How to paint?

[darcmater]

I don't see one, but that doesn't mean anything. Anyoen ever post or know a good link to a how to guide to paint a nice car shine finish? I know I did alot of things wrong when I painted my headlight covers after doign some reading, but was hopeing for a condensed how to for general metal or plastic. Pretty much the common little pieces we might paint to accent our car.

[WaveAction]

just search google..i've painted my interior alot in my sunfire but i just knew how to do it.and probably didnt do it the true way, i just cleaned, primered, painted, cleared..no sanding in between or anything

[viber05]

lot of people i know either use krylon plastic paint or model paint for plastic models

[nate06]

I think a lot of it comes from experience. I think the biggest mistake that people make is not prepping the parts correctly. If your not using a good cleaner like Prep-All then you start.As for plastic interior parts try using an interior auto paint. If done right it will never crack, peel, chip or flake. I get my interior paint from http://www.eastwoodco.com. Just clean the part, then spray with it with their sand free plastic prep, and then paint using very thin coats (thinner than with metal).

[WaveAction]

i used the krylon fusion paint for the plastics in my sunfire and used vht for the vinyls

[nate06]

Were you trying to get a smooth high shine look or keep the natural grain look?

[viber05]

i found thing on the net heres the post i just made for it http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=32131

[darcmater]

was looking to get a nice shine to match the exterior of the car paint job, found these links helpfulhttp://www.ehow.com/how_218223....htmlhttp://w ... .htmlFirst attempt at this I scuffed up the surface of the covers with 800grit sand paper a bit. I then used automotive paint in a aerosolizer jar(not sure if thats an actual word but home you get my meaning) I put on 3 or 4 coats, can't remember for sure. I then applied the clear coat in another 3 or 4 layers. I then let thats et for a week to make sure everything had hardened. I then used 1000 grit sandpaper and wetsanded it, then switched up to 2000 grit. I then used some 3m buffing compound and a little 3inch buffer I found at the store to apply it. It turned out nice, good color and shine but because I was not thinking I didn't sand/buff the paint layer before applying the clear coat. This causes generally what is called "orange peal" which iof you look at the textured skin of an orange you will see why.So my second attempt I used 800grit sand paper to take the clear coat back off down to the paint, then switched to 1000 grit sandpaper and wet sanded that down to get rid of alot of the imperfections, then 2000 grit and wet sanded that to even a nicer smooth finish. I have removed most of the orange peal effect and what is there is much less noticeable. I then used the 3m buffign compound again and figured I would see if that would remove the rest of the imperfections of the paint. It did but not to the level I wanted( Iw ant the covers to match the paint perfectly) Now at this pount due to my inexperience in buffing and such some places in the paint seem a bit thin, so looks like I will try to add some more layers of paint and try again. Got to have a nice project to keep you busy I guess : ) If I were to do this again from scratch, I would have done 5-6 layers of paint just so when I sand/buff the paint itself there is soem good layers left, and probably the same amount of clear.

[hskater26]

i used fusion paint too it looks pretty good but theres some spots that are my fault because i dont really know how to paint but i ike it and thats what matters to me

[WaveAction]

when i did my interior, i didnt do any sanding, figured i liked the grainy look and didnt want it super shiney for safety issues(driving with bright sun). my old hideous interior, i had every piece of plastic in that car painted except right below the steering wheel

[lovemyraffe]

Holy crap! That is pretty damn hideous. Nothin personal, just damn.

[hskater26]

holy crap haha.........reminds me of my friends honda he painted the whole dash and everything and he had a custom sub box that was red too.......it seemed like it was to much work to take of the dash to paint it

[WaveAction]

lol ya at first i liked it abit..but then after awhile i just got so sick of it..the dash had abit of a clear on it so it wasnt good in the sunlight..so eventually i ripped it all out and got stock parts and put it back to normal..it all started out as just the vents being painted red..then i did abit more..then more..and it went overboard from there.so my advice is dont do what i did! lol it was my first car ever and yea i learned my lesson. definitly wont be doing that to the vibe, only thing i'd be painting..IF anything...would be the stock silver plastics to the wave blue of the exterior..or i may get a shop that i know of to make them carbon fibre

[hskater26]

heres what i did........you can see at the bottom of the gauges where i didnt tape off good enough when they were white haha......im just going to have to get some black paint an a Q tip and see what i can do.....and the pierce on the left my ex gf painted when i first did it a year ago an she pretty much messed up that black part

[WaveAction]

yea, you didnt take them out of the car or anything?? makes things alot easier. im gonna do the same as you minus the cluster part, i think it's to much..just doing the 2 door sections, radio bezel and the left side there

[hskater26]

i took them out......the gauge part comes out with it.....and the left black piece she didnt realize it just pulls out and i wasnt paying attention haha owell

[WaveAction]

ahh lol it's all good, i say just get some paint thinner and lightly wipe that area clean

[hskater26]

yea ill try that.....i think she used nail polish and it made it all cloudy looking

[darcmater]

My original post/question was more on exterior painting since that would be the hardest to do so it didn't look totally off from the factory shine and such

[hskater26]

i would leave the outside to a professional.... personally