I am planning on painting the rear strut bar cover (plastic piece with silver paint). What kind of prep should I do?
light sanding?
light sanding + primer and more sanding?
no sanding?

I tried searching and got "page not found"

Chris

 

To better help I need to know what kind of paint you are using. Are you just using Krylon? Or are you going spray gun and using auto paints with a clear coat?

Depending on what you intend to use the approach could be different.

 

Three part paint, Deltron 2000 PPG paint in PPW base, PPW pearl and a clear coat. To confuse things, it's been put into spray cans.

Chris

 

you would paint the strut bar cover the same as you would a normal piece of your car. I'm unsure of the exact steps, but perhaps you could search the web for some paint how-to pages?
or just take it to a body shop, they won't charge much at all.....

 

Well I ended up doing myself.

Not necessarily cheap but nice results.

Went to a place called Lowe Paint Co. and they mixed me up a pint of PPW White and pint of PPW Pearl (pint is a minimum, and they gave me the extra for the future) and put it into spray cans. All told with the the clear coat the paint cost me $120.

I removed the center Z with a drill by barely taking off the heads of the posts.
I wet sanded the bar with 600 all over, laid down 4 coats of PPW White, let it dry.
Wet sanded with 1000 all over, 3 coats of PPW Pearl, let it dry, 3 coats of clear.
Wet sand with 1000, 3 coats of clear again, wet sanded with 1500.
Used rubbing compound, glaze and wax and it turned out nice.
Used hotglue gun from the underside to glue Z back on.

Got the directions from Maximum PC magazine.

Looks subtle and I am sure the average joe would not even notice, but I think it looks cool and the color is spot on. I still have half a can of each so who knows whats next.



Chris

 

that looks great. I am going to have mine done in House of Kolor candy to match my engine trim.

 

sorry I didn't get back to you, but it seems as if you figured it out.

looks great.

 

No worries!

Chris

 

aaaa...you are from SJ too? let meet sometime. I want to see how it turn out bro.

I also want to check out your Motordyne Eng. 1/4" Plenum Spacer. How about this weekend?

 

That looks bleedin nice. Great job. How long it take to do?

 

We should meet some time but this weekend I am taking my Z to So Cal for Easter. Keep an eye on the Nor Cal board here, I tend to try and go to things as often as I can and aren't to far away.

Well for ever "let it dry" I waited 20+ hours, this might have been excessive but I did not want the paint balling up or getting soft. The sanding and polishing took about 20 minutes per grit or application. So it was not a lot of actual work, more a lot of waiting.

Chris

 

Defo worth the effort. Great job.

 

Here is another shot, bit closer (maybe too close) and I'll stop bugging you guys about it. Next I'll be finishing my little sub box and starting my rear injen diffuser project. At least now I know how to paint them my stuff.

 

Dayum that looks nice! Good job! Can't wait to check this out on our next meet.