help with painting bits of front lip

[pow3rslave]

the front lip on my vp has had some cracks in the paint for a while now, and bits flake off now and then. now that i finally have a garage i pulled it off to repaint those bits.

i took it off and sanded the areas well back so the line between the red paint and the bumper plastic were as smooth as possible, then sprayed these bits with K+H plastic primer sanding lightly between most coats. there's a bit of overspray on bits i didn't need to repaint but i figured i could probably lightly sand them back with a fine grain paper.

i got a can of colour matched paint from ricerbarn and the plan is to attack the lip on friday, but it's my first attempt at something like this and i'd rather not **** it up after all the prepwork.

how do i go about best putting the red on preferably just on the cracked off bits that are primered now. should i do a clear coat or will that yellow after time? what's the go with sanding to get a good finish on the red?

[naf33n]

rub back the bit you want to paint with 800 wet rub,wipe down with wax and grease remover or prepsol, spray a few layers of red, allowing it to tack off in between coats(not dry completely), once the final layer of red has tacked off, switch straight to a good qaulity clear(not a 2 dollar can) and put a few more layers on straight over the red.


allow to dry for a few days so its nice and hard, the wet rub with 2000grit, then cut and polish,

thats what i believe is the best way using spray cans, come up really good, i can get some photos of my motor bike(which is red) to show you how good this comes up if you like

oh and 100 light coats is better then 1 thick coat of paint

[Zeussy]

And instead of painting little spots all over the bumper, try and make it so you paint a bigger section.. If you get me, like if theres a bunch of little bits all around each other instead of just painting the little spots, blend it in to a larger area - fill in the gaps, for the first two or three coats you can just do the repaired bits, to get them back to being red again, then try to blend the whole area in with the existing red..

Any poor colour match you have in this stage will show up worse / or just as bad with clear on it too, so its best to keep it looking as good as you can, through all the stages..

Thats the general idea I use when using a compressor and gun, (but normally end up spraying the whole panel!!) im guessing cans would be similar..
And as naf33n said the more light coats is better than a few heavy coats..

[pow3rslave]

even if i redo only some parts red, am i still cool to recoat the whole thing in clearcoat?

naf33n, is the method for the clear the same as the red, like let it tack off?

[Zeussy]

Yeah you can clear the whole thing, just make sure you prep sand the whole bar/lip, with a fine grade wet n dry paper.. otherwise the paint wont stick!

And my guess is it'd be the same as the red, but wait for naf33n's opinion.. (I dont have heaps of experience with clear coat in cans)

[naf33n]

yeup, spot on, the bigger area you can paint the better, as zeussy said make sure you have rubbded back all the glossy bit in the area you want to paint

as for the clear, same as the colour, allow it to almost dry, roughly about 5 mins inbetwen coats, this will allow the paint layer to bond together and form a nice thick layer,

[pow3rslave]

after weeks of priming and sanding i started putting red down today, i've done a few coats and the colour seems to blend and match well, it just looks a bit dull, i'll keep putting red down for as long as the can lasts, then switch to clear.

i've got a bunch of fine sandpaper, 2500 and 2000, so from what you've suggested i should use the 2000 before clear coating, then when that's done 2000/2500 and cut and polish?

[Shounak]

Only thing that popped into my head.



Not that I know much about painting them, red.

[Zeussy]

Haha, yeah it can take a while prep'ing, but the work you put in, in the early days - priming and sanding flat, will pay off in the end, it will be worth it..

Normally (when I started and what people have told me) you just want to pick up a can of colour and throw it on to see what it looks like, and you'll find all the little bits you have missed, like, you get too keen to finish the job, but the extra time spent prepping the work area the better end result you will have...


Its good that its a good colour match, thats the main part so far, dont worry so much about it being dull, as long as you've been getting fairly even coats on, the clear will shine it up quite a bit, and like you said, a quick cut back with 2000/2500 then a good cutting compound/cut and polish will help bring it to life, work down the grades of polish and it might even look better than the rest of the car - then you'll have to polish the whole car!!!

Hope it comes up a treat, it should..

Good luck with it mate, throw a finished pic up or two when you're done..

Hopefully if ive missed something naf33n will correct me!!!