Guys,
What do you use to dress the gray plastic cladding under the doors and bumpers? I'm using Mothers back to black but with four applications they still don't look finished. Is there another product that works better?
Ed

 

[brianjwilson]

I use tireshine foam stuff with a sponge. But it's temporary of course...

 

[John_Rock]

Might be easier to just buy the black ones from Ford.

 

[04STadrenalin]

a friend of mine painted his bumpers and they look great. not sure exactly how he did it. I think i have seen a write up before on how to do that not sure tho. try searching.

here is a link to his car domain if its any help. maybe you could contact him through there with questions.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2458096/3

 

[buckshotmudder]

ive been using tire shine with a pad and rubbing it in.. does good so far and keeps them shiny

 

[N2FORD]

I had mine painted at a body shop a semi gloss black. It matches the top of the bed pretty good. No sanding, just cleaned it real good so the paint would stick. Mine still has the grainy look. A guy on the gen 3 section did his in a truck bed coating, http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=223932&highlight=bed

 

[topofffun]

there are about 430 from ford direct in las vegas

 

[Project_Sparta]

Painting the Cladding Black
By Tom R.
I have a Silver Birch ST and wanted it to be not like all the rest out there. I originally wanted the Cladding painted the Silver Birch, but now that the 04's are like that, I decided I wanted to do the black. I will attempt to describe the details involved with painting the Cladding.

Materials Used:

1 Container "Simple Green",

1 Greenie Scrub Sponge,

2 Cans of "Dupli-Color" Adhesion promoter (CP199 Adhesion Promoter)

4 Cans of "Dupli-Color" Bumper Coating (FB105, Flexible Black Bumper Paint).

Total cost, about $30.00

First, Proper preparation is an absolute must. I removed the 4 EGR Fender Flares, the 4 Molded Mud flaps, the 4 Lower Body Side Cladding pieces and the Rear Bumper Cover.

Removal procedures for the Lower Side Cladding parts and the Rear Bumper Cover are listed in my library under the Project HTML's folder. The link is... memberlib.asp-view=9711&folder=Project HTML's .

I started off with cleaning and scrubbing down the parts with Simple Green and used a Greenie Scrub pad to make sure I got everything real clean. After washing everything once, went back and washed it all again just to be safe. Last thing you want is the paint to come off because of a poor adhesion.

Let everything dry, and lay it all out in an area where you can work free from dust and bugs. Start by painting one piece at a time with the Adhesion Promoter, this stuff dries really fast, so by the time you get to the last piece, the first piece is ready again. The Adhesion Promoter is actually a Clear Primer. I put the first coat on fairly thin, the other 2 coats were put on nice and wet. I did about 3 coats on each piece.

When it is all dry and ready to be painted, start by applying a half coat of the black and move on to the next piece. I found out on some test pieces that the old adage "many thin coats are better than one thick one" is very true when it comes to durability and adhesion of the black paint. Each piece I painted, the paint was applied very thinly and was done the same way for each subsequent painting. I think it was about 6 or 7 times for each piece, so that should equal at least 2 nice coats.

The Front Lower Bumper Cover was painted in place using the same techniques as above. Mask off the Upper Bumper Cover as well as the front fenders and the front wheels.

After letting everything dry for several hours, install all the pieces.


Straight from MYSPORTTRAC.com, under projects>exterior appearence>painting the cladding.