Painting plastics?

[usdsk8er540]

hey yall. okay, so i went to the local shop to pick up some parts today and i saw a nice raptor 660r in the back. it was pretty much stock, but the guy had painted the plastics this nice looking blue (think it might have been metallic). well, unfortunately my girlfriend saw this and started getting ideas! she has wanted pink plastics on her 300ex for a while now, but we cant really afford to just dump that much money into plastics right now. so, i guess my question is, how would i go about painting the polyethelyne (sp?) plastics on a quad? i know i would have to clean them all up (maybe with degreaser?), scuff a little with very fine sand paper, use an adhesion promoter, and paint, but any ideas on what kind of paint to use. there is an automotive paint shop here in town that has the adhesion promoter (was thinking about painting the squishy interior door handles in my truck) but would i want to use automotive paint or just rattle can it? we have an "airless" paint sprayer that i could use that might work better than rattle can, but would have to get larger amounts of paint and clean everthing afterward. also, i would need to use a light colored primer right? what about clear coat? help me out here so i can get my girlfriend off my back about this crap!

 

[yamarider]

If all you do is dune riding or field riding where you don't brush up against anything then you could get away with painting them if you are careful, and don't use a pressure washer, but paint doesn't stick to this kind of plastic very well because it's waxy. Any kind of flex in the fenders will make the paint crackle and fall off, or if your girlfriend accidentally hits the fender with her foot when she gets on it'll take the paint off too. In my opinion it's a bad idea, because it always ends up looking ****** in the end unless you completely baby it.

 

[imtarnished]

Yea I will have to agree, a friend of mine painted his plastics on his blaster, and since we do quite a bit of trail riding, they got all shot out, and looked worse than before he painted them.
I see it as all show and no go, since it will be tough to take it anywhere with how careful you'd have to be with it to keep the paint looking decent.
~Bill

 

[usdsk8er540]

right on. thanks for the info guys. well, eventually hers is going to be lots of go with a little show. with how light that 300ex is, if i did the same stuff to it that i have on my warrior it would probably be a badass little flat track racer (if i lowered it and put tt tires on it too). well thanks. ill break the news to her.

 

[bickel76]

Any kind of flex in the fenders will make the paint crackle

the only thing that i've heard to use is the krylon fusion paint. it has a flex agent in it and sticks to the plastic. i wouldnt recommend painting your quad though. i painted my hood and gas tank shroud with the krylon fusion and havent had any problems, but they dont get exposed to the elements like the fenders.

 

[2xtreme]

Here's some info on restoring plastics:

http://3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=24247

 

[usdsk8er540]

right on. thanks for the info 2xtreme. the plastics on the 300ex are okay for right now so they dont really need to be restored or touched up. the warrior does has a white stress mark on the nose of the hood i would like to get out though. i thought i saw someone on here say that you could use a heat gun to take them out? is that right?

 

[2xtreme]

Yes, that's right.

Warriorspeed's been working on the stress marks on ours.

You gotta be careful with it and it's kinda slow goin', but it does work!

 

[usdsk8er540]

okay, so how do you do it. just point the heat gun at it or what?

 

[pelphrey]

I move the heat gun around. You don't want to leave it in one spot or you'll end up with a moonroof on your quad. I try to heat the lightest marking pretty good then move outwards. There really is no trick here.

 

[2xtreme]

Yeah, it's one of those things that once you try it, you'll figure it out.

But Pelphry nailed it.

 

[usdsk8er540]

right on. yeah i didnt think you would leave it in one spot! duh! so you just heat it up, moving it around and the white marks disappear? ill have to give it a try. when my dad gets back from iraq/kuwait he can get a heat gun (uses it for heat shrink tubing) from work and ill pull my hood off and work on it. maybe get some pics. why doesnt someone write a tutorial with pics on this?

 

[2xtreme]

You can get a heat gun real cheap.

We got ours at Harbor freight last week, on sale for 10 bucks!

 

[bickel76]

You can get a heat gun real cheap.

We got ours at Harbor freight last week, on sale for 10 bucks!

gotta love harbor freight!!!

 

[usdsk8er540]

right on. ill check some stores out. i bet good old wally-world has one. if not ive got a lowes close to my house. im not in a big hurry though, so it could wait. then i could do it for free!