painting exterior body trim Q

[dino11]

i have a 2002 ex. it is white, with the hideous faded grey-ish body moulding, fender flares, and bumper covers... the gray has faded and is now mostly a light gray and is not a consistent color throughout. i love the look of the all white explorers that have thebody molding color matched...

has anyone done this? i searched but couldnt find anything.. i have done some painting before, but mostly on smaller items like interior panels etc, and this job intimidates me....

i would like to do this if i could gather info. thanks!!

 

[ERUSH97XLT]

Hey there,

In my experience in auto painting:

The problem with painting plastic (especially bumper covers) is it tends to chip after a while if you don't use top-quality primers and paint. I painted the bumper trim on my old Ranger at first using Rustoleum. After about a week, rock chips and scratches revealed the ugly grey beneath. I then purchased some sherwin-williams urethane primer and single-stage urethane topcoat (all of which were intended for plastic trim) and sprayed them in my garage. After about a week of curing, the urethane hardened enough to resist chips and scrathes.

If I had to do it again, I wouldn't. The paint was too expensive to justify the final look; I just didn't want to do weekly touch ups with rattle-cans.

Hope this helps,

ERUSH

 

[my pos mounty]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194547&highlight=plastic+painting

You couldn't have spent too much time "searching"... this took me all of 45 seconds to find using "plastic painting"..

 

[RickM]

With some paint's (including primers) it's necessary to use the proper "Flex Agent". However, some modern topcoats are flexible enough to be used on there own.