I'm planning on painting my plastic grill with flat enamel and then clear coating it for durability. What type of primer should I use? I have epoxy, 2K, and lacquer, but none of them list plastic as a suitable substrate. I'm leaning towards epoxy because it can be painted over without sanding. I sandblasted the grill with 25 psi to remove the old paint without damaging the grill, so it has a nice smooth finish. Jeff
First spray A light coat Bulldog adhesion promoter , then the epoxy cut it with reducer and it will lay nice and flat then as you said go straight to paint
You going to use a flat clear I have had no issues with just regular paint on the grilles and they have been driven. Not sure of the year but all the grilles I have painted are semi gloss paints
I am surprised people keep making this mistake. NEVER use enamel on a plastic grill. It is not compatible with plastic. It will not dry and peel and render the grill useless to ever repainted it again. Lacquer based paints will bite into Abs plastic and will not peel. You will not need any adhesion promotors if ABS plastic. It is a wasted step and waste of money. I have painted many plastic parts with success and have had to deal with the horrors of people painting plastic parts wit enamel.
I am still stumped by the incredible steps people take to paint grills on only one step is needed. Why lay down extra uneccesary coats of stuff and ruin the detail of the grille? Keep it super thin like it should be. Polypropylene parts like kick panels do require the adhesion promoter however.
All original ABS plastic parts such as grills, tail light lenses and consoles can be painted in the one step lacquer process. There is actually an old Gm service bulletin explaining how to paint all the plastic parts in these cars. Krylon at least was lacquer based and actually was offering a Fusion brand that was meant for plastics.
I am using enamel because the urethane clear that I'm using states that it can be applied over enamel, not lacquer. I painted my grills on my 1986 Cutlass Salon with black lacquer 5 years ago and they chip very easily from road debris. I'm putting a flattener in the clear to get a satin finish. I don't know of a more chip resistant finish than urethane clear. As for adhering to the plastic, I'm putting an epoxy primer on first, so it only has to adhere to the primer, not the plastic. I guess time will tell if I made the right decisions!ray:
That using enamel really scares me. Good luck but in my experience it will peel and become a big problem. I think your are going overboard. I have always just used the one step lacquer like the factory and it lasted for years.
I know this post is old.... I am not a painter, don't know how to use my own paint gun properly ...... so does Krylon make a lacquer paint in a rattle can? And if so what colors should I use for a 72 GS grill? Basically I want to freshen up/redo my 72 GS Grill Satin black? Dull aluminum for the grey? Thanks
Use Prep-All prior to any primer or paint. Over the years, a lot of wax, road grime and such will have left a good deal of oil/grease that will give adhesion problems.
I painted the accent color my `65 grille with Krylon dull aluminum. Of course, it's diecast chrome rather than plastic but it's been on the car for 15 years with no chipping or peeling issues.
I agree 100%. I have done l my taillights and grills like this on many cars and on my stage 1 that grille has been painted for over 30 years with no issues. Good clean with spray-nine or similar, clean with toothbrush to get into crevices, rinse and make sure its dry, light scuff with scothbrite pads, rinse again and let dry, mask and spray...no primer, no clear, works excellent. Plasti-kote T3 Hot Rod Black and T41 dull aluminum lacquer are excellent and very good match. Sorry don't recall the grey I used on the stage 1 grille, it was a long time ago. Scroll about 3/4 way down page for pic of the 72 grille with these paints. Hope that helps. http://fixjet.ca/body.html
Notice how I put very little silver on top. See the gray plastic mold color coming through. There was not a lot of paint on them (silver) I believe Buick used Non smudge aluminum on that grill. RM paint or Ditzler. RM lacquer was always DBO back in the day
Tim is correct. Spray nine is the bomb! Clean before painting. I have not seen spray nine in 20 yrs. it was the best cleaner! Power of purple is the new norm. I think that’s what it’s called.
Well that is interesting, spray nine is very common up here. Still works great too unlike a lot of products. I wish I had taken better pics of the grill in my convertible before I repainted it, the factory painting was very light (and sloppy) like you said.
Clear should not be in the equation. Just dust some silver on it. But preparation will set you free. Remember silver shows all scratches.
i used model spray paint. Testors. that was back around 98. not sure they still make it. or where a model/toy store would be that has it.
