tips on painting body kit on a gt

[RifleMan WI]

hey, im looking for some tips on painting the body kit on my 92 gt. is there any special tips/ ways to prep it and paint it. or is it the same way as painting the car itself? thanks in advance.. - Jeremy

[88Nightmare]

Dude, I told you to give me a call when you are ready to paint. i recommend taking the body kit off and painting it off the car. much easier. Call me tomorrow, Ill tell you exactly how I painted mine.

[RifleMan WI]

the bodykits taken off the car allredy, my dad and i are doing the bodywork and he is going to paint it. ill give you a call if i get a chance tommrow.. thanks mike...

[88Nightmare]

yea no problem buddy. im only 5 min away i ca give you a hand. im off work tomorrow and friday.

[fivonut]

hey, im looking for some tips on painting the body kit on my 92 gt. is there any special tips/ ways to prep it and paint it. or is it the same way as painting the car itself? thanks in advance.. - Jeremy

It depends on how you want to do it. If the kit is already in good shape and you just want to freshen it I'd wet scuff it with a red scotch brite sprinkled with a lil Comet. If you have any chips wet sand them with 600 grit until there's a nice smooth feather. You can spot seal, then spray color, then clear. If you want to take them down to bare plastic there's a stripper made scecially for plastics. Then plastic prime, seal, color, and clear.

[clayton bigsby]

make sure you clean them with a wax and grease remover before sanding basically its mineral sprites. they sell the stuff at napa made spesifically for urethanes and plastics. before you paint I would hit them with a flexible promotion adhesvine agent its a fancy primer that with help they paint stick better and wont crack.

[upngo50]

Make sure it is not an ordinary wax and grease remover like PPG DX-330 or similar!! Wax and grease remover will act as a blocker on plastic. It must be a plastic cleaner. You will need an adhesion promoter for the paint also. If the plastic is anything other than a polyolefin you will not need an adhesion promoter. More and more covers and body kits are coming as olefins, so do a smear test or float test to help determine if it is an olefin or not. In addtion to that it doesn't hurt to put some flex additive in the primer and paint so that finish doesn't crack during assembly or light taps. Not all paint manufactures say to use it because they may already have some type of flex agent in the product so check with the paint maker.

[RifleMan WI]

thanks guys, its the stock bodykit on the GT if that helps determine if i need an adhesion promoter or not..

[88Nightmare]

Jeremy, I have all the **** you need. same stuff I used on my bodykit. as far as cleaner goes i mean.

[RifleMan WI]

Jeremy, I have all the **** you need. same stuff I used on my bodykit. as far as cleaner goes i mean.
allright, i wont be painting for another month or so, so ill let you know when i start to paint it. thanks

[Teeto's5.0]

To test for adheision promotor take a small sliver of plastic part and put it in some water. Remember this "if it floats, promote". What upngo50 said about wax and grease remover is correct. If you use a regular type it can soak into the plastic part and actually act like a release agent to all your topcoats. They make a cleaner that is mostly alcohol based.

[upngo50]

EDIT: I was writing this when the above was posted, but it is good info anyhow.



thanks guys, its the stock bodykit on the GT if that helps determine if i need an adhesion promoter or not..


I don't remember if it is in the olefin family of thermoplastics, but you can do a couple tests to find out.

Smear test: Take a grinder to the back side of the cover in an inconspicuous area. If it smears around and kind melts it is an olefin and will require an adhesion promoter. If it just grinds off in a dry dust it is not an olefin and won't require an adhesion promoter

Float test: Cut off a small sliver of an inside edge somewhere again inconspicuous. Put it in a cup of water and give it a push under. If it comes up and floats you need an adhesion promoter. Floaters need promoters :thumbs_up


OR you can find the three letter ISO code stamped on the back somewhere. Look for TEO, TPO, PC + PBT, PE, or PP. Those are olefins.

Personally..myself...if it is a plyable plastic piece outside the vehicle I like to use an adhesion promoter. Plastics are funny when it comes to paint so I give it every bit of help I can. I also use flexors on pretty much all bumper covers in case of a very very light collision that just puts force on the cover and bumper of the car, then the paint won't crack from the cover flexing

[RifleMan WI]

thanks guys for all the help. :thumbs_up