Painting Scooter Plastics.

[drawkward]

Any good tips or info? I've already started sanding the plastic piece. Think I may have screwed up though since I used a fairly coarse grit paper to start of with. Decided I'd go ahead and ask you guys before I went any further.

I was sanding down to the point that the paint was completely gone and I was at the white plastic beneath the paint. I just read somewhere that you just need to knock the shine off of the plastic with a fine grit paper. Again - oops.

[Fox]

Use 150 grit lightly, then move to some 220 grit wet/dry paper with water lightly and that should be smooth enough. Then put two or three light coats of primer letting it dry between coats. Then put on four to six light coats of color drying between each coat. Then put on 3-5 light coats of clear lacquer again drying in between coats.

The most important thing is: DON'T RUSH IT!

It's better to do a bunch of light coats and wait than to try and pile on the paint because the paint can run and it takes longer to dry and cure. Paint inside a shed if you can where bugs will be less likely to land on the wet pieces and if you use a fan for circulation don't point it at the work. Point it out the door and in between coats turn it off and close the door to keep out bugs and wind-blown dust/dirt.

That's how I do it anyway. Some guys will sand between coats with 400 grit wet but I'm just not that into it.

[Goosey]

Oh, and follow the directions on the can for wait time between coats. I waited for over an hour on my trunk, and went ahead and threw on one more coat, and the whole thing crackled. Do Over I should have either got the coats in 10 minutes apart, or waited 24 hours before going back to it.

[90GTVert]

Also, don't paint when it's really humid. I've never had any luck with that other than using very durable paints like BBQ Black.

[WT100]

If you have sanded with too corse a grit there is a primer designed to "fill". It can save you from having to do lot's of fine grain sanding to fix the problem. You still need to do the fine sanding just can get there quicker.

I did the exact same thing after being used to working with metal and hard auto body putty. Corse grit can rip plastic up real quick.

[drawkward]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I'll get it straightened out tomorrow.

[Fox]

One more tip:

If you use cheap-ass paint you'll get a cheap-ass result.