Any painting tips and tricks for the ABS?

[NewbeeMC9]

Any painting tips and tricks for the ABS?

 

Gotta paint a cover, would like it to look 5-10 foot decent. Not worried about show quality, but best I can on the cheap. Thanks

[videoarizona]

Any painting tips and tricks for the ABS?

 

Gotta paint a cover, would like it to look 5-10 foot decent. Not worried about show quality, but best I can on the cheap. Thanks

 

I painted my 89 VR. Take the cover to a local auto paint shop. They should be able to mix up a small jar of matching paint. Mine was $50 for a pint. I sanded down the bad areas on my plastic, after doing my repairs, and lightly sanded off the sheen on the surrounding areas. I bought an empty can/lid at a hardware store...looked like it was made for holding paint...and put my color paint in there for storage. About $3 for can.

 

Then painted using a cheap spray gun from Harbor Freight. I already had a compressor with a supply valve to regulate the pressure.

Put 4 coats of color...light coats...about 20 minutes apart. Did not worry about the overspray...let that blend. Then I used a spray can I bought from WalMart of gloss Acrylic Lacquer made for auto painting. About 40 minutes after last color coat. Think 2 coats..maybe 3....again let the overspray cover the color overspray.

 

Only other hint is if you use a little gun, clean it after each use!

 

Job turned out pretty good. I have the two tone blue 89....I painted the lighter, upper color. Took two tries though...1st try didn't look good so I sanded that out and tried again. Thanks to Jeff and others, I learned and I'm pleased. Saved me big bux as I painted three areas on the plastic.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/adjustable-detail-spray-gun-92126.html

 

 

Thin red circle surrounds one of the areas I painted. The whole area around that circle got painted..including the turn signal area...

 

Here is the write-up I did with pics:

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?119659-Doing-some-repairs-to-89&highlight=painting

 

Passes the 3 foot test.....

 

Hope this helps

david

[NewbeeMC9]

Interesting and good Ideas, thanks for that. I do have a little compressor.

 

Maybe I can do a base coat clear coat with spray cans and paint both of the lids and the fanktank all the same and it wont look too rough. They are all three unevenly faded. Use a laquer type?

[utadventure]

Two things that helped me.

 

1. Get a grease and wax cleaner to make sure the surface to be painted is very clean.

 

2. The make a spray (rattle can) that assists the paint to adhere to plastic.

 

I painted the trunk on my '86 ten years ago and it still looks good (well as good as it did then). I'm not a pro by any stretch.

 

Dave

[saddlebum]

Main thing is clean and dust free. then spray the plastic with a plastic bonding agent (body shop supply stores carry this) then primer wet sand with 600 grit or finer paper then the base coat. wet sand again with 600 or finer grit paper then apply clear coat. Wash thoroughly with running water after each sanding and let dry . wipe with clean cloth and appropriate solvent prior to applying the various coats of paint.

[Doug royal86]

clean clean clean oh did i mention clean. If you have a small area napa use to sale the little spray guns with the compressed air can. I did a couple covers came out good