Painting Plastics

[SnowDrift]

Originally Posted by redneck2725

Wrapping is a great idea. I could have one of the first camo sport quads. Might be a neat thing to do

I work with a guy that took camo duct tape and taped his entire Trailblazer about 6-7 years ago. From a little distance, it actually looked pretty decent.

[key stone]

Originally Posted by atotx

I've seen similar posts, but...

I'm looking at painting my 04 sportsman 600. I really dont want to replace the plastics with the other colors available through Polaris. I'm looking for a flat black finish from front to back, or something similar.

Question 1) Has anyone ever tried rhino lining on plastics? If I took it to them to paint, i wonder if their lifetime warranty would apply?

Questions 2) Has anyone ever tried to powder coat their plastics?

Any and all suggestions are definitely appreciated.

Thanks

Josh

I am surprised no one has said anything yet , I want to see you put your plastic parts in a oven to bake the powder coat and watch what happens !!! Rino is very brittle your plastics are flexible as soon as it bends the rino will chip off. I have Painted plastic on cars and ATVs but first of all the plastic is different between the two Polly urethane/rigid plastic act different when painted. You can buy flex agent for your paint but only really works for the auto industry .What I found works best is a can of fusion plastic coat this stuff is even scratch resistant . I also have wet sanded my plastic bike/ATV parts from 320/2000 then used Micro finishing compound and buffed to repair faded or scratched plastics (works similar to fogy head light repair)

[Razorback]

I cleaned and sanded mine with 320 grit paper, then put on 3 coats of krylon fusion paint. So far I've ridden through some pretty heavy brush a couple of times and it still looks really good. The best part is that when it does scratch, I can just sand the spot and hit it with the can again.

[Thomasj]

You have to prep the plastic the correct way to get paint to work. Atv plastic is very oily, matter of fact the first time I shot paint on atv plastic it was like I never even cleaned it. It was instantly full of fish eyes and runs. It was like the plastic repelled the paint like rainx does to water on a window. Since I have painted many atvs and gotten it to work quite well.

First off clean and sand the plastic. SAND ALL OF IT. Bottom, top, corners and edges. Once the plastics are sanded and clean apply an adhesion promoter that states it is for use on polypropylene. Ive used mostly Transtar 1034 and have not had any problems. This stuff bonds into the plastic and creates a layer ready to prime and paint. Also, I prefer a polyurethane single stage paint. Base clear gets too hard is more prone to cracking of the clear coat. It also seems to be more work than its worth for a trail atv. If your building a dune machine them maybe the base clear would be better.

DONT bother rattle canning your atv. These paints are too soft at first then too hard with age. You may make it look decent for the time being but you just setting yourself up for hours upon hours of stripping and sanding, and in the end you WILL regret it.

[stupidmidget]

I painted my plastic. So far so good. I put clear coat on mine also. If I get a scratch, I just wet sand it with 2000 grit sand paper. I used a red scuff pad and comet (Yes the cleaner you use to clean your tub's and shower's) Scuff it all up really good. Rinse it all off and then do it again, and rinse. Biggest thing to remember is like thomasj said. Make sure it is clean, clean, clean. Then we used some dupont cleaner and degreaser prep rag's we had at work. They make two kind's. One for plastic, and one that will change plastic color. (I think, never used it on plastic so not sure what it will do) I dont think it will matter as you are going to paint it anyway's though. We used the one for plastic. As you wipe with these rag's, do not let it drie on the plastic, or it will fisheye when you paint it. Wipe it clean a few time's. You want it as clean and grease, oil free as possible. Once you are done, get a tack cloth and wipe it all off. This get's all the little fiber's and lint off from the prep rag's. Blow it all off and go over it again with a clean tack cloth. Make sure your shop, or whereever you are going to paint this at is clean, or when you blow it all off, and then paint it, you will have trash all in your paint, and it will look like crap. Then we sprayed it all with a plastic Adhesion Promoter. This is what I used and where I got it from.

Klean Strip Bulldog Aerosol Paint Adhesion Promoter GAL - eBay (item 280619280514 end time Feb-20-11 07:21:52 PST)

We put two coat's of this on and waited about a hour. This act's as a primer also, so no need to buy primer. Went back over it with another tack cloth. We then sprayed 2 coat's of dupont green metallic 5000 series paint on it with 25 gram's of extra metallic out of a gallon I had that I never used for a project. Let it drie, and clear coated it. We put 4 meduim coat's of dupont premier clear on it. All in all it probably would have been cheaper to just buy some good plastic off ebay or something if I had to but the paint and clear, but I got it for free. I think I have about 75 buck's into mine. It look's awesome, exspecially with all the metallic in it. I am not sure how much a quart of paint from them is, but I know I got a gallon of blue in the 6000 series's, and our dupont rep said it was $700 a gallon. A little over priced I think. If you can get everything for a decent price I would say go for it. I have no regret's with mine. If it ever start's to look bad, I will just sand down the clear, and reclear it again as long as the scratches are not to bad. I know you can get a gallon of flat black all over the net for around 60 a gallon so it should be a little cheaper as you will only need a quart as long as it is unreduced. If I can find my cord for my camera I will snap some pic's of mine and post them on here. I painted mine almost a year ago, and it still look's good. Most of the trail's I ride are cleared out pretty good, so that help's a little too. Hope this help's. If you got any question's let me know.