Painting plastic

[kyle]

Considering a repaint of the plastic body panels on my bike, and I know there are books out there that tell you all about it, but 1) I'm cheap, and some adivce or a website discussing the process, from prep to prime to paint to protection would really be preferable, and 2) I really don't want to plunk down money for something I'm only just considering (again, because I'm cheap)

Anybody out there know what I'm talking about?

[kar_the_terrible]

Im not sure about stripping paint off plastic. I tried it and the usual stripper ate through my plsatic. Now I have to go the body filler way to fill up those holes. But I noticed a website http://www.paintscratch.com that mixes something with the aerosol cans they ship so that it adheres well to plastic bumpers etc on cars. The sell a big aerosol can for about 25$ and that should be enuff to paint your whole bike, so long as you're ok with choosing a car color to match. If you come across anything let me know

[kar_the_terrible]

maybe this helps:

http://www.abrn.com/abrn/article/articl ... p?id=36273

[ronboskz650sr]

Duplicolor makes an adhesion promoter, and many primers/colors, including clear. These are all available in spray cans, just use a pistol grip with trigger to shoot it. You can wet sand the original paint with 240 grit to prep it for paint/primer, or remove runs in the last paint job. Use the adhesion promoter anywhere there's plastic exposed after sanding, then prime and sand...until you're satisfied it's ready for paint. Remember, if you can feel the bodywork with your fingertips, it will show under the paint, so feather all the body work into the surrounding area before you prime it.

There is alot of information on painting, just do a search and go for it. The small size of bike parts makes it a good place to learn, and experiment.

Vulcanman500 is currently molding the mirror area on his cbr600f to accept mirrors from a different bike. I think he'd tell you he's learned alot about paint and bodywork during the rest of the project, which is basically fixing a bad paint job (read total repaint). Good luck with it.