Painting Exterior Plastic | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Painting Exterior Plastic

I need some tips/advice on procedures and supplies to use to paint my grille shell and the plastic trim across the tops of my bumpers.

I've seen some exterior plastic/vinyl paint in a rattle can. Is this stuff worth buying? Does it chip/flake really easy? I really don't want to have it done professionaly.

I plan on doing these pieces in black...possibly gloss black for the grill shell, but satin black for everything else... including the interior of the grille.
 



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While I haven't used it, the rattle can paint should be formulated with the proper agents for use on plastics. I would use it on the flexible areas only for the grill shell just use regular auto paint.

Tim
 






make sure you prep it right with sanding and make sure you put a coat of adhesion promoter spray on the plastics and then a primer that has some build to it. Do lots sanding till smooth then spray your color then several layers of clear. I've done several parts on mine and a year later still looks like the day I painted it. Good luck!
 






I saw the stuff you painted on the "other" forum and it looks great. I'm not going for the smooth look though. The texture doesn't bother me. The paint I have been looking says to use an ammonia based cleaner and thats it. No other prep work necessary.

I'm about to just Herculine everything, lol.
 






I'd still sand to give the paint something to stick to. I just painted my grill today and all I did was sand the whole thing with 120 grit. Cleaned it with a all prep solution that you can buy in a spray can. Primered 3 times sanding lightly in between then used a textured black paint. Came out looking damn nice, don't have it on yet but it's looking really good.
 






Use a red scuff pad to give the paint some bite. It works very well imo.
 






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